Air Force One (1997)

reviewed by
George McAdams


AIR FORCE ONE A film review by George McAdams Copyright 1997 George McAdams Return to your (movie) seats! Fasten your seatbelts and restore your seat backs to their full upright position because the summer's best action/drama movie is here, and its title is "Air Force One." Harrison Ford stars in this must-see movie as James Marshall, the President of the United States whose "The United States doesn't negotiate with terrorists" philosophy is challenged when Air Force One is hijacked while in route from Moscow to the U.S. Ford, playing the president in a manner that probably has President Clinton dreaming with a smile on his face, has the situation further complicated when his wife and daughter are part of the hostages.

Yes, you can put behind you painful memories of "Batman and Robin," and you can just forget all the other weak plots devices of other presidential dramas, such as "Murder at 1600" because Harrison Ford gives the best performance as a president since Ronald Reagan's.

And while other performers fill the screen, none rises to the top like Air Force One the plane. In the proud tradition of mechanical devices having greater fortitude over man, the plane shows that it can take a licking a keep on ticking, right to the very end. Gary Oldman neither disappoints or overplays the part as the lead hijacker sympathetic to a splinter-group of Russians who want to reverse the results of an open market economy: gangsters, prostitutes, and poverty.

One cannot help but feel that Director Wolfgang Peterson has pulled together his memories of two other previous directorial efforts, "Das Boot" and "In the Line of Fire," to give the viewers a movie that flies through two hours of turbulence with such a rush that viewers will want to take a return flight.

One interesting note about the film was the interesting way that two dramatic situations were handled. In the first, President Marshall has faxed to the White House Conference Room instructions to have Air Force One reduce its speed and lower its altitude while refueling. As the viewers watch the faxed document rest at the White House unbeknownst to everyone around it, the hostages prepare to parachute from Air Force One, hoping that the message will have gotten through. On one hand, this gives the appearance that the producers wanted to cut some time from the movie; however, thinking about this some more, I find that I liked it because its about time a movie doesn't show me everything. In a second sequence near the end of the movie, the release of a militant general is imminent and viewers are left wondering if his release will be stopped.

"Air Force One" gets three and one-half stars out of four from me. I'd recommend it to others and wouldn't hesitate to see it again.

Air Force One's web site is at http://www.spe.sony.com/Pictures/SonyMovies/movies/AFO/

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