Firefox

The only improvement would be if they redid the special effects. It is a good adaptation of the book.

great clint eastwood movie

As a child, I was impressed by this movie's setting--the gritty, greasy depiction of the gritty, greasy life in the Soviet Union's proletariat interior--and the mesmerizing special effects that brought the MiG-31 to life. As an adult, all of this came back to me, with the added awareness of setting, conflict, and dark penumbras.This is a dark film. So many people die in this movie: the first contact Pavel Upenskoy, the Jew scientists, the Soviet Pilot of the second prototype. Once again, setting is key: this mission is dangerous, death is probable, and failure more than likely. This contrasts with the gala James Bonds movies which (at times) can be life action cartoons, and is a precursor to the high-tension, high-body counts in "24."The special effects, thought dated, still hold up. Though they are not as sophisticated 2005's film "Stealth" or the opening scenes of "Revenge of the Sith," I could "piece out imperfections with my thoughts . . . And make imaginary puissance." I'm one of these people who still thrills when Buster Crabbe hops into his obviously model spaceship and blast off form Mongo. Good storytelling can overcome bad special effects, as shown by "Ghostbusters."Additionally, this film exemplifies how a book can be faithfully adapted to screen, without damaging the story or the theatrical presentation. Of course, some of the credit goes to the way Craig Thomas wrote the book. It is minimalist character study of Mitchell Gant's psychodrama within the grim Soviet Union. When Gant sweated, my palms became damp.Yes, this film is a bit long, but like in "2001," I think the length added to the setting. The only thing that really could be cut is the bickering of the Soviet Air Marshals and the Premiere. However, that would detract form the setting aspect of the story. We see the hoary heads bang heads as they fumble with the hot potato that Gant has lobbed at them. Picture a cross between the Sith Lords and the Three Stooges, and you capture the tragicomic aspect of this psychothriller.So, in the light of the Velvet Revolution, is this film relevant? I think so. In 1970, we had a double dose of military nostalgia--"Patton" and "MASH." In the midst of Vietnam, what did Korea or WWII have to do with anything? In part, it has to do with the common elements of war, warfare, and the warriors. C. S. Lewis spoke of a thought he had while in the service: "This is what Homer wrote about. This is War."Similarly, in order to defend life, liberty, and property, (the purpose of the military), we need to inculcate the warriors about the virtue and value of what they are doing. Lewis again has important insight on this issue:"Those who say that children [or even grownups] must not be frightened may mean two things. They may mean (1) that we must not do anything likely to give the child those haunting, disabling, pathological fears against which ordinary courage is helpless: in fact, phobias. His mind must, if possible, be kept clear of things he can't bear to think of. Or they may mean (2) that we must try to keep out of his mind the knowledge that he is born into a world of death, violence, wounds, adventure, heroism and cowardice, good and evil.""If they mean the first I agree with them: but not if they mean the second. The second would indeed be to give children a false impression and feed them on escapism in the bad sense. There is something ludicrous in the idea of so educating a generation which is born to the . . . atomic bomb. Since it is so likely that they will meet cruel enemies, let them at least have heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise you are making their destiny not brighter but darker."Courage is one of the values that this film portrays, not just with accepting the mission, but most epically as Gant deals with his own personal ghosts of Vietnam. In this sense, "Firefox" is about redemption: Gant, unable to save one Vietnamese girl, is able to save millions of lives by stealing the Firefox and to restore a balance of power between the two nations.The other part has to do with aesthetics: this is a roping good spy and techno-thriller, and when we are done, we recognize that we have seen a marvelous tale told well. And that is the hallmark of any good story.

This is a pretty good movie with most of the flying action in the last one-third of the movie. I believe that a lot of this movie is actually a social commentary showing the plight of Jews living in Russia. The point of the movie is not necessarily the theft of a military aircraft, but to show the complete and conscienceless brutality with which Russian Jews are treated. Russian Jews are very likely still treated badly by the Russian government today, so perhaps there is a timeless commentary about this film that still rings true.Let's look at Mitchell Gant as a commissioned officer. He doesn't seem to be a good tactician even if he is a great pilot. He can fly, but he has difficulties ensuring his own safe escape with the stolen aircraft. He easily could have circled back to the air field where he took off from, and fired a missile into the hangar, damaging or destroying the second aircraft and killing many or all of the Generals who had the tools to defeat him. Not to mention wounding or killing the First Secretary. But he doesn't do this. He should have, in order to secure his own escape, but he doesn't. Perhaps Gant does not have the killing blood in him. I can understand and sympathize with that. But now we quickly see that Gant is not a good strategist. He just flies off in the blue sky, leaving his opponents alive.The best character in the entire movie is General Vladimirov. Here is a man able to correctly figure out what Gant is doing, what his intentions are, and what the options are for defeating Gant. It is fascinating to watch Vladimirov deploy his forces as he attempts to destroy the stolen aircraft. He does this even with the First Secretary shouting abuse at him. He very nearly succeeds. If he could have vectored the second aircraft, piloted by Voskov, to Gant's refueling point soon enough, the outcome might have changed in his favor. Mostly because Gant was too timid to see to the destruction of the second aircraft in the hangar, when he had the chance and there was nothing to stop him.The ending of this movie is correct for a movie that is intended to be a social statement on the plight of Jews in Russia. This movie is overall less of an action/adventure movie than it is a social and political statement about the terrible future for Jews living in Russia, I hope that the lives of these people are better today, after the Cold War, but I fear not.

