Last night we watched a 2006 movie called Flyboys about the Americans who became the first military aviators. This was in 1915, and they had to join the French military to fly in World War I, because America was not yet in the war.
This was not a great movie, notable perhaps because of all the historical mistakes it had, such as, the wrong airplanes being used in a movie about airplanes! Notwithstanding, the CGI of the dogfights was pretty good, and maybe it did give a glimpse of what it was like to be in the Lafayette Escadrille.
I started thinking about the cast. The only member of the cast that I remembered from other movies is Jean Reno. The rest of them did well in their parts, but (to me) they were not memorable. It makes it difficult to keep track of who did what, and who was flying which airplane...not to mention what "baggage" were they taking to the fight.
Most actors start out as extras or in bit parts, and then get larger and larger parts, with hopefully, a shot at a major role if they are notable. The cast in Flyboys all seemed to be picked from the acting pool, as they did in the silent days. Did they all stand around waiting for the director to point at them?
If you look at the cast on IMDB, and do some research, you will see names who have been in some pretty big films. Maybe this is just my imagination, or my lack of a good memory, but this is my blog, so this is my impression of them. James Franco was in quite a few good movies, such as the Spiderman series. I should know him, but he looks like any other twenty-something male actor, and it certainly didn't bring to memory that he was in Spiderman.
Most of the cast has less than 20 movie and TV parts to their credit. I wish them all well, but if they are to become stars, they have to stand out...find a niche and work hard at it. I don't consider Steven Seagal a very good actor, but he certainly made a lot of money!
I have had the Clara Bow/Buddy Rogers 1927 classic, Wings, on order at Netflix, but they don't have it. I bet it's great!
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