Movies

In Tony Bill's romantic, computer-generated fantasy, the plucky volunteer pilots of World War I's Lafayette Escadrille are once more cast as "knights of the sky," dashing young Americans (James Franco, Martin Henderson, and Abdul Salis among them) who soar aloft in flimsy wood-and-canvas biplanes, shoot down a glowering Hun or two over verdant France, then return to the chateau to quaff cognac and sing bawdy ballads in tribute to their fallen comrades. In other words, here is the War to End All Wars seen from on high—as it was way back when, in Wings or the Howard Hughes Hell's Angels—a world apart from the grim, futile slaughterhouses of Verdun and the Marne. Among these combatants, you won't find much All Quiet on the Western Front–style despair, and the paths of glory are unsullied by doubt or disillusionment. With Jennifer Decker as a thankful mademoiselle and veteran Jean Reno as the Americans' French commanding officer.