Post by wdm0744 on Jan 7, 2009 17:33:45 GMT -5
If I could have grown up to be one superhero, it would haven been …. Okay, to be honest, it would have been Batman. When I was six, I even had a detailed plan on how I could turn my dad’s RX-7 into the Batmobile. I had schematics and everything. The RX-7 was, after all, so much cooler than my mom’s Corsica, and it already had a spoiler.
But, if figuring out how to place a jet engine in a Mazda didn’t work out, I had the Rocketeer to fall back on. In that case, all I’d have to do is discover a jet pack developed in a secret lab and rescue a pretty girl from a band of Nazi commandos. Definitely more doable.
Sure, “The Rocketeer” doesn’t get the kind of press that Batman, Superman, or even Daredevil garner, but if you haven’t seen this real gem of a film that inspired my childhood fantasies, then you are missing a golden opportunity to experience an underappreciated, but indisputable, classic.
When Disney released “The Rocketeer” in the summer of 1991, they hoped that the film would launch a new perennial franchise. The movie’s leads were even contracted for further sequels. Unfortunately, despite Disney’s considerable advertising campaign and generally positive reviews, this little engine that couldn’t was completely crushed at the box office (mirroring my own experience in junior high football) by the double-team behemoth body slams of “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”.
Based on Dave Steven’s 1985 graphic novel, “The Rocketeer” features Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell), a young, down-on-his luck stunt pilot trying to make a living in a flying circus in 1938 Los Angeles. Cliff dreams of hitting the big time and treating his best girl and aspiring actress, Jenny (Jennifer Connelly – more on her later), to a fancy night on the town. Things are looking bleak for Cliff when mobsters on the run from G-men cut a swatch of destruction across his local airfield and wreck his shiny new racing plane. To make matters worse, Jenny is becoming enamored with Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton), a swanky, Errol Flynn type with whom she is filming a small scene in an upcoming film.
When Cliff discovers an experimental jet pack designed to let a man “fly without wings”, hidden at the airfield by the gangsters, it seems his ship has finally arrived. With the help of his best friend and ace mechanic Peevy (Alan Arkin), Cliff hopes to use this serendipitous find to make his fortune.
After his first flight, however, he is a hunted man and Jenny’s life is in danger. Suddenly, Cliff is on the run from the FBI, the Mob, and secret Nazi agents, and it is up to him to rescue the girl and save the world.
I can still remember seeing “The Rocketeer” for the first time. I was eight years old and enjoying my summer vacation. My mother was a teacher and usually was off with me in the summers, but for some reason, she had to go into work that day. I wasn’t too happy about having to go with her to the school that morning, but she had promised that if I was good, we could go see “The Rocketeer” that afternoon.
I must have been really good, because after we left the school, she took me to Hardee’s for lunch (this was back when they still had some good stuff on the menu), then to a bike shop to get a new helmet (which for some reason I was really excited about despite the fact that my spiffy helmet ended up earning me quite a bit of teasing around the neighborhood), and then to an afternoon showing of “The Rocketeer”.
I absolutely went nuts over the film. Not only did it have swashbuckling adventure, exciting music, a pretty girl, and an everyman hero in an equally spiffy helmet, but it also featured Nazis as the key villains. I had just learned about World War II in school and I was genuinely surprised and seriously thrilled when the film revealed that the central villain was a secret German spy. Looking back now, the advertising campaign gave this away and the film itself heavily foreshadows in that direction, but at eight, I was way too enamored by a flying hero in a leather jacket and insect-like helmet (I was all about the helmets back in the day) to notice.
As much as I loved the movie, it eventually faded from my memory until I was a senior in high school and I caught it on cable. To my surprise, the film held up extremely well under my more mature and refined sensibilities. In fact, I loved it so much that I went out and bought a VHS copy and watched it almost every week for over a year. Have I mentioned that I’m obsessive?
Putting my neurosis aside for the moment, I think I can objectively say that “The Rocketeer” is genuinely a great film. It may never have achieved the meteoric success it truly deserved, but, as movie, it is nearly pitch-perfect, and it hits almost every note beautifully.
Having only directed “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” before jumping into this high-stakes spectacle, Joe Johnston (considered the poor man’s Spielberg, but a quite good director in his own right) proved that he was more than capable of delivering an efficient and exciting film. The special effects hold up very well, the plot moves briskly, and the narrative and script have just the right kind of pulpy charm, complete with neat little flourishes like an improbably detailed animated Nazi propaganda film and cameos by Clark Gable and W.C. Fields look-a-likes.
