Search - Les Chevaliers Du Ciel on DVD

Fun, French fighter film

SuperSchtroumpf | Lyon, France | 11/14/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"This is an atypical French film. It has a decent budget, a story, and action. If you are looking for an artsy French indy film, this isn't it.

The story is a bit complicated, but basically involves a plot to steal Mirage 2000's to assassinate President Chirac. It is based on a Mirage 2000 squadron who do the usual fighter pilot stuff - training, exercises, bar arguments, romances, etc. One woman plays the role of an American pilot. In the search for missing planes, some of the pilots go to Africa where more of the dastardly assassination-terrorist plot is revealed.

Aside from the wandering storyline, the cinematography is great. France doesn't make a lot of this movie genre - modern military - because of its uneasy civil-military relationship (ie. many lost wars). However, this film manages to show the pilots, planes, and country in a good light. There are extensive flying sequences in the Alps (arguably much prettier than the California desert as seen in Top Gun) as well as in Provence. There was an especially nice scene, though brief, of the Callanques de Cassis (a favorite place of mine). If anything, I would have liked to see more of the French countryside. Towards the end of the film the action moves to the 14 July national parade.

I have seen this parade in person, and it is fantastic. It includes a flyover of almost every type of French aircraft, totally at least 100 fixed and rotary wing aircraft. This film has some nice scenes of the parade, on the ground and above, as well as some nice shots of Paris from above.

Finally, I didn't notice any obvious anti-Americanism. Indeed, the French are generally quite envious of the US military (money, equipment, etc.). Though their rations seem a bit better than our MRE's.

This was a fun film, however without subtitles or dubbing you will probably need to know French to understand it.



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