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Firefox

1982, Movie, PG, 137 mins

Firefox: Review

Clint Eastwood is a top American fighter pilot called out of retirement and sent to the USSR to steal a new superfighter that can run rings around anything the US has, and whose weapon systems are thought-controlled--but only if you're thinking in Russian. Eastwood goes off to England for training and is eventually smuggled into the Soviet Union. Narrowly avoiding hordes of suspicious bureaucrats and too-inept-to-be-real KGB men, he steals the plane and flies it back home, with two similar fighters in hot pursuit. Apart from the flying sequences, which are spectacular (though largely derived from STAR WARS), this is one of Eastwood's least satisfying films. Overlong--more than an hour of the film passes before Eastwood's character even starts on his mission--and hard to take seriously, FIREFOX nevertheless struck a nerve among Americans who wanted to see the Russians beaten by a real American hero. This same audience would make RED DAWN (1984), INVASION USA (1985), and the "Rambo" series great successes later in the decade. For the more intelligent Eastwood fan, the film offers an interesting exploration of the actor-director's screen persona. Throughout, he experiments with a number of different disguises, finally embracing total dehumanization when he steps into the Firefox, dons the special mind-reading helmet, and becomes one with the sleek, gleaming, high-tech killing machine. leave a comment