Movie Review:The Flyboys Shoots Myths About WW1 Pilots Down in Flames (VIDEO)

American pilots, who chose to enter WW1 before the U.S. officially became involved, joined a French Air Service organization called the Lafayette Escadrille. They fought and died and were cherished by France. The movie debuts today.

Eugene Bullard was WW1's only African American pilot

(SALEM) - A movie set to debut in October called The Flyboys casts these historic pilots in a Top Gun sort of way and reminds the world of one of my ongoing points; that the pilots fighting over France in WW1 were little more than kids, with the early 20’s being the average age.

A few were older. Heck, Germany’s Red Baron, Manfred Von Richtoffen, was 26.

But pizza commercials have you believe he’s an old man with a handlebar moustache. Don’t believe it, these guys were young, though they aged quickly, if they were fortunate. This is a story about dogfighting and these pilots faced skillful Germans in a cold, kill or be killed environment. The trailer gives a person a good taste of what it was like flying a combat plane in 1916 and 1917.

It has been 40-years since Hollywood made a motion picture about World War One aviation. The last was The Blue Max with George Pappard which was a fantastic movie featuring epic flying scenes, a great love story, and Ursula Andres.

The Blue Max, like The Flyboys, seems to lose a few points in terms of historical accuracy.

They also changed the names of the pilots they based their characters on. But there was only one African American pilot in the entire war, and the character in the movie is based on Eugene Bullard. That is good news for the legacy of one of America’s most underrated war heroes.

According to the Afro-American Almanac, Eugene Bullard initially joined the French Foreign Legion, where he earned distinguished honors on the battlefield. He was then selected for pilot training and on May 7th, 1917, becoming the world's first black fighter pilot. As an enlisted pilot, Bullard scored two "kills," but only one of them was confirmed. His second kill, early in November 1917, however, was definite.

When the United Sates entered WW1, Bullard and the other members of the Lafayette Escadrille were encouraged to join the American Air Service. Bullard was right there with everyone, until the Army realized that he was black, and he was rejected from American service because of his race. It was a major blow to a man that France treated with respect and dignity.

Eugene Bullard later got into a fistfight with an officer. He was placed in the French Infantry for the duration of the war.

Just a few weeks ago, I was in Fort Upton, Colorado doing research on the American pilot, Lt. Frank Luke JR., www.frankluke.com who is the subject of a documentary I am working on, when I learned that the Lafayette Escadrille Museum housed many items related to Eugene Bullard as well. Seeing this collection and the wealth of information on Luke that I was searching for with fellow researcher, author Blaine Pardoe, and researcher Jean Armstrong, made my heart jump.

Then just a few weeks ago, I shot and produced a story about the first African American member of the Oregon National Guard to be promoted to General. Wouldn’t you know it, Brigadier General Garry Dean is a fighter pilot. You can catch that story here after you’re done here: salem-news.com/articles/june32006/General_Officer_53106.php So as a researcher/biographer and WW1 aviator documentary producer, I am very excited to see the new movie is coming, and I hate to have to wait until October. You will too after you watch the trailer, breathtaking doesn’t even start to describe it.

Here are the people who created and star in the movie, and the rest of the folks involved in getting it off the ground, so to speak.

Cast Credit

• James Franco
• Jean Reno
• David Ellison
• Martin Henderson
• Jennifer Decker
• Abdul Salis
• Philip Winchester
• Tcheky Karyo

• Marc Roskin Co-Producer
• Dean Devlin Producer
• Rachel Olschan Associate Producer
• Duncan Reid Executive Producer
• James Clayton Executive Producer
• Kearie Peak Co-Producer
• Marc Frydman Producer
• David Brown Producer
• Phillip M Goldfarb Executive Producer

The Flyboys gives us an opportunity to do the same.

The movie trailer is posted below courtesy of youtube.com. Salem-News.com videos play on 99% of all computers through a flash media system. If you ever encounter a problem, there is a Flash download at the top of the site's video section.

If you want a higher quality version and have a suitable media player installed on your computer, you may want to watch if here for a full screen version: www.flyboysthemovie.com/ Video

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I was there, It is spell it wrong, it is near Hudson, Colorado. Correct spell is Fort Lupton, Colorado- it is far off west from Platte Valley Airport...

Hollywood keeps killing the REAL HISTORY... Flyboy´s is a shame to the memory of the real men and women who had WW1... The Real life of Eugene Bullard is a lot better than this brief Hollywood "fantasy film"... Find more about the late Mr. Bullard, you will see how his life spanded two world wars, and who he also served, and again was a hero in WW2. Flyboys, nothing but another Hollywood film...enjoy!

Mr. King; My husband and I just finished seeing "FlyBoys" and were very impressed with the movie. However, we were more impressed when we read your column. Not only have you educated us, you have piqued our curiosity concerning the men and women of "The Great War" Thank you wery much.

From a British perspective this film just felt like an insult

Keith, I can't wage an arguement with much of what you said, and I am familiar with the beliefs of many WW1 purists who inhabit places like theaerodrome.com. I have a lot of time under my belt studying this period and I just think it is important that young people today "get" how radical Great War flying was; and how the pilots who flew them were young also. If you have not seen it, please check out my site in WW1 pilot Frank Luke Jr. at www.frankluke.com. Again, you are right but since 40 years have passed since The Blue Max, it is good that Hollywood at least deemed the period worthy, I'm sure you agree. BTW, I love the F-14's too and I was around the actual planes used to simulate the MIG's also, they are the Air Force F-5's that were the Aggressor squadron at Yuma's Fighter Weapons School. Interesting to see Marines fly an Air Force plane, they made great MIG simulators but I believe they have been replaced with Falcons. (as if they mind that!) I also was fortunate to cover the first visit of a MIG-29 squadron to the U.S. Luftwaffe planes refitted with western engines and instruments, great stuff, I have the video.

"The trailer gives a person a good taste of what it was like flying a combat plane in 1916 and 1917" is a somewhat of a misleading statement. There are no movies or videos etc. that record actual WWI air combat anywhere. In fact, the supposed photographs of "actual" WWI combat housed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Museum (now the National Museum of the United States Air Force) says point blank that the photos are more than likely fakes. All we have are written accounts of what it 'might' be like. While the trailer looks cool, I fear that this movie will end up being a WWI version of Pearl Harbor or Top Gun - a completely ridiculous and unrealistic story with over dramatic gee-whiz effects (although I did enjoy Top Gun for the F-14 scenes). Here is a list of movies I think that while some are fictitious at least seem to accurately capture the era depicted and are sure winners: The Blue Max (I thought the story weak, but the fight scenes are great and displays the gallantry and chivalrous tone of the period) The Great Waldo Pepper 30 Seconds Over Tokyo (Alec Baldwin as Jimmy Doolittle in Pearl Harbor? C’mon!) Tora, Tora, Tora (best ever!!!) 12 O’clock High Battle of Britain (bad story, but the flying more than makes up for the poor writing) Memphis Belle (reluctantly add as the story is real only in the name of the plane – people take things too literally!) The Aviator The Right Stuff (best next to TTT!) Top Gun (sigh - The Final Countdown is more fun because it is so unbelievable, but the concept is intriguing!)

You and your readers may want to know of my book, Eugene Bullard, Black Expatriate in Jazz-Age Paris (rev. ed. 2006 Univ. of Georgia Press) craiglloyd40@hotmail.com

A must see, thanks to Regulus we had the news very early on our board: Forum Eerste Wereldoorlog

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