Review of Air Force One (1997) by Blake B — 13 Jul 2009

Air Force One is pretty different from a lot of other action movies because the protagonist's character (the President of the United States) is almost never used as the hero of a film (usually the President's role in action movies is to give the green light to nuking the F out of places with bad guys holding many innocent hostages, and it's always the "gravest decision I've ever had to make"). So it's refreshing to see this change of pace actioner with a very intriguing hero and set (Air Force One). Throw in one of the greatest bad-guy actors in the world (Gary Oldman) and a quality supporting cast (William H. Macy, Glenn Close) and you've got the ingredients for a very satisfying (if slightly unrealistic, based on the fact that almost no modern President would be able to go through what Harrison Ford goes through) action movie.

It's good because there's not only tension in the air, but on the ground in D.C. as well, as the government has to figure out what the Constitution says about this sort of predicament, and I really liked Close as the Vice President trying to fight off a pack of power-hungry politicians attempting to take advantage of the situation, all while being the only voice to speak with the terrorists. There's a lot of added tension with this plot point, and it's not out of place, as most other action movies would never have to think about the ascension procedure if the hero were to die (since the hero is never in such a high station).

Ford sells the part well on the plane, but he actually seems a little wooden and unconvincing in the opening sequence (addressing the world at a Russian banquet). Other than that, though, Ford is great at conveying the pressure he faces while trying to save much more than himself and the plane (he's gotta save his family, his staff, and deal with skeptical White House staff on the ground, and ostensibly save face because of the announcement he made in Russia). Oldman is great as a bad guy, but it's slightly unfortunate that he plays his part so seriously here. I much more enjoy Oldman as the type of bad-guy he is in Luc Besson movies. Well, he still sells scary very well, regardless of his seriousness or quirkiness.

The action is pretty tight and well-staged, as you'd expect on a cramped plane (even one with so much space as Air Force One, but it's still just a plane, thousands of feet above the ground). I don't know how much I can buy the gas tanker explosion not doing more damage to Air Force One, but other than that, there's not much suspension of disbelief that you normally have to do in order to enjoy a good action movie.

This was a good summer (1997) as Face/Off came out about the same time. Face/Off was better, but Air Force One could have done far worse, so I think it's pretty impressive that it can stand tall despite being released around the same time as another very good actioner.