REVIEW: Flyboys



Based on the actions of the WWI “Lafayette Escadrille”, a French air fighter squadron that enlisted American volunteers, Flyboys seems, on the surface, to be a fairly conventional war film. Introducing its core group of would-be pilots as they prepare to enlist, the narrative establishes each character’s social origins across lines of race, class, and their motivations for volunteering. There’s Rawlings (James Franco), a young rancher evicted from his land, Jensen (Philip Winchester), who wants to prove his heroism to his family, Lowry (Tyler Labine) whose disapproving father enlists him out of shame, and Skinner (Abdul Salis), an African American boxer fighting in France who wants to repay his adopted country’s racial tolerance.

As the group expands, they are swiftly trained and prepared for their impending first battle under the command of their Captain Thenault (Jean Reno – reiterating his status as stock Hollywood ‘French’ actor). However, when reclusive “ace” Cassidy (Martin Henderson) reminds them “the average life expectancy for Escadrille pilots is three to six weeks” any delusions of an easy path to wartime heroism are immediately dispelled.

It is here that Flyboys distinguishes itself from a number of other generic war films. Seemingly conscious not to overstate its own idealism or the heroic endeavours of war, the film repeatedly undercuts glimpses of triumph with ruptures of sudden violence and despair. This is most apparent in the keenly orchestrated ‘dog fight’ sequences, in which the men are forced to confront their own expendability, squaring off against the larger and better equipped German fighter planes.

These ‘dogfights’ are clearly intended as the centrepieces of the narrative, signalling crucial shifts in the men’s evolving relationships to each other. Before one such flight, one of the pilots excitedly dubs their squadron the “Knights of the Air”, much to the bemusement of his fellow pilots. However, the remark seems less a throwaway line, than a clue to the stylistic influences of these mid-air encounters. Extending the ‘knights’ metaphor through other generic origins, the ‘dogfights’ are punctuated by both medieval style jousts, and Jedi fighter attack formations that seem lifted straight out of the ‘death star’ approach sequence in Star Wars. And even if they do tend to strain under the weight of repetition towards the end of the film, they do make for an entertaining spectacle.

James Franco seems at ease in the position of leading man, mixing stoicism with romantic charm in one of the film’s deftly handled subplots. Martin Henderson also puts in an impressive turn as Cassidy, the lone veteran pursuing the German ‘ace pilot’ the “Black Falcon” like Ahab and his White Whale. Overall though, the film seems more concerned about the legacy of the men and their inter-relationships than about making any grand statement about the morality of war. Yet in spite of its relative simplicity, Flyboys’ refusal to reconcile its prologue, which prepares the audience for a moment in history in which “a new kind of hero was born”, to its own transient triumphs, lends the film an interesting sensibility.

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