Jet Pilot

Dr. Stangelove. Fail Safe. The Manchurian Candidate. The Bedford Incident. There. That's four classic films about the Cold War, and that's only four. There's countless others worth mentioning, but it would be overkill to list them all. You know what kind of film hasn't been made about the Cold War? I bet you can't guess. Okay, here goes. It's a romantic comedy! Yeah, it threw me off too, but here we are with the truly odd and often painful 1957 flick, Jet Pilot.

Stationed at a remote airstrip and base somewhere along the west coast (maybe even Alaska), Air Force colonel Jim Shannon (John Wayne) is more than a little surprised when he gets a report that a Russian jet is circling his base. It isn't making an offensive move or showing any aggression, but what could the pilot want? The jet is finally forced to land, but Shannon is in for a bigger surprise. The pilot is a woman, Anna Marladovna (Janet Leigh), and she is a refugee, not a defector as she runs from certain death back in Russia for refusing to oblige an order from a commandant. Under some not so intimidating question, Anna gives up nothing, forcing Shannon to go to his superiors. What do they want him to do? Well, nothing. Anna seems drawn to Shannon so play along with it, see if anything comes from their chemistry....and maybe more. Oh, my!

Last month via Twitter (it's not all bad), I won a new John Wayne biography from author Scott Eyman, John Wayne: The Life and Legend (highly recommended), and raced through it in about a week. A great read, a great window into one of my favorite actors and a true Hollywood legend. I loved catching up with so many movies I hadn't seen in years and also realized there's a fair number of his movies out there I've never seen. Case in point? Jet Pilot from director Josef von Sternberg and apparently quite a few other directors. Why do you ask? A "checkered production" would be a fair description of this flick with backing from the always interesting Howard Hughes. Beginning filming in 1949 and continuing until 1950, it was "filmed" for three or four more years -- depending on the source -- and was caught up in a lawsuit, eventually hitting theaters in 1957. As Eyman points out, some reviewers commented "How young are stars look in this movie!" They should. It was from a different decade.

This is one of the Wayne flicks I had no experience with, and let me tell you, that was probably a really good thing. This one is a stinker, really only worthwhile as a truly dated time capsule of a turbulent time in U.S. history. You'd never think it would be easy to minimize the possibility of a nuclear apocalypse to a romantic comedy of sorts, but 'Jet' manages to do it. The story becomes a love story between Wayne's Shannon and Leigh's Anna, the American officer introducing the Russian pilot to all the great things America has to offer. Oh, steak! Oh, champagne! I'd say for most of an hour the whole Russian defector thing is almost completely ignored as we see Shannon and Anna fall hard for each other -- oh, no, tortured love!!! -- and then eventually getting back to business. It's also laughable to think in the midst of the Cold War the American government and armed forces would allow anything even remotely like this to develop, but I'm probably nit-picking, right? Sure, let the Russian pilot and possible spy fly our newly developed jets!

What's truly odd about this is that general tone, that complete lack of urgency or fear or suspicion. This is a really bizarre movie from the get-go. What's really bizarre is that in a sea of oddness and mediocrity both John Wayne and Janet Leigh are pretty good together. They have a legitimate chemistry...it just so happens to be in a story about a defecting Russian pilot in the Cold War. Late in the story, things become a cat and mouse game back and forth, but their development as a budding relationship works surprisingly well. It's odd that we're even watching this develop, but so be it. Make the best of a bad situation and go with it. Now that said, their chemistry is good but that doesn't always translate or even make the story interesting. I still found myself fast-forwarding a lot as the 45-minute mark came around.

As for the rest of the cast, look for Paul Fix as Wayne's second-in-command, Jay C. Flippen, Richard Rober and John Bishop as the three government/military geniuses who concoct the seduction plan,
with Roland Winters as Anna's commanding officer back in mother Russia. Also look for Denver Pyle in an uncredited part as a young husband traveling with his wife. Lovely Anna lets them stay in their spacious hotel room! Why in Russia, room is so little, but here in America! Yeah, you'd be surprised how many conversations there are like this in a painfully long 112-minute movie.

