The Best and Worst Aviation Movies

One of the things I like about old aviation films is that some of them have become a sort of time capsule…the Berlin Airlift thread on historic reminded me of a dvd that I have … ‘The Big Lift’ starring Montgomery Clift,this movie was shot just after the Airlift happened (released 1950) and except for the 2 main characters all the players were serving members of the US forces.
This film has similar problems to most flying films but if you ignore that it is a historic document,my dvd is not the highest quality transfer …but watchable.
It is worth buying the dvd just for 1 sequence where a C54 (DC4) is approaching through the apartment blocks into Berlin Templehof…fantastic.
There have been comments about American films,agreed they can be a little that way but american films (even modern TV stuff) can be quite atmospheric – brit stuff sometimes can appear quite sterile.

cheers baz

yeah i guess 12 ‘ o clock high was a bit to gungho huh? w/e, or command decision too i suppose

We British seem to make the best aviation movies in my opinion…most of the stuff that comes out of Tinseltown is Gung ho over the top highly exaggerated drivel

Sorry guys – I love Top Gun!!

My favourite aviation films are –

WWII –

Angels One Five – ‘Septic’ kinda reminds me of me a little

Reach for the Sky – Kenneth More at his best

The Dam Busters – good story and an hour of Lancaster Porn

633 Squadron/Mosquito Squadron – Mosquito porn despite the fact they deliberately destroyed a perfectly good aeroplane 😡

First of the Few – Birth of the Spitfire

Battle of Britain – I thought the ‘He111s’/CASA 2111s looked like they suited Merlins very well. The Buchons just looked odd with theirs.

Tora! Tora! Tora! – Better version than Pearl Harbor (although I enjoyed that too)

Modern –

Top Gun – Plot aside, great flying sequences

Wings of the Apache/Firebirds – Top Gun variation but using eggbeaters with attitude

Flight of the Intruder – as discussed

Final Countdown – Different

Firefox – Wish they would have made the sequel

Bat21 – Good Gene Hackman film

Always – Good fire bomber action, humour and Holly Hunter

Worst –

Iron Eagle – Not one of Louis Gossett Jrs better choices post Officer and a Gentleman and he went back for more!

Mayday – Based (loosely) on the Thomas H Block book with Dean Cain (TVs Superman series) and Charles S Dutton (Alien 3) but could have done a whole lot better job with it. Chunks the size of the Pacific missing from the book. Waste of good talent.

Blue Thunder – would rather watch paint dry Airwolf is much better

Martin

Set around London Airport in the fifties starring the great James Robertson Justice as BOAC Captain Brent

The Hell’s Angels sequences were just stupid – the planes looked like a bunch of flies buzzing around a pile of poo!

One of the worst aviation movies ever to come out of Tinsel town in my opinion…mainly because it starred that baby faced twerp DiCaprio and the actual flying scenes were to be honest…quite laughable!!!

That’ll be this one:

Complete with Japanese-painted Hellcats…. :rolleyes:

Indeed it is, thanks 🙂

Don’t know the name at all, but seen it several times, the John Wayne movie when he is a marine pilot flying Corsairs…anyone for the name… well anyways I liked that movie. Just to name a few.

That’ll be this one:

Complete with Japanese-painted Hellcats…. :rolleyes:

One of my all time favorite’s would be Strategic Air Command. With James Stewart’s experience of wartime bomber pilot it makes it more realistic. Also as just mentioned before, the Flight of the Phoenix, excellent movie (the original that would be, don’t care at all for the new one).
Don’t know the name at all, but seen it several times, the John Wayne movie when he is a marine pilot flying Corsairs…anyone for the name… well anyways I liked that movie. Just to name a few.

I also forgot to mention Flight of the Phoenix with James Stewart.

Here is a bit of movie aviation trivia

The James Bond Movie – The Living Daylights starring Timothy Dalton

In the scene where the KGB attack the Mi6 safe house going after the defector, after the carnage a white Huey flies in the cllect the wounded, the huey carries the tail registration G-Huey and is painted white

This Huey is the very same Huey captured by British forces from the Argentinians in the Falklands War

Not seen this one for a while, but in terms of storyline, it’s pretty poor:

The only thing to redeem this, I think, is the copious amounts of wartime footage – Spitfires (602 Squadron near the end), Hudsons, and a couple of Harvards (and possibly a genuine or mock-up Bf109 wreck).

The model work is ropey, at best, although some close-ups involving a full-scale (I think!) Spitfire mock-up are rather good.

I bought this as part of a box set for £5.99 with The Blue max and D-Day 6th June as other films, I have not watched it yet but a around £2 I can’t complain can I?.

Not seen this one for a while, but in terms of storyline, it’s pretty poor:

The only thing to redeem this, I think, is the copious amounts of wartime footage – Spitfires (602 Squadron near the end), Hudsons, and a couple of Harvards (and possibly a genuine or mock-up Bf109 wreck).

The model work is ropey, at best, although some close-ups involving a full-scale (I think!) Spitfire mock-up are rather good.

I think you’ll have to start sleeping with your hands above the covers Mike…your mind is running rampant!!!

That’s not the only thing running rampant around here mate:)

Take your pick!!!
http://faculty.dwc.edu/nicosia/apcm_list_of_aviation_movies.htm

dr. strangelove anyone? also gathering of eagles with rock hudson, during the alert sequences was also great.

I’ve no objections if she parks her slippers under my bed at night

I think you’ll have to start sleeping with your hands above the covers Mike…your mind is running rampant!!!

The Tuskegee Airmen is a cracking little TV-film, quite good considering its budget!

Agreed…based on a true story!!!