Flyboys

Flyboys (2006) is a World War I war drama starring James Franco that you can watch online on iFILM. A handful of young Americans sign up with the French air service long before their own country joins the fight, and become its first fighter pilots.

They expected something close to a French holiday. Instead they got the skies above the trenches, where a rookie flier's life was measured in weeks. Canvas-and-wood Nieuports, a machine gun that jams mid-turn, and a German ace in a blood-red plane waiting on the far side of the gunsight. Jean Reno plays the weathered commander leading the volunteers; Martin Henderson and Philip Winchester fly alongside Franco, while a romance on the ground gives one pilot something more to lose.

Director Tony Bill built the film around the real squadron that drew foreigners from nations not yet at war with Germany. The dogfights were shot with real aircraft rather than weightless CGI, tracking the moment green recruits turned into airmen. Stream Flyboys (2006) online on iFILM.