, 2h19 Directed byTony Bill OriginUSA GenresDrama, War, Action, Adventure, Historical, Romance ThemesTransport films, Aviation films, Political films, Films based on plays ActorsJames Franco, Martin Henderson, Jean Reno, Augustin Legrand, Abdul Salis, Jennifer Decker Roles Ives Rating65% Prior to America's entrance into World War I, a group of young Americans go to France, for different personal reasons, to fight in the French Air Service, L'Aéronautique militaire. One of them, Blaine Rawlings, faced with the foreclosure of his family ranch in Texas, decides to enlist after seeing a newsreel of aerial combat in France. Dilettante Briggs Lowry joins because of his overbearing father. African-American boxer Eugene Skinner, who had been accepted as an athlete in France, was motivated to "pay back" his adopted country. Beagle, a notorious thief, burglar and mugger, evades capture due to a tip off about his arrest and leaves America for France, believing that even criminals are forgiven if he registers in the French Army. Porter, a former Church pastor suffering dwindling churchgoers, decides to enlist to become a chaplain, and Jamie, frustrated by American neutrality, decides to join the war. These American recruits are under the command of French Captain Georges Thenault, while the veteran fighter ace Reed Cassidy, a fellow American, a womanizer, drunkard and traumatized ace pilot, takes over as their mentor.