Topical Guide 280
Mark Dorset
Clichés: Movies: Soldiers as a Motley Crew or Melting-Pot Platoon
HERB HAD BEEN assigned to a prisoner-of-war camp, where he and other recuperating men supervised German prisoners who were put to the task of fabricating cup handle repair kits. The men who ran the camp were a mixed lot, thrown together from among the wounded of many divisions. They were a group that represented the whole fabric of American society, including men from the warp and men from the woof, the only truly integrated group of soldiers in the American Expeditionary Forces. …
Ezio Corelli, a wisecracking, curly-haired pastry chef from Brooklyn …
Jo Jo Washington, a serious-minded cornetist from Chicago …
Anton “Boom-Boom” Delacroix, a big-hearted fisherman from New Orleans …
Izzy Moskowitz, a devil-may-care dental student from South Bend …
Seamus O’Brien, a freckle-faced barkeep from Alabama, criedHerb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 6
As long as it stays on the battlefield, “The Patriot” is a brutishly compelling broad-canvas entertainment. But the movie is also inflated with clichés from the screenwriter’s manual. There’s the motley crew of loutish “colorful” proles who join Martin’s militia, the squeaky-clean romance between Martin’s soldier son (Heath Ledger) and a local lass (Lisa Brenner), the vacuously noble slave-turned-soldier (Jay Arlen Jones) who counts down the months before he’s freed from servitude, and, of course, the eminently hissable villain — though Jason Isaacs, it must be said, plays this overripe role to contemptuous perfection.
World War I is long overdue for a proper trip across modern movie screens, but Flyboys isn’t it. Director Tony Bill’s film captures all the clichés of every war movie ever made and rolls them into an experience punctuated by inconsistent performances and even more inconsistent storytelling. Snoopy’s battles with the Red Baron felt more authentic than this.
The problems start with James Franco, who plays lead flyboy in the story of American airmen flying for the French during World War I. It’s based on a true story, which has kind of become the de facto excuse for making bad movies. Hey don’t blame us! That’s the way it is. Right. I’m not buying it. Franco plays a Texan with a southern accent that drifts in and out as if propelled by the wind. Sometimes he’s a flying cowpoke, sometimes he’s James Franco. Mostly, he’s just bad at doing anything other than looking James Dean good.
Franco’s squadron of biplane flying companions makes a motley crew of dissimilar comrades. There’s the black guy who can’t get a break in the U.S., the religious guy, the guy who’s afraid to fight, the funny guy who can’t shoot straight, and the snobby rich kid. They’re bossed around by an oh-so-dark and dashing squadron commander and default French guy Jean Reno. Whatever happened to Gerard Depardieu?Josh Tyler, “Flyboys,” CinemaBlend (lightly copy-edited by me, MD)
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