I haven't seen this fucking movie since I was a youngun. And damn if it's not good, at least as far as I'm concerned. Billy Campbell is phenomenal in this role. Watching The Rocketeer, I get the feeling that he could have been one of the all-time greats if it weren't for the god-awful taste of 1991 audiences. He's got a handsome face etched with exhaustion and worry, and the lighting often cuts these deep shadows across his features. Timothy Dalton is also amazing as the villain here, a movie star admired by Cliff's girlfriend, who is of course herself played by Jennifer Connelly. Did I mention that Margo Martindale is in this movie? The script is good, the performances are good to great, the melodrama and action are incredible, everything is lit perfectly, the cinematography is good, the jokes are great, the god-damn sets are great. There is a phenomenal sense of artifice in Sinclair's scenes, always opposed to the earnestness of Cliff, a good man with a job that's not working out even a little bit now that a gangster has shot up his plane. And when it comes to action and spectacle, in many ways this film is years ahead of the curve, despite generally noticeable use of green screen.
I forgot to mention Tiny Ron Taylor, the guy whose presence in this film as Lothar looks halfway like a proof of concept for what they did in Sin City, a performance built entirely on prosthetics and sheer physical presence, and one of the most picture-perfect pieces of pulp comic spirit you could ever hope to see in a film. His first scene is a particular joy. Exactly the sort of guy I'd love to write, to be honest. Alright, I might be overselling it all a bit, but how the hell could somebody have a bad time with this fucking movie?
Some of my favorite scenes are those shared between Connelly and Dalton, how he approaches her giddily, realizing she's his way to getting the rocket, and she interprets his enthusiasm as legitimate interest. Later on, when they go on their date, he constantly overwhelms her with artifice, staging carefully crafted scenes to show how important and beloved and romantic he is. Fascinatingly, Jenny also responds with artifice of her own, first lying to meet with Cliff, then afterwards pretending to sleep so that he feels like he's in full control of the situation before turning it around on him. Jenny's savvy as hell, which is part of why she treats Cliff like a bum when he's being a bum, and why she's able to get one over on Sinclair for just a moment.
It's not hard to see why Johnston would be brought on for the excellent first MCU Captain America, considering what the cast and crew accomplishes here. In some ways the two characters have very similar DNA, with Cliff Secord being created as an inheritor of the pulp hero legacy. Between the two of them, I think they touch on most of the things that are really interesting about this particular brand of pulp hero. Maybe it's just my complete and violent lack of recency bias, but I think that, despite being less technically advanced, this film's visuals are significantly more compelling than those of The First Avenger.
I ought to rewatch the rest of the pulp hero movies from the 80s and 90s, now that I think of it...
phenomenal double entendre: "The son of a bitch will fly!"
I haven't seen this fucking movie since I was a youngun. And damn if it's not good, at least as far as I'm concerned. Billy Campbell is phenomenal in this role. Watching The Rocketeer, I get the feeling that he could have been one of the all-time greats if it weren't for the god-awful taste of 1991 audiences. He's got a handsome face etched with exhaustion and worry, and the lighting often cuts these deep shadows across his features. Timothy Dalton is also amazing as the villain here, a movie star admired by Cliff's girlfriend, who is of course herself played by Jennifer Connelly. Did I mention that Margo Martindale is in this movie? The script is good, the performances are good to great, the melodrama and action are incredible, everything is lit perfectly, the cinematography is good, the jokes are great, the god-damn sets are great. There is a phenomenal sense of artifice in Sinclair's scenes, always opposed to the earnestness of Cliff, a good man with a job that's not working out even a little bit now that a gangster has shot up his plane. And when it comes to action and spectacle, in many ways this film is years ahead of the curve, despite generally noticeable use of green screen.
I forgot to mention Tiny Ron Taylor, the guy whose presence in this film as Lothar looks halfway like a proof of concept for what they did in Sin City, a performance built entirely on prosthetics and sheer physical presence, and one of the most picture-perfect pieces of pulp comic spirit you could ever hope to see in a film. His first scene is a particular joy. Exactly the sort of guy I'd love to write, to be honest. Alright, I might be overselling it all a bit, but how the hell could somebody have a bad time with this fucking movie?
Some of my favorite scenes are those shared between Connelly and Dalton, how he approaches her giddily, realizing she's his way to getting the rocket, and she interprets his enthusiasm as legitimate interest. Later on, when they go on their date, he constantly overwhelms her with artifice, staging carefully crafted scenes to show how important and beloved and romantic he is. Fascinatingly, Jenny also responds with artifice of her own, first lying to meet with Cliff, then afterwards pretending to sleep so that he feels like he's in full control of the situation before turning it around on him. Jenny's savvy as hell, which is part of why she treats Cliff like a bum when he's being a bum, and why she's able to get one over on Sinclair for just a moment.
It's not hard to see why Johnston would be brought on for the excellent first MCU Captain America, considering what the cast and crew accomplishes here. In some ways the two characters have very similar DNA, with Cliff Secord being created as an inheritor of the pulp hero legacy. Between the two of them, I think they touch on most of the things that are really interesting about this particular brand of pulp hero. Maybe it's just my complete and violent lack of recency bias, but I think that, despite being less technically advanced, this film's visuals are significantly more compelling than those of The First Avenger.
I ought to rewatch the rest of the pulp hero movies from the 80s and 90s, now that I think of it...
phenomenal double entendre: "The son of a bitch will fly!"
