'Air Force One' movie review
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| (C) 1997 Columbia Pictures |
Air Force One (1997)
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen
Written by Andrew W. Marlowe
Starring: Harrison Ford, Gary Oldman, Wendy Crewson, Paul Guilfoyle, Glenn Close, William H. Macy, Liesel Matthews, Dean Stockwell
President James Marshall: Never again will I allow our political self-interest to deter us from doing what we know to be morally right. Atrocity and terror are not political weapons. And to those who would use them, your day is over. We will never negotiate. We will no longer tolerate and we will no longer be afraid. It's your turn to be afraid.
In the summer of 1997, Harrison Ford starred in Air Force One, a fast-paced and riveting mash-up of action/adventure and a political-thriller plot reminiscent of Tom Clancy’s novels. In this high-flying film directed by Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, In the Line of Fire), Ford takes on the role of a U.S. President who must outwit, outlast, and outfight a band of Russian ultranationalist terrorists aboard the President aircraft.
Written by Andrew W. Marlowe (End of Days), Air Force One is set sometime in the post-Cold War 1990s, during the brief time when it looked like Russia and the U.S. were getting over their long superpower rivalry and ushering a new era of trust and cooperation.
The film begins as American and Russian special forces carry out a daring snatch-and-grab raid on the Presidential Palace in Kazakhstan, a former republic of the old Soviet Union. The troops are there to capture Gen. Ivan Radek (Jurgen Prochnow), a die-hard Communist who rules Kazakhstan with an iron fist. Radek’s regime is responsible for 200,000 deaths and has taken possession of Soviet nuclear weapons. Fearing that these weapons might be used to blackmail the world or fall into terrorist hands, Washington and Moscow decide to intervene and take Radek into custody.
Three weeks after the raid, Russia’s President Petrov (Alan Woolf) fetes his American counterpart, President James Marshall (Ford) at a state banquet in the Kremlin. In his post-dinner speech, Marshall says that the U.S. and its allies were partially responsible for Radek’s atrocities against his people and intervened only when their national interests were at risk.
Marshall, against the advice of White House Chief of Staff Lloyd Shepherd (Paul Guilfoyle), makes a public pledge that, under his watch. America will not look away when dictators and terrorists commit atrocities like those in Kazakhstan. He also reiterates America’s long-standing policy of not negotiating with terrorists.
President James Marshall: Did you hear my speech?
Grace: Yeah.
President James Marshall: Yeah?
Grace: You're gonna get yourself re-elected.
President James Marshall: That's what I keep telling them.
President Marshall, First Lady Grace Marshall (Wendy Crewston), their daughter Alice (Liesel Matthews) and the Presidential party board Air Force One for the return trip, unaware that trouble is brewing. A team of Russian ultra-nationalists led by Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman) has infiltrated Air Force One by posing as accredited reporters. Totally dedicated to Gen. Radek’s neo-Soviet ideals, Korshunov and his henchmen intend to hijack Air Force One and hold President Marshall and the others aboard the plane until Russia releases their imprisoned general.
In a sequence full of shocking twists, Korshunov and his crew take over the plane, kill the pilots, and take most of the Presidential party hostage. An ex-military pilot with combat experience in Vietnam, President Marshall eludes capture, forcing Korshunov into a deadly cat-and-mouse game.
The stakes of this game are high. The President of the United States and 50 other persons are in the hands of a determined terrorist. As Korshunov tells Vice President Kathryn Bennett (Glenn Close) on the radio, he will execute a hostage every hour until Presidents Marshall and Petrov let Radek go free.
My Take
Air Force One is an enjoyable action-adventure vehicle for Harrison Ford, an actor whose resume includes playing action heroes. Ford became a star of the genre as Han Solo (Star Wars) and Indiana Jones (Raiders of the Lost Ark), then played Tom Clancy’s CIA analyst hero Jack Ryan in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger. Ford’s likeability and powers of conviction served him well in those blockbuster franchise films; they do so again in Petersen’s Air Force One.
Ford’s presence is crucial in a formulaic film such as Air Force One, which has a 1980s-1990s vibe best summed up as Die Hard on a Plane.
Andrew Marlowe’s script shares some of its themes and sensibility with two films directed by John McTiernan: 1988’s Die Hard and 1990’s The Hunt for Red October. In one, a gutsy cop (with some outside help) faces off against a band of deadly, clever terrorists in a skyscraper. In the other, a stalwart, intelligent CIA analyst helps Soviet naval officers to defect to the West aboard a Russian nuclear submarine.
Plot-wise, fans of those two movies won’t find any big surprises in Air Force One.