I must make special note of the film’s music. I collect film scores and this one is the crown jewel of my collection. This truly is James Horner’s masterpiece. It’s so full of genuine adventure, bright optimism, swashbuckling action, soaring romance, and dark menace that even without the movie to accompany it, the music itself could still convey an enthralling narrative. If you have any interest at all in film music, I highly recommend this score.
The film’s cast is also excellent, and they seem to genuinely enjoy themselves as they embrace the story’s uninhibited nostalgia and unabashed optimism. Timothy Dalton, in particular, is a standout, and seems to relish playing a moustache-curling villain, but Alan Arkin and Terry O’Quinn also exude a warmth and honesty that makes them both entertaining to watch and truly touching as pseudo-father figures to Campbell’s foolhardy, but earnest, young hero.
Campbell himself is effective, if not outstanding as the film’s lead. He’s likeable and charming and has a convincing chemistry with Jennifer Connelly’s magnetic Jenny, who seems to be both as wholesome as apple pie and as mysterious as a primeval forest. Connelly was an inspired choice for the role and her looks seem to fit the time period perfectly.
Actually, words can’t fully express how incredibly beautiful Jennifer Connelly is in this film. Entire epic poems on level with the Iliad would need to be written in order to chronicle her hotness. Seriously, it makes me want to cry.
Why God, why did I have to be born 10 years later and 2,000 miles away? Every time I watch this film, I have to silently chant to myself, “I’m a married spud, I’m a married spud!” In fact, if there was ever a reason to build a time machine out of a DeLorean, it was 20-year old Jennifer Connelly. You could go back to Hollywood in 1990/91 and tell her that you came back from the future just for her. Hopefully, it would play out more like the romance from “The Terminator” and less like one of those stalker/female revenge movies on Lifetime.
Okay, before I dig this hole any deeper (looks like I’m sleeping on the couch tonight), I’d better wrap things up. Let me simply say that, beyond all its technical merits and beyond the draw of its charming nostalgia, “The Rocketeer” has a place in my list of all-time favorite films because, beneath it all, this movie has a good heart. It has a decent soul and it wears its willful cheeriness on its sleeve. This is a film that believes, without a hint of cynicism, that there truly is a difference between good and evil and that good can, and must prevail. This is a film that proudly proclaims that all it takes to be a hero is a little courage and a lot of luck.
That’s a message that spoke to me at a young age, that still speaks to me now, and that I pray, will continue to resonate within me into the future.
But, if figuring out how to place a jet engine in a Mazda didn’t work out, I had the Rocketeer to fall back on. In that case, all I’d have to do is discover a jet pack developed in a secret lab and rescue a pretty girl from a band of Nazi commandos. Definitely more doable.
Sure, “The Rocketeer” doesn’t get the kind of press that Batman, Superman, or even Daredevil garner, but if you haven’t seen this real gem of a film that inspired my childhood fantasies, then you are missing a golden opportunity to experience an underappreciated, but indisputable, classic.
When Disney released “The Rocketeer” in the summer of 1991, they hoped that the film would launch a new perennial franchise. The movie’s leads were even contracted for further sequels. Unfortunately, despite Disney’s considerable advertising campaign and generally positive reviews, this little engine that couldn’t was completely crushed at the box office (mirroring my own experience in junior high football) by the double-team behemoth body slams of “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”.
Based on Dave Steven’s 1985 graphic novel, “The Rocketeer” features Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell), a young, down-on-his luck stunt pilot trying to make a living in a flying circus in 1938 Los Angeles. Cliff dreams of hitting the big time and treating his best girl and aspiring actress, Jenny (Jennifer Connelly – more on her later), to a fancy night on the town. Things are looking bleak for Cliff when mobsters on the run from G-men cut a swatch of destruction across his local airfield and wreck his shiny new racing plane. To make matters worse, Jenny is becoming enamored with Neville Sinclair (Timothy Dalton), a swanky, Errol Flynn type with whom she is filming a small scene in an upcoming film.
When Cliff discovers an experimental jet pack designed to let a man “fly without wings”, hidden at the airfield by the gangsters, it seems his ship has finally arrived. With the help of his best friend and ace mechanic Peevy (Alan Arkin), Cliff hopes to use this serendipitous find to make his fortune.
After his first flight, however, he is a hunted man and Jenny’s life is in danger. Suddenly, Cliff is on the run from the FBI, the Mob, and secret Nazi agents, and it is up to him to rescue the girl and save the world.
I can still remember seeing “The Rocketeer” for the first time. I was eight years old and enjoying my summer vacation. My mother was a teacher and usually was off with me in the summers, but for some reason, she had to go into work that day. I wasn’t too happy about having to go with her to the school that morning, but she had promised that if I was good, we could go see “The Rocketeer” that afternoon.
