On 23 Feb 2004 00:02:27 GMT, (JDupre5762) wrote:

:Cloud Dancer (Aerobatics)
:
:Remember when this came out. Couldn't wait to see it but it never came near my
:theater. Years later saw it at Oshkosh. What a disappointment! It really
:sucked. With Jennifer O'Neil and Timothy Bottoms no wonder. David Carradine
:was the best thing in it besides the flying but of course they had to throw in
:an armed Mustang flying top cover for drug runners etc.
:
:My theory is this. They need to make an aviation oriented film that could just
:as easily be about truck drivers or tug boat captains or railroads. In other
:words I think people get carried away with the visual effect of the aircraft
:and forget the plot and narrative. A surprising number of aviation films
:really stink when considered just as films.

Well, to be fair, a surprising number fo films really stink when
considered just as films...

I once watched about 150 aviation films, I was at Paramount and the
execs were thinking they wanted to do another flying film since Top
Gun had been a hit. I finally decided that the films about pilots -
like Top Gun, Firebirds, etc - were just what you describe. They were
all about the pilot's relationships with his father, girlfriend, best
buddy, etc. The ones about engineers - No Highways, Winds of Kitty
Hawk, Flight of the Phoenix (and, surprisingly, Spirit of St. Louis)
are actually about flying.