FAVORITE aviation movie of all time?

[Victor Bravo]

Not that bounder Sir Percy !

[MNWORD]

Definitely THE HIGH and the MIGHTY, STRATEGIC AIR COMMAND, but a couple of my favorites: The original AIRPORT, and who could forget AIRPLANE!

[Baron von Tor]

Lots of good choices here, Blue Max and Waldo Pepper are personal favorites. I'd like to recommend a little known (and underrated) film - High Road to China with Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong. Kind of a romantic adventure thing, but prominently featuring a couple Stampe SV-4's dressed up like WW1 flavored machines. The flying was done by David Perrin and Eric Muller, and there's plenty featuring the dirty side up all the way to the final credits.

[Baron von Tor]

Island in the Sky gets watched whenever it's on TCM around here too.

[rwanttaja]

Lots of good choices here, Blue Max and Waldo Pepper are personal favorites. I'd like to recommend a little known (and underrated) film - High Road to China with Tom Selleck and Bess Armstrong. Kind of a romantic adventure thing, but prominently featuring a couple Stampe SV-4's dressed up like WW1 flavored machines. The flying was done by David Perrin and Eric Muller, and there's plenty featuring the dirty side up all the way to the final credits.

The interesting thing about "High Road to China" is that the filmmakers commissioned several Bristol fighters for use in the movie, and planned close-ups of the actors in flight. Then the insurance companies refused to allow the actors to fly in an Experimental aircraft, and they used the Stampes. One Bristol was used in the Charles Bronson film "Death Hunt" (which was actually released before High Road to China).

One must combine three scales to judge an aviation movie:

1. Quality of the overall plot/acting
2. Amount aircraft operations are integrated to the story
3. Accuracy of the aviation details

Many movies we've mentioned, #2 actually rates quite low, compared to the other categories. I mentioned "Soldier of Orange", for instance...the parts with the main character flying Mosquitos are actually quite limited. But the quality of the plot still makes it a good movie. "The Purple Plain" is another example, again with Mossies.

"The Blue Max," for instance, rates high in all three categories, except, perhaps, the use of some non-accurate aircraft would scale #3 back a bit. "Twelve O'Clock High," rates surprisingly low in #2...yes, it's set in a bomber squadron, but the flying sequences are not really what the movie's about.

But...like "Soldier of Orange"... the outstanding plot and actors really make it stand out.

Then we come to "High Road to China." I saw it when it originally came out, and haven't re-watched it since. Lotsa flying, can't remember the accuracy, but I do remember having a low opinion of it as far as plot/acting. Don't remember why...guess I'll have to re-watch it.

This leads it to one other factor on the WAMS (Wanttaja Aviation Movie Scale :-): The importance of each of the three scores to the individual. When I was a kid, #2 was most important to me...the heck with the plot, bring on the action! As I've aged (if not matured), my tastes are now inclined towards quality of the plot and the acting. I can tolerate *some* inaccuracies, if the movie is good. Heck, I've worked in the space business for 35 years, yet I loved "Gravity"....

Ron Wanttaja

[Floatsflyer]

One must combine three scales to judge an aviation movie:

1. Quality of the overall plot/acting
2. Amount aircraft operations are integrated to the story
3. Accuracy of the aviation details

Well then, using your self-proclaimed WAMS scale, I offer, in no particular order, my subjective list of the 10 best aviation themed feature films that meet those criteria:

Air Force
The Right Stuff
Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines
Hells Angels
Reach For The Sky
Only Angels Have Wings
Battle of Britain
The Great Waldo Pepper
Captains of the Clouds
Memphis Belle

I declare the can of worms to be open!

[Bill Greenwood]

If you want real flying in real airplanes as opposed to some models or computer simulations, then Battle of Britain is certainly one. There were real Spitfires, Hurricanes,bombers, etc. with the exception that the bad guys were ex Spanish 109 s and He-111s instead of luftwaffe. The airfields were real, prominently Duxford. The in cockpit pilot views out the front of the Spitfire were real, taken by a movie camera in the front seat.
One I really enjoyed because of the stars, Grace Kelly,William Holden etc, was BRIDGES AT TOKO RI, which I think is based on real events even if it was with Skyraiders and not F9F jets. It won an Academy award for special effects, and also used real Navy combat footage.

[ttheeck]

How can EAAs leave out Cliff Robertson's "The Pilot", the most realistic fictional movie about commercial aviation?

[Bob Dingley]

I'm with you Ron on the three line scale. and humbly submit "Dive Bomber" filmed in prewar 1941 starring Errol Flynn, Fred McMurry and the USS Enterprise. The plot is about the new science of aviation medicine. Flynn was a Surgeon and McMurry was a dive bomber pilot.

[Floatsflyer]

If you want real flying in real airplanes as opposed to some models or computer simulations, then Battle of Britain is certainly one. There were real Spitfires, Hurricanes,bombers, etc. with the exception that the bad guys were ex Spanish 109 s and He-111s instead of luftwaffe. The airfields were real, prominently Duxford. The in cockpit pilot views out the front of the Spitfire were real, taken by a movie camera in the front seat.
One I really enjoyed because of the stars, Grace Kelly,William Holden etc, was BRIDGES AT TOKO RI, which I think is based on real events even if it was with Skyraiders and not F9F jets. It won an Academy award for special effects, and also used real Navy combat footage.

Battle of Britain is on my list, superbly executed authentic story telling. For me the best part of Toko Ri is the comedic turns of those funny Sikorsky pilots, Mickey Rooney and Earl Holliman. Come to think of it, the Sikorsky itself is pretty funny looking.