Les chevaliers du ciel (2005)

User Rating:

5.4/10   

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 Geneva) | Switzerland:12 (canton of Vaud) | 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:

Because of the strict rules prohibiting jet aircraft (and in particular, fighter jets) from flying over Paris airspace, director Gérard Pirès got permission to shoot the film's climactic final sequences over Paris on only a single day, Bastille Day (July 14th), with an additional rehearsal day on July 12th. Because of bad weather, the July 12th rehearsal had to be canceled, thus forcing the crew to rehearse and film everything over a critical few hours on the 14th. Although all of the most important shots were achieved on the 14th, a small propeller plane was brought in for some additional footage of the ground later on, and the film was sped up by 4 times to match that shot by the Mirage 2000 camera perfectly. In addition, all of the footage shot from the ground of the planes during the final sequences was filmed on Bastille Day, the only time in the entire year that the French government proudly displays its military forces in the capital. The military parade shown in the film is the largest in France held on Bastille Day, and it is held on the Avenue Champs-Élysées, near the Arc de Triomphe.

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:

Featured in Les chevaliers du ciel - Making-of promo (2005) (V)

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.