It's probably best to view this 1957 Cold War flick as a novelty. There is some very cool aerial footage of jets roaring across the sky, but those planes have to land at some point, allowing that dang story to get in the way. Other than that, it's pretty rough. Be forewarned going into this one and don't be surprised. For real. It's awful, and I'll defend just about anything John Wayne was involved with. Okay, Janet Leigh vamps it up some, undressing in quite a few scenes and putting on a fashion show for the Duke in others. So there, it's not all awful. Just most of it.

Jet Pilot (1957): */****

Phantom

Okay, it's official. If you believe the movies (and I do), there is nowhere worse you can serve in any country's military than a submarine. Betrayals, mutinies, drowning, claustrophobic conditions, horrific food, how can you lose? If you're a Russian submariner I suppose. Hunt for Red October, K-19, and now 2013's Phantom, ever so briefly in theaters and another horrific experience for the Russian navy.

A longtime veteran of the Russian navy, submarine captain Demi (Ed Harris) is approached by an old friend and rival to complete one last patrol and mission he knows little to nothing about. Demi will be serving on a sub he commanded in the past, much of his crew assembled for the patrol and the rest filled in with available sailors. At the last minute, he is stopped by two officers and Russian commandos, including Bruni (David Duchovny), who instruct Demi that they must follow their every order. Already wary and quite suspicious of the mission, Demi nonetheless goes along with it...until he finds out their true intention. Then, it's a matter of time to who among his crew will side with him and if they can stop a quickly escalating problem that could result in a global nuclear war between America and Russia.

Now I must have blinked and missed this one, but this based on true events submarine thriller from director Todd Robinson (who also wrote the script) was actually in theaters in early March. Debuting in over 1,000 theaters, it made a whopping $508,000 and was quickly pulled from theaters taking a huge hit against a $18 million budget. I actually thought this was a straight-to-DVD release and was pleasantly surprised to find it wasn't. 'Phantom' has touches of a good movie from the claustrophobic on-sub look of the movie to a worthwhile score from Jeff Rona. The threat of a nuclear missile being fired at America/Russia right in the midst of the Cold War is usually all a good sub thriller would need, but something is missing here. It's unfortunate because the early goings is pretty good.

It's the mystery vs. the knowledge here. The first 45 minutes does a really good job building up the tension and throwing out that sense of mystery out there. Harris' Demi is clearly a tortured individual, suffering from hallucinations and occasional seizures that cripple him out of the blue. What drove him to that point? As for Duchovny and his commando/KGB agent partner (Derek Magyar), what exactly is their mission? What do they hope to achieve? Do we want to know or is it more effective dramatically to not know? For me, the build-up is typically better than the actual reveal. When we don't know and question everything, the mystery makes it better. The revelation here is weak at best and things get more and more convoluted following the reveal. Wasting a strong start, 'Phantom' limps to the finish line.

While it's easy to rip a lot of different things about this flick, the cast is the biggest positive to take away here. Harris is always good no matter the role or quality of the film, and he doesn't disappoint as the tortured Russian sub captain. His explanation for how he ended up where he is -- pawned off in the drecks of the navy -- is a moving, emotional monologue. His Demi decides he's had enough and wants to do the right thing for a change. Duchovny as Bruni is a mixed bag, good when there's mystery, not so good when his intentions are revealed. William Fichtner is excellent in a very strong supporting part as Alex Kozlov, Demi's friend, second-in-command and upcoming replacement. Lance Henriksen even makes a brief appearance as Demi's old friend, now an admiral asking him to undertake this last mission. As for the rest of the crew, look for Johnathon Schaech as Pavlov, the sub's political officer, with Sean Patrick Flanery, Jason Beghe, and Jason Gray-Stanford as key officers for/against completing the "mission."

There's not much more I can say without giving too much away here. When the tension and nerves should be ratcheted up to an almost unbearable level, the story becomes convoluted and distracting. One conversation after another muddles things to the point I wasn't even sure what was going on. The final scenes go for a stylistic choice that I thought bordered on pretentious and artsy. Moral of that story? It is a style choice I thought fell short of its moving intention. A disappointing final review mostly because submarine movies are usually so good. A talented cast is wasted with a story that had potential but derails about halfway through.

