FLYBOYS

It was Saturday evening and everything till now went as all other weekends...Lazy morning...lot of TV and a bit of laptop for company. Motivated myself to get out of bed to go out for a quick lunch. And then back to some more of TV and laptop.

It was about 6 or so in the evening and I was zapping channels when a shot of a World War I plane flying over scenic countryside caught my attention. The channel was Star Movies. Thinking it might be Aviator, the movie I watched on. There came a commercial break and I came to know the name of the movie - Flyboys. With nothing much to watch on the sports front, I continued watching the movie. And it turned out to be a great experience.

Flyboys is a 2006 drama film set during World War I, starring James Franco (Tobby Mcguire's friend in Spiderman series), Martin Henderson (of Pride & Prejudice fame) and Jean Reno, an amazing actor who has played some great roles over all these years. Flyboys is a story of young Americans who go to France for different reasons, enlist them as pilots, volunteering to serve the French Air Force against the Central powers. During their training, the film mainly deals with the struggles each pilot has with the demanding flying; later, the focus shifts to the aerial dogfights that dominate the front line missions.

What kept me interested and later rivetted to the TV was the entire plot - the aerial sorties and finally the dogfights. The film through the setting also talks about camaradrie, racial prejudice, love, passion and finally revenge. Franco has played the role of an ace pilot and later that of a leader exceptionally well. And Jean Reno as the commander...as always a class act. The dogfights, shot amazingly from almost all angles were pretty interesting and pushing the adrenalin levels up...let it be the one on one, the sorties, the bombing of enemy depot or taking off the Zepplin. The killing of the ace enemy pilot using a pistol suddenly reminded me of Rajnikanth movie though!!!

When I did a search on Wikipedia, there were a lot of historical lapses that were pointed out but, overall it was a great movie and really worth watching. And then I was really not looking at it from education perspective. For that I should be watching National Geographic or The History Channel. Definitely recommended for a one time watch. And the DVD will definitely be part of my war movies collection...