07/05/10 - Air Force One

Air Force One (1997, 124 min)
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118571/

I wanted to really check this out yesterday but I was just too exhausted and so I decided to check it out one day late. I had seen enough of this movie on television to know the twists and that but I didn't ever recall ever seeing the entire uncensored and unedited movie.

The film follows President James Marshall (Harrison Ford) as he flies back from a meeting in Russia. On his way back Air Force One is hijacked by a terrorist group led by Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman) who want Marshall to release the recently captured dictator General Ivan Radek (Jürgen Prochnow). On the ground, the negotiations are done with Vice President Kathryn Bennett (Glenn Close). Other important roles are: First Lady Grace Marshall (Wendy Crewson) and daughter Alice Marshall (Liesel Matthews); Chief of Staff Lloyd "Shep" Shepherd (Paul Guilfoyle); Secret Service Agent Gibbs (Xander Berkeley); and Major Caldwell (William H. Macy).

I'm torn when I try and rate Air Force One. It does a lot right but a lot of what it does also just doesn't work. Because of this, I'll just break these notes into two sections.

First, Air Force One works on creating cool characters and some tense moments. Obviously, the acting here is led by Ford and Oldman as protagonist and antagonist respectively. Both are phenomenal in their roles. Ford, however, is typecast in this role (especially back in 1997) and so it wasn't as great to me. Oldman overacts in every single film I've seen him in and every time he makes it so that it fits his character. The same is true this time as he comes off as just the kind of fanatical zealot that would hijack Air Force One. Next, the tense moments are frequent in the film and most of the time they work. The best parts are especially when Marshall is still in hiding and no one really knows where he is. Similarly, when he gets his phone call through to the Vice President there is a great feeling of satisfaction as we prepare for his (no doubt) eventual triumph.

On the other end of the spectrum, Air Force One does quite a few things wrong. The worst thing to me is the setting. While an airplane typically provides for a very cramped atmosphere and seems like it would make a terrorist attack all the more terrifying, when that airplane turns out to be Air Force One there's not as much of a claustrophobic feeling. The tension is still there in its own way, but basically the plane breaks down into three sections: the cargo area underneath where the luggage is, the main corridors, and the hostage room. There's also the pilot area but it doesn't come into play enough. Anyway, with these three large areas it manages to spread the action out enough to where there isn't really a cramped feeling. Had this been present though, I feel the movie would have had a better atmosphere. Next, another flaw with Air Force One is that it suffers from what I call Armageddon Syndrome which means that everything that could go wrong does go wrong. I mean, near the end we have this unresolved plot point with the rogue Secret Service Agent Gibbs that we know will have some last second action. Other stuff goes wrong in just about the worst way as possible as well. This movie technique works sometimes but not often and it fails here. And finally, my last complaint with Air Force One is that it is pretty predictable at times. Some of this stems from my above comments. It's just that while the tension was there, I still kind of knew in the back of my mind what was going to happen in the scene.

Overall, I gave this film a 5/10. Air Force One is fun, sure, but it has quite a few flaws to bring down its positives. It results in what turns out to be just an average action flick.