6/20/2023 0 Comments Capricorn one biplane chase sceneThe expectation of seeing these two choppers explode far outweighs the pay-off. Standard usage of 70s pyrotechnics and remote controlled chopper technology. ![]() What grates about this scene is that Hyams could have employed the same technique to much better effect on the previous helicopter explosions. Hyams repeatedly cuts away to the mourners, who remain at normal speed, then back to slow-mo Brolin, and so on and so on, for what seems like an eternity. With these two relatively pedestrian helicopter explosions out of the way we’re then treated to one of the strangest sequences to end a movie ever committed to film.īrolin runs in slow-motion through a cemetery to gatecrash his own funeral. By this point one can only assume that Gould was scrabbling to find the lever with the words ‘ejector seat’ on it. Normality restored, I can relax a little.įor reasons I’m not quite sure, Savalas then shouts “perverts!” for comic effect. Surely we haven’t come this far together be denied at the final hurdle?įortunately, the pyro-technician for the second chopper is wide awake and it goes up like a Christmas tree. His plan is to send an empty shuttle into space and rely on his snake-like powers of persuasion and a couple of guarded threats to bring our reluctant astronauts on side - played by James Brolin, Sam Waterston and OJ Simpson.Ĭhopper one hits the rock face nose first and drops like a stone. So as not to lose face in front of the pen pushers in Congress by postponing the mission, Dr Kelloway (played to perfection by Hal Holbrook) decides to fake the mission. The motive for faking the mission comes after an oversight by NASA boffins leaves the shuttle’s life-support system ill-equipped to, well, support any life. Set in a kind of 70’s alternate reality where the US is engaged in a space race to get a man (or men) on Mars, we’re drawn into a world of subterfuge and conspiracy as they attempt to fake the landing and subsequently prevent anyone from finding out. Such was the case when I sat through 70’s conspiracy thriller Capricorn One (1978), recently. IMO Robert Duvall would have been a better choice - he has often played the quintissential US Army colonel roles (Apocalypse Now) or USMC (The Great Santini).A wise man once said that sometimes the expectation of seeing a helicopter explode in a film is just as rewarding as the moment itself. The only thing English about the character was the actor and the accent.Įven if Malcolm McDowell wasn't English himself, he was still the wrong actor for the part. ![]() Years later, in the movie/story's "present" he is working with an American law enforcement agency and US Army and Air Force personnel in an American city. ![]() What makes you so sure that he was supposed to be English? In the flashbacks, he was flying with an American pilot (Roy Scheider) in an American helicopter and he was wearing an American uniform. ![]() believe it or not, some Brits did serve in Viet Nam (on exchange), as did a whole bunch of Australians (which nearly everyone over here seems to forget). Malcolm McDowell wasn't supposed to be American at all, but English. Yeah, but Malcolm McDowell was absolutely wrong for that part - C'mon, I mean an Englishman playing an American Vietnam vet? Who's brilliant idea was that?
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