Great lesser known flying movies...

[ACCBoomer]

Lets also remember "By dawns early light". A cool B-52 movie filmed at Fairchild

"I am EWO ready sir!"

[scoobs]

Amazing men and there flying machines.

[Palangi]

Two movies that have not yet been mentioned:

Fate is the Hunter (the book is amazing, too)

Island in the Sky

Cheers.

Oh, and I saw a little indie film a few years ago called "Top Gun". It is about naval aviators or whatever and volleyball.

Sorry, Top Gun is not cool any more, Tarantino Killed it for me.

[JeepGuyC17]

Not a whole lot of actual flying, but there are some sweet vintage B-25's in "Catch-22"

[Guest gonzo]

Bridges at Toko-Ri. F-9s(?) in korea. I think andy rooney is in it...

[Guest Sessy]

I was so glad to see the kid get into the academy!

Yeah, then he goes and gets shot down by a chick flying an F-4 in Iron Eagle II. WTF?

[otsap]

Fail Safe. Nukes, Cold War, B-58's, Drama...it's got it all. And it's in black and white!

Edit: Oh yeah, and Walter Matthau

Edited April 18, 2008 by otsap

[Guest AlphaSigOU]

Fail Safe. Nukes, Cold War, B-58's, Drama...it's got it all. And it's in black and white!

Edit: Oh yeah, and Walter Matthau

Ahhh... Walter Matuschansky (Matthau's birth name) as Professor Groteschele...

George Clooney did a live-TV shot-for-shot remake of Fail-Safe back about 7-8 years ago, also in glorious black and white. Almost, but not quite the original. It's also available on DVD.

Another unheralded aviation movie, this one direct from Canuckistan: The Arrow.

Basically, how Canada develops and builds a supersonic jet fighter far ahead of its time and the politics behind its cancellation. Dan Aykroyd does a decent job as the guy who ran Avro Canada. DVD is chock full of special features.

[bucky60k]

Yeah, then he goes and gets shot down by a chick flying an F-4 in Iron Eagle II. WTF?

Dude come on everybody knows that Doug Masters was shot down by Yuri Lebanov's friend not by Valeri Zuyeniko geez! (J/K)

The Blue Max starring George Peddard (Hannibal from the A-Team) has some great acting and aerial scenes. Must see for any warbird fan

[Guest loydma3]

I thought "Firefox" was pretty good. Clint Eastwood, retired AF pilot, steals top secret Russian fighter while evading the KGB

[Hotel]

Have to agree with "Only Angels Have Wings" with Cary Grant also "A Gathering of Eagles" with Rock Hudson. Can't find that one on DVD, but saw it on TCM one night - it was about a SAC bomber base during an ORI. Made me think how some things haven't really changed that much in the AF.

[Angels seventy]

I was going to recommend "The Blue Max" but I see someone already did.

Another good flying themed movie, in my opinion, is Howard Hughes' "Hells Angels".

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0020960/

This was filmed in 1930, long before CGI, amazing flying footage that is the real deal.

[B*D*A]

Best....movie.....ever!

https://www.videodetective.com/TitleDetails...shedid=00714871

FYI it's on "Watch Instantly" on Netflix

[Seriously]

Best....movie.....ever!

https://www.videodetective.com/TitleDetails...shedid=00714871

FYI it's on "Watch Instantly" on Netflix

2/10 on imdb, but after reading this review, I'm sold.

There's some girls flying around in planes, a sex scene, then some more flying, then more sex, then the movie starts. All the flight scenes are taken from another movie, but it works okay. There's lots of buildup, with short sex scenes before the actual plot seems to begin. A female pilot gets lost, and gets picked up by a rich woman-beating general. Her friends make a rescue attempt in which the girls quickly end up in their underwear. They stay in their underwear throughout the rest of the film. The sex scenes are mild, this movie is rated R. We see lots of boobs in this, and all the boobs are great. In fact, when the movie is all over, the main thing I remember is all the great boob shots. I can't say it's a great movie, or even a good movie. But a good boob movie. I think I'd find it difficult to sit through it a second time. The primary theme of the movie is hot girls in underwear killing people and flying jets. A fine theme, but not as well played out as it could've been. I think there's a lot of better movies made involving scantily clad women kicking bad guys' asses, but I've seen much worse movies than this one too,, so,, eh.

[Marjackson82]

Anyone remember one about two barnstormers who sabotage each other in order to try to get the largest audience? I remember seeing it on tv a while ago but don't remember what it's called.

Edit: One of the guys has a yellow bi-plane.

Edited March 16, 2009 by positiveg

[GrndPndr]

"The Pilot" with Cliff Robertson. Upbeat/downbeat <sts> film about a DC8 pilot (hey, it was 1980) who has a drinking problem. Some of the scenarios are a liitle far-fetched, but there's some great photography. Sadly lacking in the sex department, but still enjoyable.

F

[ChkHandleDn]

Anyone remember one about two barnstormers who sabotage each other in order to try to get the largest audience? I remember seeing it on tv a while ago but don't remember what it's called.

Edit: One of the guys has a yellow bi-plane.

Is it "The Great Waldo Pepper?" Or something along those lines?

"Battle of Britain" was good and there was another one about WWII Mosquito pilots, "633 Squadron," that was pretty good too.

Edited March 16, 2009 by lagguer

[brickhistory]

I'm assuming that since this is "lesser known" flying movies is why "Dr. Strangelove" is not mentioned.

Absolute classic, funny, ironic, witty movie.

"2" on "12 o' Clock High," "The War Lover," and "The Battle of Britain."

Another one related to flying but no flying scenes is "The Great Escape." Both the movie and the book by Paul Brickhill are really, really good. True WWII POW mass escape in Germany by Allied flyers.

Steve McQueen on a stolen German motorcycle. Nothing cooler than that...

[war007afa]

The High and the Mighty

John Wayne keeps the crew alive after an engine failure right at the ETP. Classic film in which a copilot actually lays a beech-slap on an AC. A must-see.

[Marjackson82]

Is it "The Great Waldo Pepper?" Or something along those lines?

[Guest rotorhead]

And in SAME DEPARTMENT as Iron Eagle (1 thru 6 or whatever) is FIREBIRDs. "I am the greatest."

[Guest fourtenwedge]

I always liked Strategic Air Command growing up. One-Jimmy Stewart is a great actor. Two-He played for the Cardinals in the movie. Three-Dad is an old SAC guy so i grew up around that life style.

[Guest SpunkDagger]

I remember watching a old flying movie on AMC, no clue what it was though. It was about a major league ball player named Dutch Holland. He joined the military and was a test pilot I believe and flew all the "new bombers" in the era. Anyone have any clue what it may be?

[Vertigo]

I remember watching a old flying movie on AMC, no clue what it was though. It was about a major league ball player named Dutch Holland. He joined the military and was a test pilot I believe and flew all the "new bombers" in the era. Anyone have any clue what it may be?

Strategic Air Command is the movie; stars Jimmy Stewart- same movie fourtenwedge was talking about.

[Spoo]

I thought "Firefox" was pretty good. Clint Eastwood, retired AF pilot, steals top secret Russian fighter while evading the KGB

Watch it again. Try and count the number of times he says, "Let's see what this thing can do." I now hate this movie.

Edited March 18, 2009 by Spoo