Instead, most viewers will probably find tropes from the Die Hard and Jack Ryan movies in Petersen’s 124-minute-long thriller, including:
- Clever, ruthless terrorists led by a charismatic, smart guy (Die Hard)
- A resourceful, determined hero with a personal stake in the outcome (Die Hard, the Jack Ryan series)
- International political intrigue (the Jack Ryan series)
- U.S. military/intelligence agencies support the hero (Die Hard, the Jack Ryan series)
The movie is full of action movie cliches. For instance, the terrorists are tactically smart and effective in the early stages of the hijacking, but when President Marshall goes into John McClane mode, they lose their sharpness and tradecraft.
[Phillips is talking Marshall through dumping fuel with the avionics panel]
Phillips, AFO Chief Mechanic: Hold on, just let me double-check, sir...
President James Marshall: Oh, for Christ's sakes, man, hurry up!
Phillips, AFO Chief Mechanic: Sir, if you get the wrong wire, you'll cut the engine feeds, and the plane will crash.
President James Marshall: Then we don't want to get the wrong wire, do we?
Another familiar plot device, albeit one that is associated with war movies which feature explosive devices that must be defused, is the Right/Wrong Wire Gambit.
This cinematic chestnut is cleverly twisted in a scene where President Marshall must find a way to dump Air Force One’s fuel to get the terrorists to land the plane before it reaches Kazakhstan. The only way he can do this without crashing the big jet is by cutting the right series of wires in the avionics bay.
But if Air Force One is lacking in the originality department, its casting of Harrison Ford and Gary Oldman as the antagonists and Marlowe’s well-written dialogue help Petersen’s film fly a little higher than other movies of the action adventure genre.
President James Marshall: Peace isn't merely the absence of conflict, but the presence of justice.
Petersen, a German-born filmmaker known for his suspenseful and intelligent movies, gets outstanding performances from Ford, Oldman, and the supporting cast.
Ford plays President Marshall as the ideal version of a U.S. chief executive. He is eloquent, politically savvy, decisive, compassionate, smart, principled, and wants America to stand for good in the post-Cold War world. Air Force One never reveals whether Marshall is a Republican or Democrat, but he exhibits qualities that can be attributed to either party.
He is also a dedicated family man, a trait that Ivan Korshunov will exploit in order to get what he wants.
Ivan Korshunov: I would turn my back on God Himself for Mother Russia
Most action-adventure fans know that great movie heroes need an equally great antagonist to play against, otherwise they would not be heroes. In Air Force One, Gary Oldman is the perfect foil for Ford’s stalwart American President.
Taking his cues from Marlowe’s above average screenplay, Oldman gives Ivan Korshunov greater depth than the average movie terrorist. Ruthless and willing to kill anyone to achieve his mission to free Radek, Korshunov is nevertheless intelligent, charming, and dedicated to his cause. Unlike Alan Rickman’s Hans Gruber in Die Hard, Oldman’s character is motivated by loyalty to the former Soviet Union.
Like Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, Korshunov believes that America is treating his country with disrespect and seeks to corrupt Russian society and culture with liberal Western ideas and crass capitalism.
White House General: [after hearing the president] My God! Is he saying what I think he's saying?
Vice President Kathryn Bennett: If we're going to act, we have to act now.
Defense Secretary Walter Dean: It's too risky.
Vice President Kathryn Bennett: The president is up there with a gun to his head.
General Northwood: He asking us to do that to Air Force One?
Vice President Kathryn Bennett: He's not asking. Your Commander-in-Chief has issued a direct order. Do it!
Glenn Close is believable as Marshall’s Vice President, Kathryn Bennett. Close gives her a sense of gritty determination and decisiveness, two traits she will need as she deals with an unexpected hostage crisis abroad and political infighting within the Cabinet in the White House Situation Room.
Air Force One is a movie that asks viewers to suspend their disbelief; in real life, Ivan Korshunov’s operatives would not have risked the destruction of the plane by firing submachine guns while in flight. The President’s plane may be the most secure on Earth, but it is not bulletproof.
Nevertheless, Petersen’s sharp directorial instincts and outstanding performances by his cast give Air Force One the right mix to lift it above the average Hollywood action flick.Petersen makes viewers care about everyone aboard the hijacked plane. Thus, when Korshunov carries out his threat to execute his captives one at a time, it hits the audience hard.
Credit is also due to composer Jerry Goldsmith, who was hired to write a replacement score late in post-production. The director thought the score by Randy Newman was too dark and serious, so he asked Goldsmith and an uncredited Joel McNeeley to write brassy, more adventurous music.
Air Force One still remains one of Harrison Ford’s best non-franchise action movies. It is fast-paced, exciting, and highly entertaining.
Blu-ray Specifications
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- Rated: R (Restricted)
- Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
- Blu-ray Release Date: June 2, 2009
- Run Time: 124 minutes
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