"Based
on a true story." "Inspired by a true story." Prominently displayed,
one would surmise to incline the audience toward patriotic zeal. Just the sort
ofinsurance that is a tacit understanding that if for some unGodly reason you
don't care for the film, you're unquesionably un-American. These movies are (unless
about serial killers and politicians) always heroic tales of quite ordinary people
thrust into perilous circumstances that requires the kind of courageous feats
of derring do, that only a heartless commie would not be moved to cheer for these
working stiffs turned Americam heores.
Here
goes.
"Based
on a true story," during WWI, American volunteers – or, as I like to
put it, the unemployed poor, went to France to join the French squadron, The Lafayette
Escadrille, to join the most noble of all causes - taking the fight those evil
Nazis.
The movie
begins in typical fashion with little vignette backstories about some of the volunteers.
There is a Texan, Blaine Rawlings (James Franco), who just lost his family's ranch
due to lousy management, an aristocrat whose father belittles him into doing something
heroic for the family name, a black boxer, and a bumbling bank robber on the run.
They do not speak French but luckily they are under the command of English-speaking,
stiff-necked Capt. Georges Thenault (Jean Reno). They are to support the only
other pilot, American Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson). He's jaded and irascible
since all his friends have been killed by highly skilled German pilots.Thus his
reluctance to befriend any of these newcomes is largely due to his fear of making
shortlived friendships to make any new friends.
Cassidy
has a pet lion that sleeps with him. (I recently stopped by MGM Grand's lion habitat.
I was truly amazed how close the pacing lions came to the glass. I counted teeth.
The lions live in custom accommodations on an 8.5-acre ranch 12 miles from the
MGM Grand. They are brought to the hotel to lounge around – i.e. work - for
only 6 hour shifts. The trainers were playing with them and petting them. I saw
one of the lions carrying a pair of slippers in his mouth. Obviously, they are
very well cared for. It was quite amazing.)
Because
every hero needs a love interest (recently, "The Invincible"), ace pilot
Rawlings crashes cute and finds Florence Nightingale in a whorehouse. But she's
not a prostitute! Lucienne (Jennifer Decker) is just delivering vegetables. Since
she is a French peasant caring for her dead brother's three small children, she
and Rawlings have long, drawn-out awkward non-verbal dates. The movie comes to
a shrieking halt whenever they are together. Cassidy has more chemistry with Whiskey
the Lion.
There
are lots of flying battles, crashes, deaths, and a German running on top of a
flaming zeppelin. Can you do that?
The
director, Tony Bill, squanders his big budget on the stunt pilots, forgetting
about making any of these characters come to life. The dialogue is awful. Bill
also does not give Franco the type of photography and direction he requires. Franco
is being groomed to be a star, but Bill is not the man for this or any other job
the film requires of him,
Young
guys like Franco have got to stop being seduced by a starring role (and the contractually-mandated
face-on-the-poster) and get a director who will fall in love with them –
cinematically, of course. Franco needs Ridley Scott or Quentin Tarantino, directors
who know how to pump testosterone and sex appeal into performances. Look what
Frank Miller and Robert Rodriguez did for Benicio Del Toro and Mickey Rourke in
"Frank Miller's Sin City." Tony Bill all but neuters Franco in Fly Boys.
Bill
allows Franco to slouch when he walks. Franco is directed to look like a grinning
brat instead of a daredevil facing those Bloody Red Barons in their black biplanes.
Scenes
are repeated without variation, the French officers look like the children of
Insp. Jacques Clousseau, and no one looks heroic. Couldn't the three screenwriters
Phil Sears, Blake T. Evans, David S. Ward, come up with exciting back stories,
conflicts, and egos in the sky? All concerned from Tony Bill to those just mentioned
couldn't hit the broad side of a Barnstormer.
