By Marc S. Sanders
On the day I write this article, July 12, 2024, the new trailer for Captain America: New World Order premiered and Harrison Ford (whose birthday is tomorrow; Happy Tiding Dr. Kimble, Dr. Jones, Captain Solo, Mr. President, Dr. Ryan) is back in the Oval Office playing the President of the United States. Don’t know what kind of Commander In Chief he’ll be this time around. He might be as heroic as James Marshall from Air Force One. Then again he could be a challenge of hulk like proportions. However, let’s at least fantasize that we have Mr. Marshall running for the top job this year against both the criminal buffoonery and geriatric disqualifications we are left to choose from. Just look at James Marshall’s qualifications.
Following an American Special Ops capture of a Russian radical, Marshall is bestowed an honor from the Soviet government. His acceptance speech insists his administration will never negotiate with terrorists. Now that the line has been drawn, away he goes with his staff, his wife (Wendy Crewson) and pre-teen daughter aboard the most protected and safest plane in the world, Air Force One. Yet, an element of careful process does not go according to plan and Gary Oldman’s team of Russian radicals hijack the plane with demands to free their leader from captivity. Oldman’s screaming hysterical character, Ivan Korshunov, won’t have it so easy though because his team of men failed to capture the President. As well, it requires the Vice President (Glenn Close) and Secretary of Defense (Dean Stockwell) who are on the ground to coordinate with Russia to free the prisoner. Oldman’s response is to kill a hostage every half hour and if that does not work, then just blow up the plane.
This is not good. BUT WAIT!!!!! Is that…? Could it be??? Is the President alive, sneaking around the bowels of the plane while taking out one terrorist at a time? Raise your fist for Harrison Ford!!!!
‘Murica!!!!!!
There are two narratives going on with Air Force One. One is the standard Die Hard formula action onboard the plane. Then there is the endless debates of authority between the Vice President, the Secretary of Defense and the military leaders about if the President is in a proper state of mind to lead and act upon his aggression with a high level of threat to the country at stake, and more personally his wife and daughter in harm’s way? None of this is nothing new. It’s all familiar from the likes of many late 80’s and 90’s action pictures. The politics are much more simplified than what you’d find in a Tom Clancy novel. There’s even time for a which color wire to cut scene. Yet, the movie is entertaining.
Director Wolfgang Peterson is best at showing the real star of the picture and that is Air Force One itself. He’s got long shots down endless corridors and aisles. Within the underbelly, as well as the hollowed-out cockpit, there’s more for us to explore amidst the gunfire. We see where the weapons are stored as well as the luggage and food supply. We get to watch the football game in the President’s office too. Heck, before the terrorists reveal themselves they are given a tour of the massive plane as their guide boasts that it is even impervious to a nuclear blast. Color me impressed in Patriotic Red, White and Blue.
I think some of the acting is a little overdone at times. Not by Ford, but by almost everyone else. Watching the debates within the government conference room, I’m seeing a little too much melodrama around the table. A little too much hand clasping, pacing around the room, whispering, and deep sighing. On the plane, Oldman goes over the top but he’s one of our best character actors and its expected from him. He’s the evil villain after all. On the ground though, Dean Stockwell has done better work elsewhere, with much more complicated material.
I like the idea of including political debates and a response to an unfathomable crisis like this, but a lot of the dialogue from guys like Stockwell, Phillip Baker Hall and Bill Smitrovitch comes off as textbook boring. Same goes for Close, but she fits the role perfectly. Let her be Ford’s running mate and they got my vote. The only thing that upholds these scenes are due to Peterson’s hyper Steadicam. So, when one more person in a suit makes a mad dash into the room, the director sweeps his camera right over there to get the latest news.
Harrison Ford is doing his standard everyman/tough guy routine, always knowing how to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. President Marshall is much more capable than his entire trained Secret Service Squad and it’s fortunate that he gets the convenient shard of broken glass to cut the tape that binds his hands. How often do we see that in movies? The film definitely belongs to Ford, but it’s also nice to see some familiar faces participating like Xander Berkley, William H Macy and Paul Guilfoyle.
The most unforgiving moment of the film occurs in the final minutes. I don’t spoil everything by saying the plane nosedives into the sea, but this crash has to land at the top of some of the worst CGI ever assembled. Yes, I know this was back in 1997, two years before what George Lucas accomplished with, at the time, pioneering effects on his return to Star Wars. However, the final climax to Air Force One looks so obscurely animated and unfinished, it begs for the screenplay to find another way to wrap up its simplistic story. It is downright terrible. I recall it looking terrible on the big screen. It looks just as bad on a 65” flat screen. A toy plane crashing into a bathtub would look more convincing.
Air Force One is solid action. Nothing more. It’s not a thinking picture or one needing deep concentration and analysis. It does make you yearn for Harrison Ford to at least consider a run for the Oval Office, though. He’d still be better than what will be on the ballot this year.
2 UNPAID MOVIE CRITICS!!!! 