Not sure what's up with the rights to this 44-year-old movie, but I've been waiting yonks for it be on a streaming service but it never has been (at least not on one to which I subscribe) and so I finally caved and paid the three bucks to rent it (what can I say, watching 'Sneakers' the day before reminded me of 'Wargames' and that reminded me of this).
'Firefox' is an interesting, if pulpy, prospect: a late-period Cold War thriller starring 52-year-old Clint Eastwood as a Vietnam Vet with PTSD who is recalled to service because he can fly planes, speak Russian (kind of), and will probably fit into the flight suit of the Russian pilot of an experimental MiG that has a wiz-bang, neato weapons system (they're 'mind-controlled') and is invisible to radar. The rub is that as he has to steal the plane from an active airbase inside Russia (you get exactly no points for guessing if he succeeds or not).
Anywho, Eastwood, directing himself (weirdly, between two comedies, 'Bronco Billy' & 'Honkytonk Man'), turns in an unusually restrained performance; his Mitchell Gant is clearly damaged, in wildly over his head on the espionage stuff, and kind of confused about everything (at least until the flying which he is, of course, aces at). The film has some award-winning SFX (that, frankly & sadly, does not hold up), a decidedly downbeat tone (at least until the bafflingly abrupt but triumphant ending), and raft of character actors turning in a range of takes, almost none of which are convincingly 'Russian' (the accents, for example, include American English, British English, Boris Badenov-level, cartoon Russian, and a handful of other variations on the theme), while lecturing Gant on topics varying from sacrifice, Judaism, freedom, and aeronautics while he just looks sort of confused.
I know I'm underselling it, and it truly doesn't help that, all this time later, the flying sequences kind of suck, but there is something worthwhile here: namely, the entire sequence from when Gant first arrives in Russia to when he initially gets to the airbase. Critics at the time, I recall, seemed to find this section dull and slow-moving compared to the aerial dogfights, et al of the 50-odd minute concluding set-piece -- looking at the film now (and for me, personally), I wish there was more spying, disguise mustaches, hiding in the trunks of Ladas, and crawling through the grass because that's all were the film actually works best. Gant's disorientation and reticence (partly born of his PTSD and partly of his lack of spy training) is easily the most compelling aspect of the film. It handles the serious people talking about things seriously really well -- toy planes be damned.
In short, the set-up is fine, the heist is pretty good, and I could do without the getaway at all.
Prolly worth mentioning that there is, I think, only one woman on screen in the entire two and a quarter hour runtime and, though she is at least a scientist, she has no dialogue. Sigh.
Not sure what's up with the rights to this 44-year-old movie, but I've been waiting yonks for it be on a streaming service but it never has been (at least not on one to which I subscribe) and so I finally caved and paid the three bucks to rent it (what can I say, watching 'Sneakers' the day before reminded me of 'Wargames' and that reminded me of this).
'Firefox' is an interesting, if pulpy, prospect: a late-period Cold War thriller starring 52-year-old Clint Eastwood as a Vietnam Vet with PTSD who is recalled to service because he can fly planes, speak Russian (kind of), and will probably fit into the flight suit of the Russian pilot of an experimental MiG that has a wiz-bang, neato weapons system (they're 'mind-controlled') and is invisible to radar. The rub is that as he has to steal the plane from an active airbase inside Russia (you get exactly no points for guessing if he succeeds or not).
Anywho, Eastwood, directing himself (weirdly, between two comedies, 'Bronco Billy' & 'Honkytonk Man'), turns in an unusually restrained performance; his Mitchell Gant is clearly damaged, in wildly over his head on the espionage stuff, and kind of confused about everything (at least until the flying which he is, of course, aces at). The film has some award-winning SFX (that, frankly & sadly, does not hold up), a decidedly downbeat tone (at least until the bafflingly abrupt but triumphant ending), and raft of character actors turning in a range of takes, almost none of which are convincingly 'Russian' (the accents, for example, include American English, British English, Boris Badenov-level, cartoon Russian, and a handful of other variations on the theme), while lecturing Gant on topics varying from sacrifice, Judaism, freedom, and aeronautics while he just looks sort of confused.
I know I'm underselling it, and it truly doesn't help that, all this time later, the flying sequences kind of suck, but there is something worthwhile here: namely, the entire sequence from when Gant first arrives in Russia to when he initially gets to the airbase. Critics at the time, I recall, seemed to find this section dull and slow-moving compared to the aerial dogfights, et al of the 50-odd minute concluding set-piece -- looking at the film now (and for me, personally), I wish there was more spying, disguise mustaches, hiding in the trunks of Ladas, and crawling through the grass because that's all were the film actually works best. Gant's disorientation and reticence (partly born of his PTSD and partly of his lack of spy training) is easily the most compelling aspect of the film. It handles the serious people talking about things seriously really well -- toy planes be damned.
In short, the set-up is fine, the heist is pretty good, and I could do without the getaway at all.
Prolly worth mentioning that there is, I think, only one woman on screen in the entire two and a quarter hour runtime and, though she is at least a scientist, she has no dialogue. Sigh.
