AIR AMERICA
A film review by Sandy Grossmann
Copyright 1990 Sandy Grossmann
Cast: Mel Gibson, Robert Downey, Jr. Director: Robert Spottiswoode
Synopsis: Pilots watch out for each other and protect themselves
from assorted bad and quasi-bad guys. If you want to miss
a miss, miss this one. It's a very conservatively
played story that feels discontinuous and overly edited.
Billy Covington, a young helicopter pilot who does traffic reports, loses his pilot's license because of, well, stunt flying. He's not out of work for long, though: a recruiter for Air America convinces him that excitement and money are just a half-world away in beautiful Laos. Not having anything better to do, and finding the thought of exotica fairly enticing, Billy ships out and arrives at Air America's headquarters for Laos.
A word now about Air America, 1968 style. The slogan was "Anything, anywhere, any time." (Or something similar :-)) And that's what Air America could get for you if you were a "friendly" in the Vietnam war. As you probably know--but just in case you didn't--Air America was a civilian airline run by your friends, the CIA. And it was the largest airline in the world, what with branches in South America and in most trouble spots in the world.
Gene Ryack (Mel Gibson) is one of the Air America pilots in Laos; he breaks Billy in and shows him the ropes. They talk, they fly, they get shot at, they walk through jungles, etc. Sounds like a typical buddy movie, doesn't it? It's not. In a buddy movie, two characters of (usually) dissimilar backgrounds and lifestyles and mores learn Important Lessons from each other. That doesn't happen here because the two don't interact much on that level and don't really go through important changes.
That hints at the problem with this movie: the characters don't move much from their original positions. Where's the conflict that causes a wrenching moral dilemma? That is the basis for drama, and it's just not here in sufficient quantity. As a matter of fact, this film feels disjointed, as if too much cut-and-paste occurred in a dark room.
If you're interested in finding out how and why this movie got made, read the article in this month's PREMIERE magazine (the one with Nicholson on the cover). Lots of work, lots of discomfort--including typhoons and earthquakes--and lots of thought went into this movie, but something happened during its transition from an idea to a reality. Chop-chop, let's cut out the love interest. Chop-chop, don't show so much of Gene's home life. Chop-chop, there's too much talk and not enough action.
The producer realized that a summer blockbuster has to appeal to 15-year-old boys. Isn't there some sort of law against taking an adult film and "teenaging" it? Look at the lovely structure for this film: a world-weary, distrusting pilot works for the CIA and learns to watch out for his family, ignoring the compromises he has to make every day. A young pilot who stands on principle begins working for the CIA and learns that not everything is clearly right or wrong. The young pilot pulls the world-weary pilot into a contest where the compromises are unacceptable but the consequences to his family are too threatening. That would make a good movie, don't you think?
Now. How can we screw it up? Hmmm, let's see... We'll make the world-weary pilot a real cool cookie who never worries about safety or thinks about the compromises he makes. And let's make the young pilot a hot head who never learns how to cool it. Okay, now for the antagonist. He should be a greedy guy, and let's not spend much time on him.
As a result of this type of thinking, we have main characters who only marginally influence each other, and not even in a believable way. The main crisis is such a forced (and even trite) situation that not even the main characters seem to take it seriously. There's no real danger, no real threat, and no real growth.
Gibson is extremely restrained in this role. It's as if he were wrapping a cloak around himself in preparation for becoming Hamlet (his next role). His restraint has the curious effect of making his character seem wooden. He's never been worse than in this movie. The script (at least the script as we hear it) doesn't give him much to say, but he has always risen way above any role he has played. Maybe the problem is with excessive exposition: you can hear him reading the words. Or maybe he was holding back, maintaining a reserve for Zeffirelli (his next director).
Robert Downey, Jr., does well enough, but his character was not very interesting. He's managed a couple of nice moments, and he interacts well with the other cast members, but that's about it.
Apparently, the filming, which was done in Thailand, was quite a strain on everyone. The monsoons couldn't have been very pleasant. And they really did have a 6.1 earthquake plus aftershocks. The entire cast and crew had to suffer through a myriad of inoculations as well as worry about snakes and various nasty critters (including Siamese baby pigs. Really. They're carrying some bizarre, fatal disease. Would I kid you?). Gibson's usual stuntman either wasn't available or left part-way through the film (I'm not sure which). A myriad of personality clashes tangled matters even further. Altogether a difficult prospect to film.
Some directors can profit very handsomely by filming in a location that increases stress: the conflict between characters is heightened, and the location itself becomes part of the conflict. However, this director didn't focus the discomfort. Instead, he tried to keep things light and comedic. He tempered the conflict. He was wrong, and we're the ones who pay. .
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