So, this is a Richard Donner movie (his first one), starring Charles
Bronson in a lead role and it has James Stewart(!) narrating but yet no
one has ever heard off this movie? It sounds all weird but there
actually is a very logical explanation for it; the movie just isn't
very good or memorable.
It's hard to even really call this a movie in the first place. It's
stuck somewhere between being a documentary and a slow moving drama.
The entire story is being told in such a way that it almost feels like
a documentary you are watching, complete with a lot of technical
details and background information about the airplanes and missions. No
big surprise, since the movie got actually made with the help of the
space program and the air force. In a way you could even call this
movie a piece of propaganda.
But the movie also still tries to tell a story. Not hard enough though.
Everything remains terribly underdeveloped, this goes for the story as
well as for all of its characters. The movie also never becomes a very
interesting one to watch because of that very same reason. There is not
a clear enough main plot line that it is following and because of that
also all of the developments in it fall short and everything feels
without consequences. It doesn't matter at all for the viewer when a
test fails, or a plane blows up. You just don't ever feel involved
enough with any of it, to care about anything.
It all also makes this movie a bit of a boring one and definitely also
overlong, since it starts to repeat itself pretty early on already and
sometimes scenes just go on for far too long, without serving really a
purpose for the movie in the first place.
It really doesn't matter at all that Charles Bronson, amongst others is
in this movie. None of the characters get to do anything good or
interesting and the acting and whole directing approach of this movie
reminded me of a '50's science-fiction flick, that too desperately
wanted to be taken serious as a movie. It feels the need to throw in
all kinds of technical aspects and nonsensical questions, that are
completely irrelevant in todays perspective. It's all very forced and
wooden and lacks depth of any sort.
But please, allow me to also still say something positive about this
movie. Because it got made with the help of the air force, the aerial
moments are great looking ones. Normally movies like this would had
uses some standard archive footage of planes flying but this movie is
very consistent with its look and often shows some great, insightful,
moments in the air, also often from the perspective of the pilot.
At first I also was very excited when hearing James Stewart narrating
this thing. However strangely enough the narration suddenly stops half
way through the movie and Stewart can't be heard again, until the very
end of the movie.
Do yourself a favor and watch "The Right Stuff" instead. It for some
part handles some of the same subjects, about the earliest days of the
space program and test flying but it does this a far more interesting
and exciting way, than this movie ever does.
5/10
No comments: