I thought I’d kick off this new monthly feature with one of my all-time favourites: John Badham’s ‘Blue Thunder’ (1983), a film that still has a message for modern day audiences distrustful of state power and the advance of technology, and especially of some of the uses that technology can be put to.
The trailer is available on YouTube:
If you haven’t seen it yet, you’ll note that it ticks a lot of the boxes for an 80’s film; tortured Vietnam vet hero, cocky young sidekick, British villain, shadowy conspiracy by corrupt officials, spectacular (pre-CGI) stunts, including a breathtaking chase sequence through LA and a cat and mouse game with two F16s before the inevitable head to head with the main villian...
One of the most iconic images in the film is in the trailer – it’s the scene where Scheider’s character’s girlfriend, played by Candy Clark, racing to a newspaper office to hand incriminating tapes to a journalist (it’s 1983, it seemed the proper thing to do in those days!) is stopped by police on a bridge over those famous LA drainage culverts, and Murphy rises from below in the stolen chopper to distract the cops and give her a chance to reach the reporter’s office.
It’s been used in many other media – most notably in ‘Firefly’, in the episode ‘The Train Job’ where Mal and his team, having started an ill-judged bar fight, are now backed against a canyon edge, until Wash rises over it to save the day with the bluff of the Serenity’s non-existent cannons.
And most recently in the new dungeon encounter in ‘World of Warcraft’ where your group is backed onto a similar clifftop overlook, facing the forces of the Lich King, and the ‘Skybreaker’ (an Alliance flying ship that bears a suspicious resemblance to Marvel’s S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier) rises from below to save your group's bacon in a neatly scripted part of the encounter.
But it’s without a doubt that the most memorable part of the film, for me, was the theme by Arthur B. Rubinstein. This was back in the day when the music was considered to be just as important as the visuals and the performances.
It’s still available, and here’s the main character theme from YouTube:
10 comments:
Just watched the "Train Job" Firefly episode last night (I have the set on dvd) Typical hatchet job by Fox in not allowing a new series, still the film Serenity was good and filled in a lot of the blanks.
RIP Roy Scheider.
Yes, Julia, it deserves the tag 'cult classic' just by virtue of its fittingly retro, synthesizer-enhanced soundtrack.
Here's the OST:
http://rapidshare.com/files/82012056/Blue_Thunder_OST.rar
Have you seen Escape from New York ('81 I think?)? That too, like many of John Carpenter's films, carries a distinctive score. And like so many of the dystopian (for the 80s - now they seem strangely prescient), post-Apocalypse films of that decade, it's worth watching again for cues as to where Britain will head next. Don't Group 4 and the Wackenhut Corp. already have contracts for the detention and transport of asylum-seekers?
tnx for taking me back to happier times Julia. Just for a moment or two.
"Typical hatchet job by Fox in not allowing a new series..."
Yes, it's a real shame. They always cancel the good shows and renew the dross...
"Have you seen Escape from New York ('81 I think?)? That too, like many of John Carpenter's films, carries a distinctive score."
Yes, it's a great one.
"...it's worth watching again for cues as to where Britain will head next."
Heh! I hadn't seen 'Blue Thunder' for a while, but I came upon the soundtrack - along with many others - when I was doing some tidying, which gave me the idea for this post. It was suerprising how relevant it's 'the government is not your friend' theme was for today...
"tnx for taking me back to happier times Julia. Just for a moment or two."
You're welcome. There'll be another one of these next month.
In the 70's we had honest thugs, football hooligans, strikers and the IRA. They killed and maimed but had a cause, innocent victims were a no no, mostly . Still criminals and terrorists but even if you couldn't support them you felt that if you cause was as important you as thiers was you could be pushed into a corner in the same way. Doesn’t really compare to chavs and suicide bombers.
Politicians like Thatcher, she by the way was the first person to sack me, I was milk monitor at school, was corrupt and wrong but certainly not as self serving, greedy and just a big slut like Ms Robinson who has single headedly derailed the peace process in Ireland.
I remember the last recession and people got on with it like they did in bad weather. So people lost there homes and jobs, they couldn't afford kettle crisps or more than one car per family so we ate fish finger sandwiches and backed beans and enjoyed it, home made yogurt and soda stream almost as cheap as corporation pop. People just don't know their born.
I will mostly be saying 'ye'haa Jesters dead' today, not because Top Gun was a great movie by any standards, simply because it reminds me of a time when tape to tape and blank video tapes were a given. DRM my arse!
Yes, but the important question is -
Could it kick Airwolf's arse?
That's the only question I have left from the 80s (the one about the cybermen and the daleks having been answered, now).
"Yes, but the important question is -
Could it kick Airwolf's arse?"
Oh, there's a blast from the past! And another great TV theme. They don't seem to make TV shows with memorable themes any more, do they?
"I will mostly be saying 'ye'haa Jesters dead' today.."
Aha! That's definitely on the list...
Had this great movie for some time, you can watch it here
Blue Thunder
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