The Dawn Patrol

Truly an enjoyable WWI movie. The aerial scenes were outstanding (Note: These were borrowed from the 1930 movie by the same name). The casting was on the mark. Errol Flynn, Basil Rathbone, David Niven and Donald Crisp (Excellent actor) were perfectly cast. Plus, the brief but well acted role of the captured German aviator by Carl Esmond. The pressures and guilt of being a squadron commander and sending friends, colleagues, and inexperienced pilots against overwhelming odds to certain death. Then coping with the aftermath and being blamed and taking blame for their deaths. Being a responsible leader was a difficult and lonely job which leads to coping methods such as heavy drinking to get numb to it. This movie does a remarkable job of showing how courageous the WWI pilots were in going up on a daily basis on sorties knowing that they tempted fate and the chances of them not coming back became greater and greater. The bonds of cameraderie and respect were forged amongst the British flyers and their enemy counterparts. This movie showed the heroic acts of these pilots and also sent a message that there must be a better way to settle our differences. War is costly on both sides. I highly recommend this film.

I enjoyed the recent Flyboys but when you compare the flying produced by computers to the ACTUAL flying in Dawn Patrol, it is really incredible. I am a pilot, so I can appreciate what those guys were doing in those old biplanes. Put that together with a good story line and great actors and you have a wonderful way to spend a few hours watching a true piece of history. Highly recommended.

A scene-for-scene remake of Howard Hawks's 1930 film of the same name, "Patrol" is an anguished World War I flier drama starring the dashing, seemingly unflappable Flynn, who inhabits his role with heroic gusto. Goulding wrenches great emotion out of the massacre-of-innocents scenario, dropping in on the doomed men as they quaff scotch and listen to the melancholy sound of the airmen's gramophone before hopping into their jerry-built "crates." Rathbone is excellent as the tortured desk commander accused of the gravest cynicism, and real-life Flynn bosom buddy David Niven supplies an additional punch as Courtney's best man, Lt. Scott. See "Dawn Patrol," a high-flying combat adventure with a conscience.

Well they're right...he cant act - he doesn't have to because he IS captain courtney, captain blood, don juan, etc...as Burt Reynolds said, he's completely organic...how was he able to embody every concept of chivalry and bring it so clearly to the screen...amazing

Errol Flynn used to belong to my childhood's pirates movies. I was surprised on how charming and convincing he acts in this film. An excelent plot, also excelent actors (I had never heard of Basil Rathbone, it seems to me excelent!).
My hystorical interest on WWI planes was pleased: it is very interesting to see how rotary engine equipped planes looked like, the way they rocked on taxiing, their noise, the awkward way to take off, etc.
Remembers my how disapponting is "Fly Boys" in this way that, in a so resourceful digital era, was technically so inexact.