Blue Thunder

Murphy: "I thought it was illegal to arm police helicopters."
government guy: "Well, that would depend on the circumstances, wouldn't it?"

release year: 1983
genre: action/drama
viewing setting: home DVD, 12/7/13 and 7/14/01

synopsis: A nearly-burned-out police pilot gets the chance of a lifetime: test-flying a super-helicopter. Unfortunately, there are bad guys and a conspiracy tied in with it all.

impressions: This had good human and helicopter elements. I really like super-vehicles, whether helicopters (like this or Airwolf) or cars (Knight Rider) or mega-SUVs (Damnation Alley) or whatever. It was cool that the helicopter wasn't 100% invincible - this made the movie more realistic, rather than a farce. The plot moved along fairly fast, and was tight and filled with governmental conspiracy nastiness. I must say that I really wanted to see Frank use Blue Thunder to annihilate all the bad guys, but you can't always get what you want.

acting: Roy Scheider was great as the weary but still sharp protagonist. A very young, skinny Daniel Stern was his partner. Candy Clark was Scheider's quirky but loyal girlfriend. Warren Oates was his boss, who alternately defended him and chewed him out for stuff. Malcolm McDowell made a slimy, lethal bad guy.

final word: This is, without a doubt, the best super-helicopter movie ever made.

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