griffith@dweeb.fx.com (Jim Griffith) (08/24/90)
AIR AMERICA
A film review by Jim Griffith
Copyright 1990 Jim Griffith
The first comment I have to make about this movie is that the
trailers for it and the television advertisements are grossly misleading.
The most visible example is the fact that many of the trailer's scenes
are not even in the movie. For instance, the trailer shows Gibson and
Downey walking together, having the following conversation:
Gibson: Anything anywhere any time. That's our motto. Well, it
would be.
Downey: If we actually existed.
Gibson: Yeah.
Downey: Which we don't.
In the movie, all that happens is Gibson says "Anything anywhere
any time. That's our motto." Another example is that the trailers and
ads show Gibson calmly chomping on a sandwich while his plane goes up in
a ball of fire. This "scene" is actually a collection of clips from two
separate scenes, taken completely out of context.
Granted, this is a nit. But in general, the trailers and ads make
this movie out to be a fun-loving comedy. It is not. The movie has
some pretty dark tones to it, and parts of it will depress the hell out
of you. Don't go to this movie if you are simply looking for fun -- you
will be largely disappointed. I was really offended by the extent to
which the ads portrayed this movie as something it isn't.
Don't get me wrong. Parts of this movie are very funny. But the
movie's subject deals with a rather embarrassing aspect of American
history -- the fact that the CIA was maintaining a covert distribution
system of virtually any imaginable commodity (including body parts,
according to Gibson on "Arsenio Hall"), and that this system ran a fair
amount of drugs, all in the name of national security. And it would not
have done the subject justice if they had played it as a comedy.
The movie starts with a young California chopper pilot losing his
license essentially due to stunt flying a radio station's traffic
chopper. He is promptly recruited by the CIA to fly for "Air America,"
the CIA's distribution network in Laos. Once in Laos, he finds himself
in the midst of a number of pilots who are bordering on insanity. He
even remarks on how strange it is for him to find himself as the most
normal person in the room. The movie goes on to describe various
incidents involving different deliveries and what happens on the way.
Incidental to the plot is a US senator on a fact-finding mission, and
the attempts to placate him while keeping him in the dark.
The problem that I had with the movie was that it was unwilling to
commit to any particular plot twist. There are a number of
opportunities for the story to take on a potentially challenging
approach, but it consistently heads in one direction, only to veer off
right away. A potential romance is set up between Downey's character
and an idealistic USAID worker, but nothing ever comes of it. A
dramatic confrontation between one of the "heavies" and Downey's
character is in the making, but again, nothing happens. The movie has
no climax per se. Rather, it sets up a number of minor climactic
moments, with no real surprise endings to any of them. Essentially,
other than to say, "Hey, look what the US government was up to!" this
movie doesn't say or do anything remarkable. The only other plot aspect
that interested or surprised me was the senator's final stand.
What is most interesting about the movie is the characterization of
the pilots involved. Downey is a rather idealistic rebel who is trapped
in a situation where he must deal with unpleasantness in order to do
what he loves to do. Gibson is a man who sees any moralizing about his
situation to be a futile exercise. He is solely interested in becoming
independent enough to do his own thing. The pilots in general are aware
of the roles that they are playing, and they are fatalistic in their
view of their roles. They spend their time alternately dealing with a
bureaucracy which is looking for scapegoats and unfriendlies who are
looking to kill Americans, and they walk the line between sanity and
insanity in an effort to cope with it. All that has value to them is
each other, and they are fiercely protective of each other.
My gut reaction to this movie is "So what?" It has no message, it
doesn't know how to take itself, which means that the audience doesn't
either. Gibson gets to put more into a character than he's been able to
do in the past. Downey is playing a familiar role, but one which is
still sympathetic. If you're going to go see this movie, go for the
characters, not the plot, and certainly not for the humor.
Jim
Jim Griffith /--OO--\
griffith@dweeb.fx.comcsd35@seq1.keele.ac.uk (Jonathan Knight) (02/04/91)
AIR AMERICA
A film review by Jonathan Knight
Copyright 1991 Jonathan Knight
AIR AMERICA is a wonderful movie which actually has the distinction
of making me laugh out loud in the cinema.
I went to see AIR AMERICA having seen the trailer and thought it
might be a little light relief on a Friday evening. The movie is based
in Laos while Tricky Dicky (President Nixon) was telling the whole world
that the US government was not in Laos. Of course this sounds slightly
odd as we can see a vast collection of aircraft and government troops
exactly where they're not supposed to be.
The government is in fact in Laos, but employing a collection of
civilian pilots to fly supplies to the army the US would like to win the
war. As a sideline the US major is running a heroin factory and using
the pilots to fly the opium around.
This then gives a nice set of interactions that the film uses for
both comic effect and also to serious and emotional effect which the
film just about brings off. The dialogue is cleverly written and has
some beautiful lines which are extremely funny.
Characters other than the two main ones are not explored, then tend
to be there for contrast and provide the setting for the scene. The
story is enough to make the film move along at the right pace and it is
easy to follow what's going on and why (good news for Friday evening).
I saw it on a wide screen with Surroundsound which is well used.
I really enjoyed this movie, it fitted in exactly with what I
wanted to see. It is far more funny than the trailer would lead you to
believe.
--
JANET :jonathan@uk.ac.keele.cs Jonathan Knight,
BITNET:jonathan%cs.kl.ac.uk@ukacrl Department of Computer Science
other :jonathan@cs.keele.ac.uk University of Keele, Keele,
UUCP :...!ukc!kl-cs!jonathan Staffordshire. ST5 5BG. U.K.