movie "Flyboys"

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Aggie08

Staff Sergeant
998
2
Apr 15, 2005
Texas
Does anyone have an insider look at this movie? I know just a little of world war 1 aviation, and I think if done right humongous dogfights in biplanes would look incredible. I hope they dont sell out for cheap explosions...
 
I have seen a couple of explosions in the movie previews. Including one of a Zepplin exploding after being hit by a burning Fokker Dr. I. At the same time a german crewman is running away on top of the Zepplin from the flames, which he eventually perishes in. After all, there is no where off that thing but.....Down.

Reminds me a bit of a similar scene in the Unusual Disney film "The Rocketeer." Except that time it was a WWII Zepplin that exploded over the Hollywoodland Sign, killing one of it's finest actors in the process. He was in fact a Nazi spy trying to run away with US goverment secrets from the superhero Rocketeer who at the same time is trying to rescue his girlfriend. Sound interesting?

 
Haha, yes, very interesting.

Has anyone seen the movie since it came out? I want a review by knowledgeable folks, not movie critics who cant tell spad from fokker.
 
I saw it Friday night. Not bad even though it was "Hollywooded." Good flying scenes, nice replicas and the story line wasn't that bad. Just makes the uninformed believe that WW1 was fought with just Neuport 17s and Fokker Tripes, although there was a token 11/2 Strutter and a Bristol Fighter.

Some other "funny things" which I'm sure many here will identify, see the flick if you got some extra dough or else wait for it to be on cable or rent it....
 
the lancaster kicks *** said:
FB how was it for the "America saved the world" factor?
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Actually I thought there was hardly none of that, in fact there was the "why aren't you guys in the war yet" situtaion shown, but of course there was a major announcement when the US entered the war.
 
Just wondering, I have heard differant places that the manuvers in Flyboys are impossible for those kind WWI aircraft. They would have broken apart in mid air. So the movie was making false dogfighting moves just to make it more exciting.

Does anybody on here think that the plane manuvers were impossible or just irealistic for those planes strength?

Aside from the drama mixed in with the flying of course. That's always amped up. Like falling backwards on a Zepplin. Hard to do in real life?
 
I saw it recently, and I enjoyed it. I have a lot of weird connections with that movie, so it was about darn time I saw it. I didn't see anything too crazy with the flying scenes. I have flown an air to air photo shoot with a Fokker DR.1 replica and it's performance characteristics were pretty good, but they reason for that is because it's pretty slow. We were in a Stearman, going through a pretty steep dive. When we levelled out and started to climb again, I could hear the Fokker winding out the engine, and we were still pulling away from him...in a Stearman! So I don't think the flying scenes were terribly unrealistic if you keep in mind the speeds that they were flying in those days.

The guys I flew with for that shoot did the testing of the new Sony Genesis camera with the airplanes with the professional cameramen from the studios. The camera was used for some of the visual scenes from Flyboys using real airplanes. The flying was done the same place I shot my air to air with them and it is a perfect place for that type of shoot. Here are some highlights from my shoot with them. Notic the angle in the shot with the cropped corners. I put the airplane level in the viewfinder because we were also diving at the time. I leveled it with the horizon so that you could see the angle that we were diving at.
 

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Thanks. The first shot up there has won a number of awards and won a contest that was done for the DVD release of the movie. The coolest part of winning that contest is that the prize is a day at Air Combat USA. I will be flying aerial combat on June 2. This should be fun!
 
Great shots of the Red Fokker! Too bad there are not more replica's in the world of original lost planes.

What kind of plane will you be flying in combat evanglider?

And thanks for the information. I always thought those bi-planes could do amazing things for all their fragility.

All the gerries flew red Fokker Dr.I's. And there was the token black....not that I'm a racist, but goddamn, do we really need this racial bs on every movie?
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Yeah, I figured the Red Fokkers everybody knows about and knows it's silly.

Blue Max is cooler, in that Max helpes out only one red fokker. And you also know who's the pilot of that Red Fokker. And the way it turns out is great, though painful for Blue Max.


And as far I know the gerries didn't commit any greater atrocities than the allies, so why are they still the bad guys! Always!
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Not many pilots shot at "Downed Pilots" in those days. I think Richthofen in the later part of his career shot at downed planes and pilots. He was a "Hunter" after all.

Flyboys is still exciting, in a CGI sort of way. I still can't always tell what shots are CGI or real of the planes, which I guess is a good thing! 8)

A little silent film like "Wings" doesn't have to be boring either. For one thing, they use the Fokker DR. VII in it!

I also liked the S. E. 5 attack on the Zeppelin in "Zeppelin" (1971). The angles are nice.
 
Cyrano said:
And there was the token black....not that I'm a racist, but goddamn, do we really need this racial bs on every movie?
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You mean they actually acknowledged Eugene Bullard's existence - I'm quite surprised.

Eugene Bullard - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The caption for the attached picture reads:

Future Lafayette Escadrille members are Victor Chapman, center back row; Edmond Genet, seated center; William Dugan, Genet's left; Eugene Bullard, Chapman's left. Bullard was the first African-American pilot.
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From: Americans in the French Air Service
 

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Not to go against the general consensus here, but I thought "Flyboys" sucked. Really was a lousy movie. Airplane scenes were pretty cool. But the whole premiss was so contrived, the dialogue forced, it just annoyed me. Watched it with some of my family and a lot of eye rolling went on.

On a different note, great pics of that Tri-plane Evan. Neat shots.
 
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