Flyboys (film)

2006 film by Tony Bill

Flyboys was released on September 22, 2006. It received mixed reviews from critics and was a box office bomb, grossing just $17 million against its $60 million budget.

In 1916, a group of young Americans go to France to serve in the French Air Service, L'Aéronautique militaire, during World War I. The recruits are under the command of French Captain Georges Thenault, with veteran flying ace Reed Cassidy as their mentor. The pilots struggle to meet the demands of flying and to prepare for the aerial dogfights that will dominate their missions to the front lines. After pilot Blaine Rawlings' plane runs out of fuel and crashes during a practice flight, he meets a young woman named Lucienne after. Over time, the two develop a relationship. Lucienne expresses concern to Rawlins about the dangers of wartime military aviation. The recruits embark on their first mission, in which they escort bombers during an attack on a German ammunition depot in Jametz. During the mission, the rookie pilots are ambushed by German warplanes, and two are killed in the battle. (Toddman and Dewitt) A third rookie (Nunn) successfully makes an emergency landing but is killed on the ground by "the Black Falcon" a German pilot flying a black aircraft. The more chivalrous German pilot Franz Wolferd shakes his head in disapproval at this act. During a later battle, Rawlings' machine gun jams. Wolferd, the pilot he was chasing, flies beside him and salutes before banking away, sparing his opponent's life as penance for the unfair killing of Nunn on the ground. Higgins is killed during the battle, and Jensen suffers an emotional breakdown during the night, unable to fly anymore due to shock. The French military learn that Beagle faked some of his personal information, and as a result, he is accused of being a spy. Beagle comes clean about a crime he committed in the United States, and is allowed to stay on. Germans warplanes attack a column of civilians, and the American pilots head off to intercept them. Rawlings initially spares Wolferd, but later kills him during the engagement when Wolferd dives his plane after another American pilot. Beagle's plane is brought down over no man's land, and his hand is pinned down in the crash. Rawlings lands nearby and makes his way to Beagle, who is also helped by a few French soldiers from nearby trenches, but they are unable to free him. Ultimately, Rawlings is forced to amputate Beagle's hand trapped under the airplane; Beagle is thereafter brought to safety. Learning that German forces have advanced into Lucienne's village, Rawlings steals a plane in the middle of the night and attempts to rescue them; Lucienne is subsequently wounded and taken to a hospital. Returning to base, Rawlings is praised by the commander and awarded the Croix de Guerre medal for bravery. The Americans are ordered to attack a German zeppelin; during this attack, Porter is killed and Reed Cassidy is mortally wounded by the Black Falcon. Before succumbing to his wounds, Reed purposely crashes into the zeppelin, destroying it. Afer the battle, Rawlings reunites with Lucienne before she leaves for Paris. Rawlings’ plane is presented with an eagle, which was Cassidy's insignia, and he is promoted to Squadron Leader. While escorting another bombing run on the ammunition depot in Jametz, in which Lowry is forced to shoot himself when his plane catches fire, Rawlings becomes determined to exact revenge on the Black Falcon. He is attacked by multiple enemy planes, but Jensen, who had broken down earlier but decided to keep flying, helps him shoot down all the enemy fighters except the Black Falcon. With the enemy fighters shot down, Rawlings engages in a dogfight with the Falcon. After being bested in combat and wounded, Rawlings comes alongside and fatally shoots the Black Falcon with his pistol. Rawlings and his squadron return to base. The film ends with scenes of the surviving pilots' lives after the battle. Jensen flies for the rest of the war, returning to Nebraska where he receives a hero's welcome. Skinner enlists in the US Army but is kept from flying due to his race; he later joins the Airmail Service. Beagle marries an Italian woman and starts a flying circus. Rawlings goes to Paris but does not find Lucienne. He later becomes owner one of the largest ranches in Texas, but never flies again.