I must have been really good, because after we left the school, she took me to Hardee’s for lunch (this was back when they still had some good stuff on the menu), then to a bike shop to get a new helmet (which for some reason I was really excited about despite the fact that my spiffy helmet ended up earning me quite a bit of teasing around the neighborhood), and then to an afternoon showing of “The Rocketeer”.
I absolutely went nuts over the film. Not only did it have swashbuckling adventure, exciting music, a pretty girl, and an everyman hero in an equally spiffy helmet, but it also featured Nazis as the key villains. I had just learned about World War II in school and I was genuinely surprised and seriously thrilled when the film revealed that the central villain was a secret German spy. Looking back now, the advertising campaign gave this away and the film itself heavily foreshadows in that direction, but at eight, I was way too enamored by a flying hero in a leather jacket and insect-like helmet (I was all about the helmets back in the day) to notice.
As much as I loved the movie, it eventually faded from my memory until I was a senior in high school and I caught it on cable. To my surprise, the film held up extremely well under my more mature and refined sensibilities. In fact, I loved it so much that I went out and bought a VHS copy and watched it almost every week for over a year. Have I mentioned that I’m obsessive?
Putting my neurosis aside for the moment, I think I can objectively say that “The Rocketeer” is genuinely a great film. It may never have achieved the meteoric success it truly deserved, but, as movie, it is nearly pitch-perfect, and it hits almost every note beautifully.
Having only directed “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” before jumping into this high-stakes spectacle, Joe Johnston (considered the poor man’s Spielberg, but a quite good director in his own right) proved that he was more than capable of delivering an efficient and exciting film. The special effects hold up very well, the plot moves briskly, and the narrative and script have just the right kind of pulpy charm, complete with neat little flourishes like an improbably detailed animated Nazi propaganda film and cameos by Clark Gable and W.C. Fields look-a-likes.
I must make special note of the film’s music. I collect film scores and this one is the crown jewel of my collection. This truly is James Horner’s masterpiece. It’s so full of genuine adventure, bright optimism, swashbuckling action, soaring romance, and dark menace that even without the movie to accompany it, the music itself could still convey an enthralling narrative. If you have any interest at all in film music, I highly recommend this score.
The film’s cast is also excellent, and they seem to genuinely enjoy themselves as they embrace the story’s uninhibited nostalgia and unabashed optimism. Timothy Dalton, in particular, is a standout, and seems to relish playing a moustache-curling villain, but Alan Arkin and Terry O’Quinn also exude a warmth and honesty that makes them both entertaining to watch and truly touching as pseudo-father figures to Campbell’s foolhardy, but earnest, young hero.
Campbell himself is effective, if not outstanding as the film’s lead. He’s likeable and charming and has a convincing chemistry with Jennifer Connelly’s magnetic Jenny, who seems to be both as wholesome as apple pie and as mysterious as a primeval forest. Connelly was an inspired choice for the role and her looks seem to fit the time period perfectly.
Actually, words can’t fully express how incredibly beautiful Jennifer Connelly is in this film. Entire epic poems on level with the Iliad would need to be written in order to chronicle her hotness. Seriously, it makes me want to cry.
Why God, why did I have to be born 10 years later and 2,000 miles away? Every time I watch this film, I have to silently chant to myself, “I’m a married spud, I’m a married spud!” In fact, if there was ever a reason to build a time machine out of a DeLorean, it was 20-year old Jennifer Connelly. You could go back to Hollywood in 1990/91 and tell her that you came back from the future just for her. Hopefully, it would play out more like the romance from “The Terminator” and less like one of those stalker/female revenge movies on Lifetime.
Okay, before I dig this hole any deeper (looks like I’m sleeping on the couch tonight), I’d better wrap things up. Let me simply say that, beyond all its technical merits and beyond the draw of its charming nostalgia, “The Rocketeer” has a place in my list of all-time favorite films because, beneath it all, this movie has a good heart. It has a decent soul and it wears its willful cheeriness on its sleeve. This is a film that believes, without a hint of cynicism, that there truly is a difference between good and evil and that good can, and must prevail. This is a film that proudly proclaims that all it takes to be a hero is a little courage and a lot of luck.
That’s a message that spoke to me at a young age, that still speaks to me now, and that I pray, will continue to resonate within me into the future.
"If I'm going to be desensitized into a mindless stock animal, I may as well do it with a cushy ergonomic seat and magnificent THX-certified sound. -Kevin Murphy
