Flyboys (Perhaps to be spoiled in the course of discussion)

MKSheppard · Post by **MKSheppard** » 2006-10-06 08:05pm

*pets his copy of the Blue Max and cackles evilly*

Bruno Statchel lives for me!

Julhelm · Post by **Julhelm** » 2006-10-07 04:20am

I have that one on VHS, and what a gem it is. There's also Aces High with Malcolm McDowell that is also a worthwhile WW1 movie, though it reuses stock footage from Blue Max at various points in the movie.

Post by **The Yosemite Bear** » 2006-10-07 11:07am

reminds me of the times when Tora, Tora, Tora has been used in other WWII movies.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2006-10-07 02:27pm

The Yosemite Bear wrote:reminds me of the times when Tora, Tora, Tora has been used in other WWII movies.

Like Midway, which generously lifts whole scenes from Tora! Tora! Tora! and even a bit from Battle Of Britain.

The latter 2 films are good films. Midway is not.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2006-10-07 02:52pm

Saw the film, liked the combat, hated the romantic subplot. Slowed down the movie and was, ultimately, pointless. My dad is right about it: they should have dropped the "doomed romance" and just had the American pilot carousing around, getting drunk, and raising hell between missions. You could still fit the DRAMATIC BEHIND THE LINES RESCUE! into the film without the romance.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2006-10-07 07:08pm

Broomstick wrote:You know, that's one of at least two aviation movies I want to see, but can't find copies of. Everywhere I go either they've never heard of it, or "sorry, we don't carry that, there's not enough interest".

Have you tried searching Amazon.com or Movies Unlimited?

Post by **Broomstick** » 2006-10-07 09:05pm

Actually, no - but I'll give it a try

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2006-10-08 03:14pm

RedImperator wrote:Saw the film, liked the combat, hated the romantic subplot. Slowed down the movie and was, ultimately, pointless. My dad is right about it: they should have dropped the "doomed romance" and just had the American pilot carousing around, getting drunk, and raising hell between missions. You could still fit the DRAMATIC BEHIND THE LINES RESCUE! into the film without the romance.

The problem with the romantic subplot of Flyboys is that it really doesn't connect to the rest of the story in any significant way. It doesn't affect Blaine Rawlings on any level except to set up the whole rescue-behind-the-lines scene, afterwhich Lucienne is disposed of. In other words, it was just another plot-device.

By contrast, the romantic subplot in The Blue Max was integral to the entire movie. It underlined the psychology of Bruno Stachel (his inferiority/persecution complex against the upper class society as well as his envy of them), starkly illustrated the decadence of the upper class (the General knows Stachel is probably fucking his wife but doesn't care anymore than he does that his own nephew is fucking his wife, as he's got his own playmates he spends his evenings with) and in the end was the mechanism which led to Stachel's death.

Patrick Degan · Post by **Patrick Degan** » 2006-10-08 03:26pm

FSTargetDrone wrote:
The Yosemite Bear wrote:reminds me of the times when Tora, Tora, Tora has been used in other WWII movies.
Like Midway, which generously lifts whole scenes from Tora! Tora! Tora! and even a bit from Battle Of Britain.

The latter 2 films are good films. Midway is not.

Ah yes, the clip-show depiction of the Battle of Midway. One of Universal's cheapest films.

I don't recall any footage from BoB appearing in that movie, but of course recognised all the TTT clips as well as the horribly mismatched combat film clips showing ships and planes from two years after the battle just spliced in. They just didn't even try. That and they had to pollute the movie with that whole drippy soap-opera of Charleton Heston's kid in love with the Nisei girl.

I just can't watch that movie.

FSTargetDrone · Post by **FSTargetDrone** » 2006-10-08 06:56pm

Patrick Degan wrote:Ah yes, the clip-show depiction of the Battle of Midway. One of Universal's cheapest films.

It's a piece of garbage. That's about the best I can say about it.

I don't recall any footage from BoB appearing in that movie, but of course recognised all the TTT clips as well as the horribly mismatched combat film clips showing ships and planes from two years after the battle just spliced in. They just didn't even try. That and they had to pollute the movie with that whole drippy soap-opera of Charleton Heston's kid in love with the Nisei girl.

I just can't watch that movie.

Nor did I until I was looking up the scenes lifted from Tora! Tora! Tora!:

Mistake Continuity: Some of the stock footage used in the battle sequences are actually just out-takes from the movie The Battle of Britain. Long shots showing dogfighting planes from that movie appear several times during Midway's combat scenes. In the torpedo attack on the Yorktown, one of the burning Japanese bombers is actually, on closer inspection, a German Heinkel, another borrowed shot from the B.O.B.

So, it's an outtake, but still lifted from another film about combat in a completely different part of the world!

I don't own Midway nor do I have any interest in even renting it, but next time it's on TV I'll take a look at the scene in question to be sure.