Only now does it occur to me... BLUE THUNDER (1983)

 Only now does it occur to me...  that I waited way too long to watch BLUE THUNDER.

Directed by John Badham (SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER, WARGAMES), and written by Dan O'Bannon (ALIEN, THE RETURN OF THE LIVING DEAD, John Carpenter's DARK STAR) and Don Jakoby (DEATH WISH 3, ARACHNOPHOBIA, John Carpenter's VAMPIRES), it's a thriller about the militarization of our police forces and the obliteration of personal privacy. It's about brave whistleblowers and bitchin', fully rad helicopters; possibly the median point between SNOWDEN and AIRWOLF.


The inimitable Roy Scheider stars as an LAPD helicopter pilot (battling PTSD from Vietnam) who's paired with a nerdy rookie (Daniel Stern),

and bossed around by a crusty but lovable Warren Oates

who is given an ample platform to growl "goddammit" and "you bright-eyed sons of bitches" with impunity, and chide the newbie Stern with monologues like: "You're supposed to be stupid, son, don't abuse the privilege.... for Chrissakes, I had 20 years in this outfit when your idea of a big time was sittin in front of the TV tube, watchin' Bugs Bunny and gnawin' on your Fudgesicle!"

Candy Clark appears in a brilliant supporting role as Roy Scheider's ex-wife; at the beginning, at least, it feels like outtakes from the most depressing domestic scenes in ALL THAT JAZZ.

"Goddamn your Black Irish heart, Frank Murphy!"

Malcolm McDowell plays the villain of the piece, obviously, named Colonel Cochran (and I'm going to continue with my conspiracy theories about HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH being an inspiration to filmmakers everywhere), a nefarious Brit who was essentially a prep-school bully to Roy Scheider back in 'Nam (there are flashbacks).

He wears turtlenecks and uses "Catch you later!" as his evil catchphrase, which is fine, I guess.  It's okay, I think he's having fun.

"Catch you later!"

In all, it's a genuinely exciting conspiracy thriller with high stakes, despite sorta feeling like a big-budget episode of (the aforementioned) AIRWOLF, or even MACGUYVER. Prefiguring TOP GUN by three years, when its politics begin to show, it presents itself as anto-jingoist, opposing in every way the values of post-TOP GUN, Michael Bay school of filmmaking. In BLUE THUNDER, military technology is to be feared, not fetishized; and it depicts the new generation of Reagan-era jet fighter jockeys and their masters as schlubs propped-up by propaganda, accidentally firing heat-seeking missiles into a BBQ joint (because of misinterpreted thermal imaging) and into an office building (whose windows are reflecting the rays of the sun).


Also: Roy Schneider flies a helicopter upside down while screaming "Come on, you tub of shit!" which is without a doubt the "Smile, you sonofabitch!" moment of this movie.


If that's not enough of an endorsement, I don't know what is.





P.S.––Coming soon: horror films for Halloween.

Film Review: DILLINGER (1973, John Milius)

Stars: 4 of 5.
Running Time: 107 minutes.
Tag-line: "...he was the gangster's gangster. "
Notable Cast or Crew: Warren Oates (BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA), Harry Dean Stanton, John P. Ryan (IT'S ALIVE, RUNAWAY TRAIN), Geoffrey Lewis (MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL), Richard Dreyfuss, Cloris Leachman (YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN), Michelle Phillips (SHAMPOO), Ben Johnson (THE LAST PICTURE SHOW). Directed and written by John Milius (RED DAWN, FLIGHT OF THE INTRUDER, BIG WEDNESDAY, CONAN THE BARBARIAN).
Best one-liner: "Okay, boys; let's go make a withdrawal."

John Milius, with his "men's men" (or "gangster's gangsters" in this case) and bloody shootouts, is often compared to Sam Peckinpah. And while the comparison is apt, most are content to pin him down as merely a Second Amendment-lovin' reactionary, and leave it at that. But there's a humanist inside Milius, a lover of nature, a quiet observer of humanity's (violent) inclinations. And in this respect, I would compare him equally to Terrence Malick. (And also in their propensity to use Harry Dean Stanton, Warren Oates, Nick Nolte, and windswept, amber waves of grain.) DILLINGER, Milius' feature film (directorial) debut, is an excellent fusion of 30's gangster pic and the existential 70's 'road trip drama.' Oates' Dillinger is smarmy, full of hubris, and ultimately an asshole ("this is gonna be one of the big days of your life..."): it's brutality, to be sure, but it's brutality with élan.

Harry Dean Stanton is a gang member with a bad attitude, a giant sombrero, and brimming pathos; Richard Dreyfuss is appropriately psychotic as Baby Face Nelson; and Ben Johnson is steely and appropriately detached as Melvin Purvis.

What a lineup: Oates, Stanton, Lewis, Ryan.

The mantra for the film (quite literally at one point) becomes "hard times"- Dillinger doesn't have to do much conniving to find willing accomplices or make a prison warden take his "cut" of a robbery made during an escape. As a Dust Bowl ragamuffin fittingly observes, the only difference between the bank robbers and the FBI is that you "Have to go to school to be a G-Man." There's no joy to be had in seeing anyone get shot here, be it lawbreaker or lawman; characters scream in agony as they die, and no one dies easy. It's a film full of unexpected emotional weight- Dillinger's homecoming to a resigned, sad, tolerant father, or Harry Dean Stanton intoning "things ain't workin' out for me today" in a way that truly no one else could. Four stars.

And stick around after the end credits to hear J. Edgar Hoover denouncing the film (in true a-hole form).

-Sean Gill