“Flyboys” Starring: James Franco and Jean Reno Directed by Tony Bill

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During World War I, American volunteers went to France to join the French squadron, the Lafayette Escadrille. This enlistment, which occurred prior to the United States’ involvement in the war, made the young men the first U.S. fighter pilots. Directed by Tony Bill, “Flyboys” traces the true story of these young men.

“Flyboys” follows cowboy Rawlings (James Franco) from his foreclosed family ranch to the warfront in France. He’s rough around the edges, to be sure, but it’s clear from the beginning that he has something special to offer.

The reigning ace pilot, Cassidy (Martin Henderson), gives him a hard time, and despite hard training and his abilities in the air, Rawlings isn’t named leader of the pack until he breaks a few rules, falls in love and proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that he has what it takes to make it back from the battle alive.

If the above synopsis sounds familiar, that’s because it is – “Flyboys” follows the same basic formula as many of its Hollywood war-movie predecessors, with less successful results.

The characters are all stereotypes of standard Hollywood players. Rawlings is the cowboy who has lost everything that matters to him, including a feeling of his own self-worth. Loner ace pilot Cassidy isolates himself after losing too many friends to the fight. Fellow pilot Lowry (Tyler Labine) is the disappointing son of a wealthy Southern gentleman, sent to the front to make dad proud. He’s racist, which leads to tension with a black pilot, Skinner (Abdul Salis) – one guess who saves whom when it comes time to fight.

The predictability carries over into the love story, in which Rawlings wins the heart of a French girl, Lucienne (Jennifer Decker), who neither speaks his language nor lives close to the base. They meet in a whorehouse, but lucky for Rawlings, his ladylove couldn’t be more pure. The storyline interrupts the otherwise-decent pacing, and, other than offering a somewhat tense escape scene, does nothing to advance the film.

While the combat sequences are historically accurate and exciting, especially one in which the U.S. pilots take out a German zeppelin headed for Paris, “Flyboys” does nothing to explore the psychological cost of war.

The film takes no stand, using the audience’s distance from the situation as an excuse to create an idealistic world with clear-cut bad guys and good guys. And, of course, the good guys are always Americans, and Americans always win.