FLYBOYS
Year: 2006
USA: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
UK: Verve Pictures
UK DVD: Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment
Cast: James Franco, Martin Henderson, David Ellison, Jennifer Decker, Jean Reno, Tyler Labine, Abdul Salis, Philip Winchester, David Ellison, Tim Pigott-Smith, Kate Robbins, Mac McDonald, Todd Boyce, Karen Ford, Ruth Bradley, Gail Downey, Augustin Legrand, Keith McErlean, Lex Shrapnel, Christien Anholt, Pip Pickering, Barry McGee, Michael Jibson Daniel Rigby, Kyle Hensher-Smith, Gunnar Winbergh, Ian Rose, Christopher Snell, Scott Hazel, Jake Canuso, Jean-Philippe ecoffey
Director: Tony Bill
Countries: USA / France
USA: 139 mins
UK: 138 mins
USA Rated: PG-13 for war action violence and some sexual content
UK Certificate: 12A contains moderate war action and injury detail
USA Release Date: 22 September 2006
UK Release Date: 1 June 2007
UK DVD Release Date: 8 October 2007
US Distributor
UK Distributor
Synopsis
Fate made them friends
War made them brothers
Courage made them legends
Soaring high above the earth in a fragile, flammable, open-cockpit biplane, outracing better-equipped enemy aircraft, and knowing the average life expectancy of someone in your line of work is at most six weeks: this was the daring and heroic story of the men of the Lafayette Escadrille, the first American fighter-pilot squadron to see action in World War I, when a few brave young men volunteered to fight for democracy. This is the story of the new epic motion picture FLYBOYS, starring an international ensemble cast in a story of love, loss, and adventure; featuring a fleet of real WWI airplanes, state-of-the-art special effects, and ground-breaking digital camera technology, to put the viewer in the cockpit with these courageous flyers. Barely a dozen years after the invention of powered, controllable flight, these pilots invented, experimented with, and simply dashed headlong into the modern era of aerial combat.
The year is 1916: World War I has been raging for almost two years. On the Western Front, the Allied powers of Britain and France are bogged down in stagnant trench warfare against Germany, and millions of men have been killed. The United States remains doggedly neutral and isolationist, preferring to let Europeans fight their own wars.
But a number of Americans have journeyed to Europe to assist the Allies, as volunteer ambulance drivers and members of the French Foreign Legion. Soon, some of these American volunteers form their own squadron and 38 young men decide to learn how to fly. Under the command of French Captain Thenault (Jean Reno) and leadership of American veteran Reed Cassidy (Martin Henderson) they fight the German aggressors from the air taking on the better-equipped German pilots and aid in the Allied war effort. It is in this tense, life-or-death context that FLYBOYS takes place.
From Dean Devlin, the producer of INDEPENDENCE DAY and THE PATRIOT and Marc Frydman (COMMANDER IN CHIEF TV series), FLYBOYS is directed by Tony Bill and stars James Franco, Martin Henderson and Jean Reno.
DVD EXTRAS
Commentary by Director Tony Bill & Producer Dean Devlin
Deleted Scenes
Featurette: The Flyboys Ride With Air Force Thunderbirds & The Navy Blue Angels
Featurette: Taking Flight -The Making Of Aerial Battle Sequences
