Sunday, September 24, 2006
Friday Movie Review (quite late)
Went to see WWI aviation movie Flyboys, because I had to. It was OK, a bit tedious at times which is bad in a war movie. It's about the Lafayette Escadrille, a group in the French army with American pilots, before America entered the war. It had all the most trite and time honored war movie cliches, a handsome young cast, and pretty good CGI battle scenes. The airplanes looked a bit too shiny (but the computer images do keep on getting better).
The movie said that it was based on true events. I always take that to mean it's set on planet Earth during historical times. And yes Flyboys was based on true events, there was a war in France in 1917 and there was a Lafayette Escadrille. Oh, and they had lion cubs (plural) as mascots, Whiskey and Soda. That is about it for historical fact shown in the movie. There was no 20 plus victory ace named Reed Cassady (played by the doomed boyfriend in The Ring) who died in battle. There was a 9 victory ace Thomas G. Cassady (he claimed 12) but he got many of them in an American outfit (the 28th AEF) and survived the war.
There was no 9 millimeter German machine gun--the Germans used in their American designed Maxim machine gun, manufactured largely in Spandau, a suburb of Berlin, an 8 mm cartridge, the same cartridge as in their rifle, the Mauser 98.
The Zeppelins were filled with flammable hydrogen (America has a monopoly of helium gas) and were used in the war to some small effect but were so vulnerable to air arrack with bombs from above or tracer like incendiary bullets that they were only used at night after 1914. So no daring daylight raid on Paris in 1917 stopped by the non-existent Reed Cassady.
I don't know a lot about air tactics during the Great War but I do know about the Immelmann turn of which you saw one during Flyboys. I think that's too few. Let me explain. There were no air tactics at the beginning of the war because airplanes had never been used at war before. It was a 50/50 thing to line up and fly right at the enemy plane gun blazing, perhaps less than that because who pulled up and who pulled down was not well established so head on crashes were possible. Max Immelmann, a German ace killed in June, 1916, would climb up to stall speed, push down on a tail flap, when the plane turns and comes down you're heading with gaining speed at the enemy plane from the side. If you miss, repeat the maneuver on the other side. (Now an Immelmann turn is a half loop topped with a flipping the plane over so you've reversed your course and gained altitude--but the early German planes didn't have the power to do that).
If you realize that it's mainly BS history but a fun sound and light show, this movie is for you.
I ALMOST FORGOT: There is a scene where the historically somewhat accurate black pilot is asked what his father did for a living. He responds, "he was a slave." What an odd response. This is 1916 and his father had not been a slave for over 50 years. Did he do nothing for that intervening time? Even if the father died at or just before his son's birth in say 1884, he was not a slave for nearly 30 years. I can see saying in another context, "he was born a slave." But to give that response to that question at that time was truly bizarre.
The movie said that it was based on true events. I always take that to mean it's set on planet Earth during historical times. And yes Flyboys was based on true events, there was a war in France in 1917 and there was a Lafayette Escadrille. Oh, and they had lion cubs (plural) as mascots, Whiskey and Soda. That is about it for historical fact shown in the movie. There was no 20 plus victory ace named Reed Cassady (played by the doomed boyfriend in The Ring) who died in battle. There was a 9 victory ace Thomas G. Cassady (he claimed 12) but he got many of them in an American outfit (the 28th AEF) and survived the war.
There was no 9 millimeter German machine gun--the Germans used in their American designed Maxim machine gun, manufactured largely in Spandau, a suburb of Berlin, an 8 mm cartridge, the same cartridge as in their rifle, the Mauser 98.
The Zeppelins were filled with flammable hydrogen (America has a monopoly of helium gas) and were used in the war to some small effect but were so vulnerable to air arrack with bombs from above or tracer like incendiary bullets that they were only used at night after 1914. So no daring daylight raid on Paris in 1917 stopped by the non-existent Reed Cassady.
I don't know a lot about air tactics during the Great War but I do know about the Immelmann turn of which you saw one during Flyboys. I think that's too few. Let me explain. There were no air tactics at the beginning of the war because airplanes had never been used at war before. It was a 50/50 thing to line up and fly right at the enemy plane gun blazing, perhaps less than that because who pulled up and who pulled down was not well established so head on crashes were possible. Max Immelmann, a German ace killed in June, 1916, would climb up to stall speed, push down on a tail flap, when the plane turns and comes down you're heading with gaining speed at the enemy plane from the side. If you miss, repeat the maneuver on the other side. (Now an Immelmann turn is a half loop topped with a flipping the plane over so you've reversed your course and gained altitude--but the early German planes didn't have the power to do that).
If you realize that it's mainly BS history but a fun sound and light show, this movie is for you.
I ALMOST FORGOT: There is a scene where the historically somewhat accurate black pilot is asked what his father did for a living. He responds, "he was a slave." What an odd response. This is 1916 and his father had not been a slave for over 50 years. Did he do nothing for that intervening time? Even if the father died at or just before his son's birth in say 1884, he was not a slave for nearly 30 years. I can see saying in another context, "he was born a slave." But to give that response to that question at that time was truly bizarre.
# posted by Roger Fraley @ 10:49 PM 
