Typical Hollywood BS!
There were no blacks in the Lafayette Escadrille and the Germans did not strafe downed airman!
shareThanks, another movie to avoid.
share
MovieChat Forums > Flyboys (2006) Discussion > Typical Hollywood BS!
Oh, those Flyboys.
shareEugene Skinner, the black pilot, was based on the real-life Eugene Jacques Bullard (the filmmakers just changed the surname). He hoped to join the Lafayette Escadrille, but they stopped receiving applicants by the summer of 1916 after accepting 38 American pilots. So, a few months later, Eugene joined the Lafayette Flying Corps on November 15, 1916.
You can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_Bullard
As far as strafing downed aviators during WW1 goes, it was considered dishonorable, but the movie’s suggesting that a minority of ignoble pilots did so, which is reasonable. In the film one German pilot strafes & kills the downed American Beagle, which is what later spurs a more noble German pilot to mercifully spare Rawlings (James Franco) to make up for it. It’s a pretty powerful scene.
He still was not in the Lafayette Escadrille.
shareClose enough: There was a real person in the American black pilot's shoes -- both named Eugene -- who faced similar challenges as he does in the movie in a similar fighter pilot squad in France.
Scriptwriters make changes to historical events like this all the time to make for a more dramatically compelling story. For instance, Princess Isabelle of France (Sophie Marceau) was actually only 3-4 years old during William Wallace's military campaigns and, in fact, never met Wallace, as depicted in the hallowed "Braveheart." Compared to that, the change with Eugene in "Flyboys" ain't a big deal.
In any case, it wasn't "typical Hollywood BS." There's documented truth behind the character of Eugene.
Un-truths, lies, and inaccuracies may be close enough for you, but not for me. You must be a Democrat. While we are on the subject of black pilots, the Tuskegee airmen are not what they have been cracked up to be. I know a WWII pilot who was on the same base with some of them. He said that the Army took fighters away from one black squadron and gave them un-armed reconnaissance aircraft since they were shooting down more B-24s than the Germans. During Vietnam, Chappy James, former Tuskegee airman and deputy wing commander, was not allowed to fly by himself. He only flew an F-4 with an instructor pilot.
shareGod, you need to grow up, get help with the racial agenda trolling and stop reading Mein Kampf, moron.
shareSo you are a Democrat!
shareI "talk the walk" because I have "walked the walk." I flew in VietNam, landed on aircraft carriers, and was an airline pilot for 30 years. So what did you do "moron" to become an such an aviation expert. I have some more black pilot anecdotes if you want to hear them.
shareI'm the furthest thing from a Demonic-rat, but why unnecessarily turn the conversation political? Why be presumptuous?
The fact remains that the character of Eugene Skinner in the movie -- the black pilot -- was based on a real-life individual, also named Eugene, who belonged to a volunteer American fighter pilot corps in France during WW1, also named Lafayette, similar to the squadron in the film.
This is why Eugene was added to the script -- to make it more dramatically entertaining while including an interesting bit of related history that would appeal to a wider audience. Where's the beef?
Your OP is still incorrect.
share