John Milius' Vietnam retrospection, coming at the tail end of movies like Platoon, Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now (which Milius co-wrote with Francis Ford Coppola), attempts to shape a sense of disillusionment over the war from within the military, and show that kneejerk anger one feels over all the pointless deaths. It goes far beyond that point, however, and gets itself lost in the jungles. There's an inconsequential trial sequence, an awkward characterization of a gruff superior, a quickly smoothed over romantic subplot, and then a bloodbath of a third act that appears to exist only to fill a bodycount quota.
The embodiment of the aforementioned anger is Jake (Brad Johnson), a fighter pilot whose beliefs are shattered when his best friend and navigator is killed by an anti-air missile during a routine night mission. He's crushed, but allowed no moment to grief by his commander (Danny Glover), who tells him that it's just part of the war and he should get over it. Jake can't get over it, of course. Joined by a new bombardier/navigator back on his fourth tour (Willem Dafoe), who becomes his new bonding bud, Jake plans an air raid of a weapons cache in Hanoi to avenge his old best bud, even though its airspace is off-limits and they could get court martialed for doing so. Along the way, Jake also spends a night with a Navy widow (Rosanna Arquette).
Jake's renegade mission is where the film should have begun and ended, the story of camraderie and inescapable violence overtaking duty and common sense in a senseless, chaotic war. Instead, the movie invites a different kind of senselessness and chaos by continuing on, muddling its own path and wrapping up in a cliched, blundering climax. Milius' command of action is part haphazard, part melodramatic, like John Woo without the grasp of choreography, but it's not without some twinges of excitement here and there, mainly and ironically when these flyboys are out of their planes and fighting with guns and bayonets.
Milius drew determined, but oddly boring and forgettable performances, from the actors. Completing the eclectic quartet of Brad Johnson, Willem Dafoe, Danny Glover and Rosanna Arquette in the lead—none of which are memorable dents in their careers (okay, maybe Brad Johnson's)—are early small roles from faces who'll become more famous later: Tom Sizemore, Ving Rhames, and even a wink-and-miss-it bit with David Schwimmer.
This 1991 film is now released on Blu-ray, perhaps for no good reason, but it doesn't look like they made a lot of effort delivering the goods. The picture is intensely grainy; not in a stylistic way, but in a "no one bothered to clean up this print, huh?" way.
The enigma of Flight of the Intruder is that it has a strong and resonant story about the Vietnam War, but like the war itself, is so distracted and confused by its immediate surroundings that the point is lost and the execution botched beyond repair. The film came not only in the coattails of other Vietnam war movies, but also years after the likes of Top Gun and Iron Eagle, rendering it moot even on the day of its release. Everything about it, dogged as it is, screams derivative.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Surprise, there are none. Quite a waste of Blu-ray space here, actually. Terrible picture and no extras. Maybe there's 2GB of NVAs hiding in that disc.
"Flight of the Intruder" is on sale April 6, 2010 and is rated PG13. Action, War. Directed by John Milius. Written by Stephen Coonts (novel), Robert Dillon and David Shaber (screenplay). Starring Danny Glover, Tom Sizemore, Ving Rhames, Willem Dafoe, Brad Johnson, Rosanna Arquette.
