Movie Review: The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)

A bittersweet look back at the early days of flight, The Great Waldo Pepper mixes nostalgia, comedy and tragedy. Director George Roy Hill teams up again with Robert Redford and they effectively keep the characters at the centre of the drama despite the preponderance of buzzy airplanes and aerial stunt sequences.

It's the 1920s, the sight of flying machines is becoming relatively more common, and World War I veteran pilot Waldo Pepper (Redford) is witnessing the end of the barnstorming era in Midwest, in which pilots land their bi-planes in rural fields and sell a short flight experience to the gape-mouthed locals. The flamboyant Waldo is good at flying but better at lying, and he spins tall tales about an epic encounter during the war with the legendary and widely-feared German ace Ernst Kessler (Bo Brundin). Waldo tangles with fellow flyer and barnstormer Axel Olsson (Bo Svenson), but with audiences demanding more thrills and extreme risks, they become friends and team up with local girl Mary Beth (Susan Sarandon) to join the stunt flying circuit, resulting in a tragedy and suspension from flying.

In the meantime, Waldo's friend Ezra (Edward Hermann) finishes building an advanced technology plane, and attempts a dangerous outside loop manoeuvre. This causes another tragedy and lands Pepper in even deeper trouble, and he is banned entirely from flying by the newly formed federal flight regulation body. Undeterred, Waldo and Axel relocate to a burgeoning Hollywood, with Waldo assuming a new name to circumvent his ban. They are hired as pilots in a film about Kessler's exploits, allowing Waldo to finally meet and fly against his mythical foe, this time for real.

The Great Waldo Pepper is deceptively sad. While an overall sense of flying for fun and laughter in the face of danger permeates the film, the script by Hill and William Goldman contains several moments of severe calamity. Sudden and sometimes spectacular death was an almost routine part of the early days of flight, and to give credit to Hill, the opening sequence hints at men regularly rubbing shoulders with abrupt catastrophe.

Redford has the natural charm and charisma to bring Waldo Pepper to life, and his optimism and longing for unconstrained flying are infectious. Bouncing straight back up after every setback, Redford gathers life's experiences and hurtles towards his destiny, an encounter with Kessler presenting both men with an unexpected opportunity for a memorable exclamation mark. Brundin makes his appearance late in the film, but his few scenes are rich with the pathos of a man realizing that his legacy is based on one incident in the sky that lasted minutes, and that the future offers much less than what the past fleetingly provided.

Susan Sarandon makes a big impact in an early supporting role. Mary Beth spots the opportunity to soar out of her humble environment and is quickly mesmerized by the idea of fame and celebrity, the stars in her eyes blinding her to the dangers of stunt flying. Margot Kidder also has a small role as one of Waldo's former girlfriends.

Featuring some amazing aerial photography, with the stars and filmmakers actively participating in the creation of the memorable stunt scenes, The Great Waldo Pepper is a celebration of flight and the men who touched the sky only to realize that nothing on earth can compare.

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Movie Review: The Delta Force (1986)

One of the more ambitious Cannon Film efforts, The Delta Force teams veteran Lee Marvin with expressionless Chuck Norris, throws a lot of once-famous names at the screen, and achieves some engagement by taking its time to develop a story and a dose of drama prior to the machine guns opening up. But once the shooting starts, it quickly disintegrates into the mind-numbing excesses that made most Golan - Globus productions infamously bad.

Two terrorists led by Abdul Rifi (Robert Forster) hijack an American Travelways flight from Athens. The plane is diverted to Lebanon, where terrorist reinforcements arrive to bolster the hijackers. The Jewish passengers (including Martin Balsam and Joey Bishop) are taken off the plane and held captive in Beirut prison cells. Also on board are three US Navy sailors who are singled out for rough treatment, with one eventually killed. Throughout, flight attendant Ingrid (Hanna Schygulla) does her best to calm the tense situation and avoid further violence. After some traipsing across the Middle East, the plane returns to Lebanon and all the hostages are taken off the aircraft and stashed in a Beirut terrorist stronghold.

The elite counter-terrorist Delta Force, under the command of Colonel Alexander (Marvin) and Major McCoy (Norris) is dispatched to mount a rescue. Alexander and McCoy were part of the shambolic 1980 operation that spectacularly failed in an attempt to extract the American embassy hostages in Iran. Determined to make amends, the Delta Force launches a daring mission within Beirut to rescue the hostages and retrieve the hijacked plane.

Inspired by the true 1985 hijacking of a TWA airliner (the real Delta Force was readied but not deployed), The Delta Force may have represented the peak of achievement for Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus. Directed by Golan, it was the first major Cannon production filmed at the GG Israel Studios in Jerusalem, and it also turned out to be the only high profile film to make use of the facility before the company collapsed. Shelley Winters, George Kennedy, Robert Vaughn, Bo Svenson, and Susan Strasberg are among the once somewhat famous actors who get smallish parts in The Delta Force, and despite triggering a game of spot the has-been, they collectively add interest to the film.

The movie does exhibit an increased level of professionalism and care. Scenes and characters are given appropriate time to breathe and develop, and the earlier part of the hijacking saga hits some promising notes in building the on-board tension between assailants and victims. But the final third of the film retreats to the Neanderthal cave where most of Cannon's action films dwell. Norris' McCoy character in particular contributes to an elevated amount of nonsense, killing hordes of terrorists on a motorcycle filled with an endless supply of lethal rockets, and an uncanny ability to never miss a single target.

But saddest of all is Lee Marvin's frail appearance in The Delta Force. In his farewell performance, he undoubtedly elevates the movie with an injection of distinguished talent and sheer presence. But he is also undeniably fragile and too old for the role, going through the motions in almost visible discomfort.

The Delta Force is not without its point of interest, but the production's limited tool set confines the experience to the cramped economy class, near the dank rear of the plane.

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