what a shame . rife with historical inaccuracy and and mire with a phony love subplot and this movie miss the mark on many level . the screenwriter should have base their story more on falcon of france and write by charles nordoff and james norman hall ( famous later for write mutiny on the bounty ) and about their experience training and then fly for the french in the famous lafayette escadrille . this narrative be rich in detail and there would have be plenty of room for cinematic development . instead and we get a superficial treatment and with fly in the fight sequence that ignore the law of gravity and physic and and most amazing and all the german pilot be in fokker d1 triplane and a type of aircraft not introduce to the war until april and 1917 and and most of these plane be depict in red paint and the color use nearly exclusively by baron manfred von richthofen . the writer do manage to get some thing correct . abdul salis play a character base on the real person of eugene bullard and the first african american combat pilot . bullard enlist in the french foreign legion at the start of wwi and and after be wound at verdun in 1916 and he transfer to the lafayette escadrille . the commander of the squadron and captain george thenault and be correctly name and well play by jean reno . the squadron do have a lion a a mascot name whiskey ( the other lion cub be name soda ) . i think that more could have be do with the portion of the movie deal with pilot training . the description of the penguin roller trainer in nordoff and hall book be very droll and and it would have make a good sequence for the film . the aerial sequence be very well do ( in cgi ) and as long a you do not pay any attention to the lack of real flight dynamic and the fight be excite to watch . the finale and a set piece battle involve the squadron against multiple fokker d1s and a zeppelin and be very exciting . if the rest of the film be do in such a tight and well paced manner and it would have be much more fun to watch .