to go see this in the theaters because it was the first serious film
to deal with WWI in over 40 years. Also, it's based on the true
events of the Americans that volunteered to go to France and learn to
fly- before the US entered the war.
But I completely missed it until last
week via Netflix. 
However, it was just the right mix of
interesting flying dogfight scenes, and boring cliché ridden
war movie scenes. They had a rich guy, a poor guy, a rich racist
guy, a black guy, and an old veteran that didn't want to be their
friend. Oh, and then they had some other guys that showed up after
15 minutes to round out the set- you know, religious guy, and might
be a spy but really isn't guy.
And, like Saving Private Ryan, or any
other cliché ridden war movie, you can tell the order these
guys are going to die in. You know, first they won't talk about
themselves but then 10 minutes later they have a quiet moment and
reveal something personal and touching about themselves to another
character.
And 5 minutes later they're dead.
It also has some completely over the
top moments that are so unbelievable they must be true. I won't
spoil that for you so you can see it for yourselves.
This movie does it all: it conquerors
racism, social class, post traumatic stress disorder, and strained
international relationships between the United States and France.
And not in that order. Of course there are some raging historical
inaccuracies, but if you're not a WWI plane geek you'll never know.
But, the flying scenes are top notch.
Except the one where the pilot uses his “airbrakes” to take out a
German plan. No, those plans did not have airbrakes. Just some
wheels, canvas wings, guns, and an engine.
Overall, if I had seen this in the
theater, I'd be mad. But, since I got it through Netflix it wasn't
so bad at all. So, ultimately I give it a rating of: m'eh.
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