In writing the original drafts that formed the basis of the final screenplay, Tony Bill made an effort to incorporate the real life adventures of a number of American World War I expatriates who served in both the Lafayette Escadrille and the Lafayette Flying Corps, although pseudonyms were used throughout. The casting of Franco in an action feature at the time was considered a "stepping stone" to his rise as marquee player and movie star. The film was shot on location in the United Kingdom primarily in Spring 2005, although principal photography continued on into the summer. The trench scenes were shot in Hatfield, Hertfordshire, the same location used for Band of Brothers and Saving Private Ryan. The airfield and aerial shots were filmed on and above RAF Halton (near Aylesbury) where hangars, mess rooms, and officers quarters were built adjacent to Splash Covert Woods. All scenery and props were removed when filming ended. Some exterior shots were filmed on location at Copped Hall. The interior shots of the chateau were filmed at RAF Halton's officers' mess, Halton House. Some interiors and studio green screen work were filmed at Elstree Film and Television Studios in Borehamwood, Hertfordshire. The film was privately financed outside the standard Hollywood studio circuit by a group of filmmakers and investors, including producer Dean Devlin and pilot David Ellison, son of Oracle Corp. founder Larry Ellison; both spent more than $60 million of their own money to make and market "Flyboys". The Nieuport 17s featured in the film included four replicas built by Airdrome Aeroplanes, an aircraft company based outside of Kansas City, Missouri. The other aircraft used were a mix of authentic aircraft (the Nieuport 17 that Franco used throughout filming was an original combat aircraft from Kermit Weeks' collection in Florida, specially brought over for the film) and replicas including Nieuport 17s, a sole Sopwith 1 1/2 Strutter and a number of Fokker Dr. I replicas. In preparing for the starring role, Franco took flying lessons. All the other main actors, except Jean Reno, were filmed in actual aircraft in anticipation of using the aerial footage in final scenes. (Reno pointedly refused the offer, with a "No thanks, I'm afraid of flying." admission). Very little other than Franco's closeups in a cockpit ultimately made it to the screen.

Flyboys has been widely criticized for its lack of historical accuracy. The most serious lapse was the blending of the Lafayette Escadrille with the Lafayette Flying Corps, a sub unit where the real life Eugene Bullard actually served. Various details of World War I fighter aircraft technology shown in the film were inaccurate. For example, the aircraft engines in the CGI scenes are pictured as not moving. On the rotary engines used in some early aircraft, the engine case and cylinders rotated, with the crankshaft bolted to the airframe. The spinning of the cylinders improved cooling and allowed for fewer parts, making the engine simpler and lighter. The propeller was attached to the crankcase (the opposite of radial engines). One operating rotary engine appears in a scene that takes place in the repair hangar. The Nieuport and Fokker aircraft used in the movie are flying replicas built with new radial engines, due to the unavailability of original type rotary engines. This detail can be briefly seen in the final combat when the black Fokker is taking off after Rawling's ground attack at the German airfield. The singular use of Fokker Triplanes, which were not in widespread operational use, is contentious and almost every Triplane was also painted red in the film, indicating that the Triplane was in Jasta 11, the "all red" unit. Despite this the remaining pre production aircraft, designated Dr. I, were delivered to Jasta 11 and Idflieg issued a production order for 100 triplanes in September, followed by an order for 200 in November 1917. On the director/producer commentary track for the DVD release, Producer Dean Devlin noted that they were aware the predominant use of red triplanes was historically inaccurate, but wanted to give clear visual signals to the audience to enable them to easily distinguish friend from foe in the aerial sequences. The film's only military adviser for the entire project was Jack Livesey, a convicted defrauder who fabricated his résumé and military service to gain employment as an administrative assistant at the Imperial War Museum, London. Livesey was charged and convicted with fraudulently claiming £30,000.00 in benefits. Livesey had served three years in the British Army Catering Corps. His claims of service in Northern Ireland, the Falklands conflict and that he was a curator of The Imperial War Museum were not true. In the film, the RMS Aquitania is depicted as a luxury liner; however, in early 1914, she was converted to use as an armed merchant cruiser, and by 1915 had been put into use as a troop transport ship, painted with dazzle style camouflage; however, the film might have used it to demonstrate the style of transport ships during the war.

Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reports an approval rating of 33% based on 130 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10. The site's critics' consensus reads: "A poorly scripted history rewriting exercise with mediocre acting and unconvincing CGI battle scenes." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 47 out of 100 based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

The film opened at #4 at the domestic box office, grossing $6 million from 2,033 theaters, an average of $2,953 per auditorium. The film then dropped 61% in its second weekend. Flyboys ended up with a total domestic gross of $13.1 million, as well as $4.7 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $17.8 million.