Air Force One DVD
Columbia/Tri-Star Studios
Rated: R
Genre: Action / Adventure
Length: 124 minutes
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Year: (1997)
Britt Gillette's Air Force One DVD Review
One of Harrison Ford's better and least appreciated performances, Air Force One is a thrilling film that makes the most of its action hero star and his unique bond with movie going audiences. In Air Force One, Ford plays the role of President of the United States. In the same way that it's near impossible to envision any other actor in the role of Indiana Jones, it's difficult to envision anyone else as president for this film. Ford projects the image of such a strong, honorable, and likeable leader that the audience is immediately rooting for him.
Originally released in 1997, Ford plays President James Marshall, a Vietnam vet turned president who makes it clear in a stunning speech at a Moscow dinner that America will now pursue a "zero tolerance" policy on international terrorism (sound familiar?). Boarding Air Force One for the return flight home from Moscow, Marshall is joined by his wife Grace (Wendy Crewson) and his daughter Alice (Liesel Matthews). He's also joined by a contingent of Eastern European journalists led by Ivan Korshunov (Gary Oldman).
Unbeknownst to the President and his fellow Air Force One passengers, the group of men aren't journalists at all, but instead an elite team of terrorists bent on taking the president hostage. With a Secret Service agent (Xander Berkeley) collaborating with the terrorists, Korshunov has intimate inside knowledge of the procedures and safeguards deployed to protect the president on Air Force One. When Secret Agent Gibbs (Berkeley) opens the onboard weapons cache of Air Force One, his terrorist friends carry out a methodic plan to eliminate the president's security circle.
At the sound of gunfire, President Marshall is hurriedly raced below deck to an escape pod so as to avoid his capture. With the pod jettisoned, Korshunov is enraged that the original plan failed. But his original goal remains intact, and the terrorist decides that the president's family and the remaining passengers will make do as hostages. Negotiating with the acting Vice President (Glenn Close) in the President's absence, Korshunov demands the release of General Ivan Radek (Jurgen Prochnow), a communist hardliner who Korshunov believes will bring back the Soviet Union and restore the intoxicating glory of its empire years. With a well laid and executed plan, Korshunov's demands are met and arrangements are made to release General Radek. But what Korshunov doesn't know is that President Marshall is still onboard, having jettisoned an empty escape pod, and he's intent on freeing his family and kicking the terrorists off his plane…
Filled with action and some memorable one-liners, Air Force One is a classic Harrison Ford action thriller along the lines of Patriot Games and Clear And Present Danger. In addition, prior to filming Air Force One, the producers were given unprecedented access to the real thing. The result is a film that displays the inner sanctums of Air Force One with stunning accuracy, providing the audience with a glimpse into the actual traveling life of the most powerful man in the world. Overall, this a must-see movie that you won't want to miss…
Britt Gillette
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Posted on 25 January 2005