Phantom (2013): **/****

K-19: The Widowmaker

A product of the Cold War, a slew of movies about nuclear destruction hit theaters in the 1960s, films like Fail Safe, The Bedford Incident and Dr. Strangelove among others. At the same time in the 1950s and 1960s, war movies following the exploits of submariners were a hot commodity, movies like Up Periscope and Run Silent, Run Deep. An interesting cross-breed of the two separate genres comes 2002's K-19: The Widowmaker, based on a true story.

It's 1961 and the Soviet Union has finished producing its first ballistic missile nuclear submarine, the K-19. Following a disappointing practice drill, the government has brought in Capt. Alexei Vostrikov (Harrison Ford) to replace then-Capt. Mikhail Polenin (Liam Neeson) who will be kept on as an executive officer and second-in-command. The K-19 has been tasked with a dangerous mission; on its first voyage it must surface in the Arctic and fire an unarmed ballistic missile as a test run. Pushing his crew to the limits to make them the strongest, most trustworthy crew possible, Vostrikov tangles some with the friendlier Polenin. The differences are pushed to the side though when the K-19's nuclear reactor breaks down, putting the entire submarine at risk. Should the temperature rise too high, the K-19 would be destroyed in a thermonuclear explosion. Can they fix the issue in time?

From director Kathryn Bigelow, this 2002 drama is based on the true story of the Russian sub K-19, a ship that seemed doom from the very start (earning the nickname 'Hiroshima' from its crew). Reading up about the real-life incident, the story took some liberties with the history but generally sticks pretty close to the facts. It sat in my Netflix queue for quite a few months because I just wasn't psyched to watch it, but it ended up being a welcome surprise. If I have any complaints, it's that at 138 minutes, this is a long movie that takes a little too long to get into rhythm. Never boring, but not exactly exciting either in the early going. Composer Klaus Badelt's score is solid, using familiar Russian themes with some effective, quiet moments full of tension (and trust me, there's a ton of tension late).

That tension gets ratcheted up to a crazy level around the 60-minute mark when the nuclear reactor goes ka-put. It's at that point 'Widowmaker' finds its groove and the drama kicks in. The claustrophobic setting of the possibly doomed submarine adds to that sense of impending doom. The engineers and crew come up with a solution as the reactors' temperature rises dangerously high, an explosion coming up quick. The reactor has to be cooled with thousands of gallons of fresh water but a new piping and welding must be performed in the highly radioactive reactor room. Capt. Vostrikov must send men into the reactor knowing they will be doomed. That's basically the perfect dramatic moment, especially when the second and third crews see what the radioactivity did to the first crew, knowing now what awaits them. If that wasn't enough, the K-19 must also deal with the unexpected arrival of an American destroyer in the area and Russian government suspicion and involvement back in the USSR.

By 2002, Harrison Ford -- Indiana Jones/Han Solo himself -- wasn't taking a whole lot of roles (still isn't unfortunately I suppose). Other than his in-and-out questionable Russian accent, Ford does a fine job as Capt. Vostrikov. He's dealing with suspicions that he received the job because of his wife's political connections and now feels he must prove himself as a capable officer, commander and sailor. In the process, he drives his men to their limits and more. As his counterpart, Neeson is a very capable officer but one who has become a friend to his men too, not just a commander, an issue that comes up as difficulties arise and he must place his men in dangerous situations. Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is pretty faceless, lots of similar-looking men who don't do much to distinguish themselves from the crew. Peter Sarsgaard is solid as Lt. Vadim Radtchinko, the inexperienced reactor officer.

With more of a personal investment in the characters, the drama could have been effective on a far more effective, emotional level. Steve Nicolson, Christian Camargo, and Ravil Isyanov manage to distinguish themselves the most, but when the intensity picks up, it's hard to keep track of people. It's not a deal-breaker because the natural drama of the situation more than carries the movie through. Watching it, it was refreshing to see and appreciate a story that is focused on the human drama coupled with a much bigger possible worldwide effect. Not a whole lot of explosions or violence, just that all-important drama. Not a great story, but a really good one. Well worth checking out.

K-19: The Widowmaker (2002): ***/****