"Where have all the good Air Force movies gone?" Topic

"Air power should, and occasionally does, sell at the box office. But Officer and a Gentleman, Top Gun, Flight of the Intruder and Rescue Dawn all depicted Navy pilots. In Independence Day, Marine aviator Will Smith saves the world, alternating between a Marine Corps F/A-18 and an alien snubfighter.

The Air Force gets Iron Eagle, in which a teenager with a tape recorder fills in for Maverick and Goose. More recently, Red Tails flopped with audiences and critics. Only Pearl Harbor stands as partial exception. Hated by critics, historians and all right-thinking people, director Michael Bay's depiction of Army Air Force aviators challenging the Japanese grossed $197 USD million domestically.

Why, despite the expenditure of tremendous resources on PR, does the Air Force have such trouble connecting with the movie-going public?…"
Full article here.
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Amicalement
Armand

That f… bug!! (smile).

Amicalement
Armand

I suppose that you could start with the lack of good names. The Navy's school for fighter jocks is called Top Gun. The USAF? Red Flag, IIRC.

Heck, the US Army had a better "flight program" movie about the Apache helicopter pilots: Fire Birds!

And let's not forget the USAF attitude: They're either a bunch of Doctor Strangeloves that can't wait to nuke someone (bomber fleet) or a bunch of fighter jocks that have nothing to do with the guys on the ground. Neither trait really endears them to the talking heads in WhollyWeird.

I think there's a great movie that could be made about operation Bolo during Vietnam. The commander of the unit, Robin Olds, was right out of hollywood casting anyway and the story is great. George Clooney could do the lead or someone appropriately older with gravitas.

Here's a list of 'USAF movies':

link

There are some decent post-WWII ones actually, but they're mostly Cold War/Korean War era, like 'The Hunters' and John Wayne's 'Jet Pilot.' The list also left out 'X-15.'

The 'Iron Eagle' series are produced with the cooperation of the Heyl Ha'Avir, hence the 3-tone Israeli camouflage.

There's s TV movie called 'Red Flag: The Ultimate Game' starring William Devane and Barry Bostwick that's not bad: imdb.com/title/tt0082978

There's also a good TV series set during the Vietnam War starring Craig T. Nelson called 'Call to Glory': imdb.com/title/tt0087025

There have been very few made, surprisingly.