Flyboys

Ben and I watched the movie "Flyboys" over the weekend. It was an okay movie. I call it okay as while the WWI aerial battles were awesome, the actual characters were not that exciting or moving. When some of them died, I found that I hadn't invested enough emotionally to actually care. I think it was because most of the characters were one-dimensional archetypes that were not fully developed. It was a good movie to learn about WWI flying aces and to imagine the dangers with what they went through. It's amazing that only ten years after the invention of the airplane, man was using it in combat! I was disturbed that there were no parachutes!!!

This movie tells the story of young Americans that go to France during WWI before America has entered the war to become some of the world's first pilots. It's based on a true story - but I guess not quite true! :-)

I don't think of myself as a racist, but I was annoyed when the movie first started and I saw that they had a black airplane pilot in 1916. I accused the movie of trying to PC the past (something I really hate when movies do - show it as it really was!!) . . . then I looked it up after the movie and there really was a black flying ace in WWI that was an ex-boxer. He was allowed to fly with the French, but when America entered the war and he transfered over to America's military, he was grounded. So I thought that was cool that there really was a black ace, but felt bad that I had thought there couldn't be such a thing at that time in history!!! I guess there could as long as you weren't in America!