Aviation Movie Reviews

These are some aviation-themed movies and DVDs. Click a title for Amazon's page for that movie. Movies are listed in random order for your browsing enjoyment. More reviews are coming.

Pushing Tin (1999, Twentieth Century Fox, rated R): You land a million planes safely, then you have one little mid-air and you never hear the end of it.

The life of New York City air traffic controller Nick Falzone (John Cusack) is stressful enough until super controller Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton) arrives. Nick gets a little too close to Russell's wife Mary (Angelina Jolie, who met future ex-hubby Thornton on the set of this film) and hijinks ensue. A number of scenes show the controllers at work, although real controllers no doubt spend much more time looking at their screens than the characters in this movie. Watch for the scenes that show how Russell has a special fondness for wake turbulence.

3.5 out of 5

Fly Away Home (1996, Columbia/TriStar, rated PG): Thirteen-year-old Amy (Anna Paquin) is reunited with her father Tom (Jeff Daniels) in Canada after her mother's death. One day she discovers a nest of abandoned gooose eggs and starts to raise the birds when they hatch. The hatchlings need to migrate south for the winter, but have no adult birds to guide them. Luckily Tom is mechanically skilled and loves to tinker with things like gliders. Father and daughter train the birds to follow them in ultralights, and lead their winter migration, breaking more aviation rules and regulations than I could count.

This is a great family movie (except for a bit of language) for those who like nature, animals, or girl power. It's one of the few films with a direct reference to the Bernoulli principle. The flying scenes really make you feel like you're along for the ride. Two wings up.

DVD extras: director and cinematographer's commentary track, isolated score/composer commentary track, documentaries, trailer. Operation Migration (17 min) explains some real-life experiments in teaching birds to migrate, especially endangered species. The film was loosely based on this research. The Ultra Geeese is a 49-minute documentary on the same subject. It has some interesting closeup footage of birds in flight, shot from the side or above, angles I had never seen before. It also goes into more detail about training the birds to fly with the aircraft. Also included is the HBO special Leading the Flock, about the making of the movie.

4 out of 5

The Amazing Howard Hughes (1977, Anchor Bay, not rated): Tommy Lee Jones, in one of his first starring roles, plays eccentric billionaire/aviator/moviemaker Hughes in this abridged version of a TV miniseries released a year after Hughes died. (I haven't seen the original, which is not available on video, so I'm reviewing this version as presented on DVD.)

The movie covers the span of Hughes' lifetime, from early scenes of his youth right through his end as the world's most famous hermit and germophobe. The story jumps around between Hughes' adventures in aviation, film, and other businesses. These intertwine in a segment showing the making of Hell's Angels a movie set in World War I, directed by Hughes and finally released in 1930. Hughes can't get any of his pilots to perform a dangerous scene close to the ground, so he does it himself with disastrous results.

Several famous actresses such as Jean Harlow, Katherine Hepburn, and Jane Russell, who had dealings with Hughes, are portrayed here. The film was based on the 1972 book Howard: The Amazing Mr. Hughes, by Noah Dietrich, one of Hughes' top assistants, who is played by Ed Flanders. (Not the guy from The Simpsons.)

Among the other flying scenes is Hughes testing the Spruce Goose, the famously impractical eight-engine wooden airplane with a 320-foot wingspan that barely flew. Also depicted are Hughes and his crew making one of the first around-the-world flights and his exploits running a major airline.

Also on the disc are an old Spruce Goose newsreel, narrated by Mike Wallace, showing the real Hughes in the airplane, and a Tommy Lee Jones bio.

3.5 out of 5

Always (1989, Universal, rated PG): Pete (Richard Dreyfuss) is a firefighting pilot in the West who promises his girlfriend Dorinda (Holly Hunter) that he'll give up his dangerous job. Before he can do so, he is killed trying to rescue their friend Al (John Goodman). Pete then finds himself talking to an angel (Audrey Hepburn, in her final role). He is assigned a new mission- to become a guardian angel to an up-and-coming pilot, Ted (Brad Johnson).

Steven Spielberg directed this film, which is based on the 1943 Spencer Tracy movie A Guy Named Joe (not available on DVD). Aviation buffs will enjoy numerous flying sequences showing the Forest Service pilots in action as well as around the airport. Although the story is set in the present day, Spielberg used many World War II era airplanes to give the film a sense of timelessness which suits the story fine. The second half of the movie may remind audiences of the Patrick Swayze tearjerker Ghost, released a year later, as we see the deceased Pete in scenes with his friends, who cannot see him, yet interact with him in unusual ways.

This is one of the more underrated Spielberg movies. For a nice mix of flying scenes, adventure, romance, and emotional impact, I give it 4.5 out of 5.