Les chevaliers du ciel (2005)

Director:

Gérard Pirès

Writers:

Gilles Malençon (adaptation)
Gilles Malençon (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

9 November 2005 (Belgium)

Genre:

Adventure | Action

Tagline:

'Top Gun' for a new generation.

Plot:

While in an international fair of exhibition of airplanes, a French Mirage 2000 of the last generation...

Plot Keywords:

Pilot | Plane | Betrayal | American Abroad | Aerial Combat

Cast

Benoît Magimel	...	Capitaine Antoine "Walk'n" Marchelli
Clovis Cornillac	...	Capitaine Sébastien "Fahrenheit" Vallois
Géraldine Pailhas	...	Maelle Coste
Alice Taglioni	...	Capitaine Estelle 'Pitbull' Kass
Philippe Torreton	...	Bertrand
Rey Reyes	...	Capitaine Leslie 'Stardust' Hedget
Peter Hudson	...	Général Buchanan
Jean-Baptiste Puech	...	Ipod
Christophe Reymond	...	Stan
Fiona Curzon	...	Mrs Redgrave
Jean-Michel Tinivelli	...	Colonel Farje
Frédéric van den Driessche	...	Général Hardouin
Eric Poulain	...	Capitaine Klébér
Pierre Poirot	...	De Séze
Jean-Yves Chilot	...	Houdon

Also Known As:

Sky Fighters (International: English title)

Runtime:

France:102 min | Argentina:102 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | English | Arabic

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Geneva) | Netherlands:6 | Germany:12 | Singapore:PG | France:U | Portugal:M/12 | Canada:13+ | Hong Kong:I | Finland:K-7 | Canada:PG | Argentina:13 | South Korea:15

Filming Locations:

Djibouti

Company:

Mandarin Films

Trivia:

Working in cooperation with the French Air Force, director Gérard Pirès was able to get some of France's top gun pilots to do the aeronautic dogfights that were used in the film. Initially at the start of the shoot, the Air Force had some particular rules regarding the minimum distances the aircraft could be together or be above the ground, but by the end of principle photography, the daring pilots got permission to bend the normal safety rules, thus allowing them to do maneuvers normally never seen (or possible) outside of actual combat. By the final days of filming, the initial minimum distance the pilots could fly above the ground (500 feet) had dropped to a tiny 10 feet, and the distance between the planes in the air (a varying range, usually of several hundred feet) had been reduced to a minuscule 3 feet, thus allowing some amazing shots that could otherwise never have been pulled off.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When Fahrenheit and Ipod walk on the tarmac toward their planes, Fahrenheit asks : "What is our mission?". This is highly improbable, pilots know their mission before setting foot on the tarmac.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in "Troldspejlet: (#36.2)" (2006)

No big story but big shots

The movie is somewhat disappointing at first sight: The story is kinda lame, the actors are quite OK, and it's boring from time to time. Some intermission shots seem clearly constructed, like they needed some human acting in there.

But then you see the shots taken in flight, the planes, the sky- it's simply amazing. I've never seen a movie that features flight to that degree. Well, I've seen quite some movies featuring airplanes (flying, that is- not Airforce One or such), but that movie is different. Forget the story, forget the actors- there is only one thing important in here, it's the beauty of flying. It's not even the planes itself, it could be almost any other aircraft. Some shots are simply beautiful, some are amazing, some are interesting, and some make you lean back in your chair, stunned, willing to make your PPL next week.

Flying is beautiful. This movie shows it. However, if you can't stand flying or understand the fun in it it's not worth viewing. But if you like movies like this, watch it.

By the way, it's from time to time almost the same as watching those Mountainbike vids that you can run as a background on your PC. Nice shots with nice action to look at and you can watch it all day long.

I gave it 8 points, 2 for the flying, 4 for the camera and the idea, another 2 for the not too bad acting. No, seriously- it's 8 points mostly to the camera and the idea behind the flight shots. It could be 10 without any acting in between, but then it wouldn't have been a movie for the regular cinema anymore.