ironhorse_iv Review of Air Force One

Air Force One (1997)

This motion picture takes flight! Is it worth watching? Yes, it's an entertaining movie! It's my wingman.

[7/10 · 21 November 2019]

Made in the aftermath of the Cold War & pre 9/11 world, director Wolfgang Petersen's "Die Hard" inspired thriller 'Air Force One' indeed flew high with both audience members & critics. Most of them like the motion picture about a U.S president James Marshall (Harrison Ford) attempt to retake his plane after a group of terrorists led by Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman) hijack it. I can see why, as most of the action pieces were truly enjoyable. For example, the shoot outs and brawling stunt work were choreography very well even if the opening palace storming scene backdrop certainly didn't look like it took place in Kazakhstan, but in Cleveland, Ohio. Despite that, you can tell a lot of hard work went into the action; as Ford himself did most of his own stunts. He really did take some stiff punches from Gary Oldman. Besides his character's very important title, he look believable as the regular everyman forced into surreal situations to rise to heroism. While, yes, the Commander in Chief in this film had some value past military training. His present middle aged body was not bulked up to take the punishment. He got tired, hurt and damage as the film went on. There are parts in the film where he get easily capture or make a dumb decision or mistake. Because of that, Ford made for a great reluctant hero. It's just too bad that his character seem a bit one dimensional. After all, it seem like Ford was playing over righteous jingoism version of himself minus his flying skills. I can hardly remember anything much about James Marshall. If anything, the first time I saw this, I thought he was playing Jack Ryan again in another Tom Clancy adaptation. Regardless of that, some of the action scenes not involving much of him being presence were a little bit disappointing. After all, how in the hell does fighter jets not be able to shoot down a giant Boeing 747 out of the sky!? It's make no sense. To add to that some of plane explosions in the film look highly awkward dated and fake looking, especially the water landing. The idea that Air Force One has no automatic landing capability is silly. All Boeing 747s have the capability to land on auto pilot. It doesn't take an aviator genius to know that. Anyway, Major Caldwell (William H. Macy) does have the ability to fly it. After all, in order to gain his rank, he has to log at least 3,000 flight hours in an aircraft. So the whole third act escape seem a bit add on. Despite that, I did find the KC-10 Extender scene pretty cool to watch; along with the getaway from Ramstein Air Base even if the airplane being able to turn quickly with ease or fly up without flaps within a short distance was a bit unrealistic. It's non-existence like the real plane having an escape pod or parachute lift. Nevertheless all of these scenes are a lot better than the moments involving the Vice President Kathryn Bennett (Glenn Close). I found the whole White House sequences to be irritating. All the 25th Amendment talk was too much. It made the film muddled with endless filler amount of unneeded political clicking & debate. It got so bad, I felt like I was watching CSPAN. They really made her look very weak by having her work with the terrorists' demands & being pushed around from U.S. Defense Secretary Walter Dean (Dean Stockwell). At least, the filmmakers didn't have her breakdown and cry like the original script from Andrew Marlowe ask for. The film is already making women figureheads look disfavor enough by having the guys play with her emotions. Honestly the time spent with her should had been used to explain the mole reasons for betraying his crew. Without it, the whole heel turn seem very confusing. Its sucks because the premise of the movie is heavily tied to the geopolitics of the mid to late 90's. Yet the film didn't explore too much of his history. Nevertheless I did like how the other villain in the flick, Korshunov felt more fully dimensional than a standard stereotypical smug evil foreigner. Gary Oldman plays him as realistic human being to the hilt. He really got to shine at times. There are certain moments in the film where the terrorist brings up a pretty good point about US policies. In particular, how the president is also a killer. Although the somber and patriotic score quickly written in 12 days by composer Jerry Goldman did make the Commander in Chief actions seem more heroic than the villain. While, the soundtrack is beautiful to listen to, the film did force feed it down our throats to the point that the music came across as a bit extreme chauvinism for my taste. It got so bad that in 2016, Presidential candidate businessman Donald Trump use the music for his bid for the White House. Regardless, it's still a good soundtrack. A lot better than original composer Randy Newman's score for sure; which Newman reused for 2010 animation film 'Toy Story 3'. In the end, overall: 'Air Force One' truly is one of the most popular action films of the 1990s. It's one film worth flying over to go see. Highly recommended.