Air America Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Air America Blu-ray Movie Review

“So we'll sit back and we'll do what we do best. We fly."

Reviewed by Casey Broadwater December 5, 2009

A few weeks ago, I interviewed a Vietnam War veteran for a magazine article I was writing on, of all things, Civil War reenactors. While our conversation initially circled around his long-time hobby— donning a Union officer’s uniform and educating school kids—the topic unexpectedly turned to the ingloriousness of war. This gentleman was especially miffed because, as part of a unit on active duty in Laos, where, to this day, the government denies ever sending combat troops, the sacrifices made by his fallen comrades have never been publicly commemorated. It's not that he wants recognition; he’s just sickened by the literal business of battle, by the political secrecy and endless spools of red tape. While I can’t vouch for the veracity of all his claims—one of his stories was about a firefight that left eight Russian soldiers dead near the Chinese border—there’s no doubt that some of the more untidy messes of the Vietnam War, and many other wars, have been carefully obscured by bureaucratic fog. For all that Air America wants to look like a simple buddy comedy— which it is—it also carries an astringent anti-war message and seeks to out the CIA for its drug- running operations during American’s most infamously un-winnable war.

A routine flight on Air America...

The real Air America was clandestinely owned and operated by the CIA, who used the airline to run reconnaissance missions, shuttle personnel, and re-supply covert operations in Burma, Cambodia, Thailand, and Laos. It has also been alleged—but never outright admitted or proven— that the airline ferried narcotics for General Vang Pao of the Royal Lao Army, using the proceeds to fund war efforts. There’s still a lot of contention over what may or may not have happened, but the film takes this allegation as fact and uses the hush-hush drug running as its narrative backbone.

It’s 1969, and a fresh-faced Robert Downey, Jr. plays Billy Covington, a former FM radio traffic pilot who loses his license after a low-flying stunt and gets recruited to come join the Air America team in Laos. The pilots are a motley crew of mostly ex-military misfits, and since their operation is off the grid, they receive no pensions and have to cook up their own harebrained “retirement plans.” Pacifist pilot Gene Ryack (Mel Gibson) has a Laotian wife and kids, and his scheme involves buying caches of illegal weaponry off his brother-in-law, with the intent of selling them to the highest bidder. Gene takes Billy under his wing, so to speak, and when they crash their helicopter and get captured by rural warlords with antiquated rifles, Gene finally finds a buyer for his massive armory. Meanwhile, overly enthusiastic Senator Davenport (Lane Smith) arrives on a “fact-finding mission,” keen to root out covert drug runners. In response, Air America’s CIA honcho Major Lemond (Ken Jenkins)—who is in cahoots with heroin kingpin General Soong (Burt Kwouk)—needs to find a scapegoat to take the suspicious off himself. And what better fall guy than the new guy? Billy’s smart enough to sniff out the two kilos of heroin that were planted on his plane, but when a distress call comes in from a humanitarian aid worker (Nancy Travis), his buddy Gene is faced with a moral dilemma: make one last gun run to secure his family’s nest egg, or rescue a few dozen refugees who might get gunned down by General Soong’s paramilitary thugs?

The film was billed as a Vietnam War buddy comedy, and no one thought it would make such aggressive indictments against the U.S. government. But this wasn’t the only disappointment awaiting moviegoers who were expecting the early 1990s equivalent of Tropic Thunder. Fresh off of Lethal Weapon, Mel Gibson was an iconic kicker of terrorist ass, and few approved of the half-hearted Buddhist that he plays in Air America. Still, his portrayal of Gene carries that gentle manly swagger that we expect of Gibson, that old Hollywood masculinity that made him—until his recent run-ins with the law and, well, the Jews—a latter-day Gary Cooper or Cary Grant. Robert Downey, Jr. is clearly basking in Gibson’s glow here, but he definitely shows nascent signs of his later genius, most apparently in the improv-jazz-speak of his line readings. Collectively, Gene and Billy are the equivalent of Catch-22’s paranoid pilot Yosarrian. Billy is simply incredulous about all of the military mayhem surrounding him, while Gene embraces it with a kind of crazed glee. (“Here at Air America,” he says, “what’s considered psychotic behavior anywhere else is company policy.”) Together, Gibson and Downey’s flyboy camaraderie is one of the film’s few charms.

Because really, Air America is no Catch-22 or M*A*S*H—the films it most aspires to be—both of which were released in 1969 and served as scathing contemporary reactions to Vietnam, even though one film was about WWII, and the other about the Korean War. In Air America, the satire is too directly pointed, too on-the-nose. And, obviously— in 1990—less timely. I appreciate that the filmmakers had the balls to take the CIA to task, but the film lacks real satiric finesse, mostly because it feels the burden of also being a big-budget crowd-pleaser. Thus, the surrounding characters—so essential to Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H—are insufficiently developed, and basically relegated to mere plot prodding, spurring on the action. And how often does action, divorced from meaningful characters and situations, ever truly impress by itself without feeling empty? There are some dizzying aerial theatrics here, and some impressive set pieces—I’m glad they shot in Thailand—but as an action film, Air America is merely passable, a diversion perhaps worthy of your two hours but not much more.