Fun afternoon we live on my childhood I remember seeing this at the drive-in.

I have been after Firefox for a while - it's a film I remember fondly from my childhood. Watching it again, I wasn't disappointed! Some negative comments from other reviewers regarding the lack of action in the 1st half of the film - it's really a cold war espionage thriller, that happens to have some fantastic flying sequences.The politics may seem somewhat dated now (this dates the film more than anything else), but doesn't retract at all from it. The (pre-CGI, thank god) flying action sequences towards the end are fantastic - excellent work from John Dykstra (who also did the effects on 'Star Wars')!I've read the Craig Thomas books with Clint Eastwood's character 'Mitchel Gant', it's just a shame that the film wasn't a great commercial success (unjustly, in my opinion), as I would have loved to see 'Firefox Down' (the sequel) as a movie too - there was a later Mitchell Gant book too (unrelated to Firefox), but the title escapes me...Firefox is very close to the book, which is always good - normally, I'm not a fan of films made from books that I have enjoyed.It looks excellent on Blu Ray too!

This review is based solely on the Blu Ray disc and its contents and not the movie.Movie is superb, which is why I would give it 5*, but this edition is missing key scenes that are in the regular DVD edition! For example, the scene where Gant is in the flight simulator and Colonel Kontorsky is being reprimanded by the 1st Secretary. There is however, a new scene with the lead scientist and his colleague in the cockpit of the Firefox (nothing amazing with this 5 sec scene, just one that I've never seen before on TV or the DVD version).Some (very few) of the close up scenes are crystal clear in Blu Ray, but to be honest, the DVD version is just as good, if not better in most places with the rest of the movie.Would have liked to have seen interviews with more of the cast, especially the exceptional British contingent in this film. Freddie Jones (RIP-died 9th July 2019) is superb!

The PQ of this international theatrical edition is the best home entertainment version I have seen thus far.I say international version as we in the UK had a slightly shorter version (125 mins NTSC) due to the policy in 1982 that films should be no longer than 2 hours so cinemas can have x many showings in a day.The US theatrical version is 11 minutes longer and has some key scenes that should never have been removed from any prints. This version is available as a double disc Blu ray with Heartbreak Ridge.The packaging has english text on the front and spine and German text on the back. The menu is a standard Warner menu with english only text. Very english friendly.This is the only version we have ever seen on home video be it VHS rental/retail/DVD and now Blu ray and if you are familiar with the film it is exactly as you remember only much better quality picture and sound.I would give it a 4/5 and for under £10 is well worth replacing your DVD.

I'm not sure whether Firefox is really a guilty pleasure or simply a film I remember as being one. It's certainly overlong and overfamiliar despite its neat Maguffin - Clint Eastwood's flashback-plagued Vietnam vet fighter ace has to steal a state-of-the-art warplane with a thought-controlled weapons system (as long as you remember to think in Russian) from the heart of the Evil Empire - but it has a sort of undemanding Cold War charm that the constant stream of clichés only reinforces. Even the old school model effects in the final chase-and-dogfight section are more fun in their way than modern CGI effects, especially when the Firefox is leaving a wall of water in its wake as it races across the sea or causing fallen snow to fill the air as it passes over the mountains, so it's a shame that much of the last third is played in darkened control rooms rather than the skies.The Russians, naturally, are mostly played by British actors, albeit in this case actors best known for their sitcoms, which adds a different dimension to their scenes as comically humourless KGB types or lemming-like dissidents only too happy to die for the cause, or incorrigible hams like Freddie Jones who simply look like they SHOULD be in a sitcom. There's even an almost admirable perversity into giving most of the explanatory dialogue in the last half-hour to Klaus Löwitsch, an actor with a shaky grasp of spoken English who sounds like a bumblebee caught in a vacuum cleaner pipe. Not good by any means, but strangely watchable, and Maurice Jarre contributes an enjoyable score from the days before he disappeared entirely into atonal electronics.Whereas the Region 1 NTSC DVD is the uncut theatrical version before Clint re-edited and trimmed the film by some 12 minutes without visibly improving it for video release, sadly the European PAL DVD is the shorter cut version. Boasting a decent 2.35:1 widescreen transfer, both versions also includes a 29-minute British behind the scenes documentary and the theatrical trailer.Sadly the Blu-ray release mirrors the DVD release - the US version (available in a double-bill with Heartbreak Ridge -  Heartbreak Ridge & Firefox [Blu-ray] [US Import ]) is the uncut theatricl version but once again the rest of the world gets the cut version that Clint re-edited and trimmed the film by some 12 minutes without visibly improving it for video release, though both have the same extras (29-minute British behind the scenes documentary and the theatrical trailer). Eastwood the director has always had a penchant for pushing up the darkness in the cinematography, which was a problem even when seen on a 70ft screen in a darkened room but is something of a nightmare on home video. While not as bad as The Rookie, parts of which are almost invisible in the sea of black ink onscreen, the night scenes are a problem even on Blu-ray, with detail lost in the dark and the transfer not really able to do much to compensate. It's certainly an improvement on the DVD but it's still a hugely inconsisten transfer that's definitely at its best in the daylight scenes. Heartbreak Ridge & Firefox [Blu-ray] [US Import

Great Clinton Eastwood movie with edge of the seat none stop action all the way.