Review of Firefox (1982) by Luigi V — 24 May 2010

"Firefox" is a blast!

A lot of people complained that this complicated aircraft opus was too long, too monotonous, and too incredible. Basically, it follows the superb Craig Thomas novel about a damaged American pilot who is recruited by the C.I.A. to go into the Soviet Union and steal a top-secret. state-of-the-art MIG fighter that its pilot can control through his thought processes. Mitchell Gant (Clint Eastwood) reluctantly volunteers to pilfer the plane from under the watchful eyes of the K.G.B.

The film unfolds in two halves. During the first half, the pipeline of saboteurs smuggle Gant into Russia and to the base, while the second half ds Gant's thief of the Firefox and the efforts of the Soviets to shoot him down before he can deliver the plane to NATO. Clint Eastwood directs with a skilled hand and eye. One of the greatest transitional cuts in film history occurs when our hero has stolen the jet and a member of the underground has to commit suicide to escape capture and torture. The poor fellow puts a pistol to his temple and pulls the trigger as the Soviet guards and dogs are closing in on him. Rather than show blood-splattered brains everywhere, director Clint Eastwood cuts from the sound the gun to a close-up shot of his afterburners as the Firefox streaks away.

Unlike Craig Thomas' novel that begins in Soviet Russia, the movie "Firefox" opens dramatically with our shell shocked protagonist jogging through the woods when he hears a helicopter hovering overhead. Frantically, he charges into his house as the noise of the rotors fills his head and grabs a shotgun. A former Vietnam pilot who was shot down and watched children fry in a napalm attack, Mitchell Gant starts to shake uncontrollably as the two chopper pilots with their bug-like helmets converge on him. Initially, Gant wants nothing to do with this mission, but the government threatens to confiscate his house unless he yields. Gant's reluctance is matched by the objections of some military officers who fear that his delayed stress syndrome will jeopardize the mission. One man objects that the decision boils down to nothing more than that Gant fits the flight suit. Before they turn Gant loose, he has to prove to the Air Force that he still has what it takes and his scores in flight simulators blow everybody away. After his brief stay at Nellis A.F.B. where he proves his ability to fly the Firefox, Gant is flown to London, England, where he meets with his controller, James Aubrey (Freddie Jones of "The Elephant Man") to briefs him about the mission every step of the way. "Whatever they tell you to do," Aubrey advises Gant about the saboteurs, "you do.".

The entire second half when Gant settles into the Firefox and barely escapes the KGB as he is wheeling the plane out of the hanger is great. Gant's conversation with the First Secretary is classic. You've got to be a die-hard Eastwood fan to embrace "Firefox," and I guess that I am a die-hard Eastwood fan because I love this movie, right down to the submarine scenes that were borrowed from John Sturges' "Ice Station Zebra." Hands down "Firefox" boasts one of Maurice Jarre's best scores and it is a crime that this spectacular orchestral score was never available on vinyl, tape, or CD. There isn't a bad performance in this wonderful suspense-thriller. Indeed, Freddie Jones chews the scenery as the emphatic Aubrey, but he does it so well it doesn't matter. Nigel Hawthrone is incredibly restrained and on-target as the Jewish scientist who created the Firefox.