Air America Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Air America takes to the wild, Blu-ray yonder with a bright and colorful 1080p/AVC- encoded transfer, framed in the film's original 2.39:1 aspect ratio. There's just something about the quality of the image here—the film stock used, the colors, the cinematography—that smacks of late 1980s, big-budget action flicks, which is exactly what Air America is. That the film was shot in Thailand certainly adds some color, from the lush and verdant jungle foliage to the multi-hued attire worn by the locals. The encompassing color scheme is realistic but saturated, with deep primaries—especially reds—and warm but never ruddy skin tones. Between weighty black levels and pleasingly tight contrast, the image has a nice sense of presence. I was particularly impressed by the depth during the scene in the rain, where Billy and Gene are captured by the "hillbilly" militiamen. Of course, all this is aided by a well-resolved image that rarely lacks in clarity. Fine detail and texture is easily apparent—see the individual nubs on Robert Downey, Jr.'s terrycloth robe, or even the occasional patches of acne on his forehead—and there are no signs of DNR smearing or out-of-control edge enhancement. The film's grain structure is very fine, and only fluctuates during the darker scenes, like the shot inside the Buddhist temple. The print too is super clean, and I only spotted one or two white flecks throughout the whole movie. Fans of the film should be pleased with this transfer.

Air America Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Lionsgate doles out another of its characteristic DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 surround tracks, and while Air America's sound design isn't as raucous and accurate as what you might hear in a similar film today, few will be disappointed by this mix. As expected of a 7.1 track, Air America offers near constant engagement by the surround speakers, even if it's just for ambience, like Laotian city sounds, crickets in the jungle, or rain beating down all around. There are a number of instances of cross-channel panning, most of them—obviously—related to the swooping, speeding, banking, and crashing aircraft featured in the film. The effects—both the movements and the sounds themselves—can be a little stocky at times, but the film is definitely more immersive than I had expected. On the dynamic front, the film is deep and fairly detailed, serving up some occasional LFE rumble, though the two or three explosions in the film didn't seem as big through my speakers as they looked on screen. With all the aerial action, dialogue can seem somewhat low amid the buzzing of propellers and the ack-ack of flak fire, but I didn't have any real trouble understanding what was being said. While the film tosses in some expected late-1960s tunes, the rest of the score is woefully anachronistic, sounding like throwaway tracks from some unsuccessful 1980s sit-com, complete with squealing guitar solos.

Air America Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Audio Commentary with Co-Writer/Producer John Eskow
Eskow gives a laconic but insightful track, detailing some of the logical nightmares inherent in the production, and giving his own opinions on the CIA's involvement in Laos and Cambodia. He's full of stories and bits of trivia—the prostitutes in the film were real prozzies—and he's got something nice to say about everyone involved. A decent track, overall.

Return Flight: Revisiting Air America (SD, 22:03)
Part retrospective, part making-of documentary, and part history lesson, Return Flight features interviews with director Roger Spottiswoode, writer/co-producer John Eskow, and several of the actors in the film—although Downey and Gibson expectedly don't deign to make an appearance. While the cast and crew have a lot of fun stories to tell, the most interesting bit is the historical look at the actual Air America company. Historian William M. Leary and writer Martin Lee vehemently disagree with one another—Leary thinks Air America had no involvement with the drug trade and Lee says they certainly did. John Eskow even credits the film with forcing the CIA to acknowledge their complicity—if not direct involvement—in the south east Asian drug trade. Well worth a watch.

Flight Log (SD, 3:53)
This brief vintage EPK featurette meshes clips from the film with interviews from the stars and producers.

Pre-Flight: The Storyboards of Air America (SD, 5:17)
Here, clips from the film play at the top of the screen while storyboards run in comparison on the bottom.

Theatrical Trailer (SD, 1:31)

Also From Lionsgate (1080p, 2:35)

Air America Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

While not nearly as effective as other war satires, Air America is at least a moderately entertaining buddy comedy that pairs Mel Gibson's all-smiles charisma with the boundless energy of then-young Robert Downey, Jr. The film gets a satisfying treatment on Blu-ray—sporting a lossless 7.1 audio track and excellent picture quality—so if you're a fan of the film, you'll definitely be pleased here. If you're a late 80s, early 90s action buff, I can see this being a worthy addition to your collection, but for all others, I'd suggest a rental first.