Thoughts on Clint Eastwood's 1982 flick 'Firefox'
POSTED BY: chrisisall
UPDATED: Tuesday, December 7, 2010 01:32
VIEWED: 12067
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Engaging cold war thriller? Slow moving unintentional farce?
Personally, I could have TOTALLY done without the Russians-speaking-English-in-a-Russian-accent-thing. Subtitles would have worked so much better. But, whatever. It was a cool flick IMO, made MUCH more interesting because of John Dykstra's Special FX.
And the plane, oh, THAT PLANE!!! Such an amazing design! Halfway between a Viper & an F-18!
And, here's the shameless model moment-
I am working on perfecting that crappy model I made so many years ago... like Lucas, I am changing what I made, hopefully, into something better (but here I can offend only myself 
).
Pix will ensue.
In the mean time, movie reviews, discussions of Eastwood's political views of the era, FX Dykstra talk...
All are welcome, all are welcome...
(Whoah, just had a Poltergeist moment there...
) 
The laughing Chrisisall
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Quote:
Originally posted by chrisisall:
Engaging cold war thriller? Slow moving unintentional farce?
Personally, I could have TOTALLY done without the Russians-speaking-English-in-a-Russian-accent-thing. Subtitles would have worked so much better. But, whatever. It was a cool flick IMO, made MUCH more interesting because of John Dykstra's Special FX.
And the plane, oh, THAT PLANE!!! Such an amazing design! Halfway between a Viper & an F-18!
And, here's the shameless model moment-
Hmm...the homage from Monogram kinda loses something by having it's angles rounded off, IMO. Especially the nasal canards, since they ended up looking a lot more fragile and decorative
Quote:
I am working on perfecting that crappy model I made so many years ago... like Lucas, I am changing what I made, hopefully, into something better (but here I can offend only myself
Pix will ensue.
In the mean time, movie reviews, discussions of Eastwood's political views of the era, FX Dykstra talk...
All are welcome, all are welcome...
(Whoah, just had a Poltergeist moment there...
The laughing Chrisisall
It's been a while since I've seen the film, and I need to actually finish reading the sequel novel to Craig Thomas' original story...but I think the film had a bit of Multiple Personality Disorder/Syndrome, since I remember a semi-taunt thriller that turned into a Star Wars wannabe with the Firefox-to-Firefox dogfight.
"The revenge of the beaten comes in refusing to fall." -- Mal, in "The Losing Side - Chapter 45" by jetflair
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"Firefox Down"
I have to read it too.
The thinking in Russian Chrisisall
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I never understood the premise. I mean, why go to all the trouble to steal Soviet technology ( laugh ) when we had far more advanced ALIEN technology , right in our own back yard ?
I know, I know.... it's ONLY a movie....
Sheesh.
" I do not love the bright sword for its sharpness, nor the arrow for its swiftness, nor the warrior for his glory. I love only that which they defend. "
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Firefox Down is kind of unimpressive, as a novel, really it came across more as just plain milking the franchise than actually adding anything to it - so don't feel too bad about never getting around to reading it, honestly you won't miss much.
Thinking on it however, this is one movie where a remake might actually improve it, so long as they keep Michael Bay really, really far away from it.
-Frem
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Landing on an iceberg was the shit. Stealth cool too. At that time the F14A Tomcat was the Navy's top gun fighter relegating the F4J Phantom IIs to the Coral Sea and Midway carriers because of size. The airforce's F4E Phantoms where still the bulk of the airforce's fighter inventory. The F15C Eagle would soon be the No 1 interceptor. Stealth was very scifi at that time. No one really knew what it was. Now looking back it looks like the F23 Blackwidow built by Northrop who lost the contract to the F22 Raptor by Lockheed. During this time this movie was a wake up call to what the Soviet Air Power strength could be. Remember the F-15 was built in response to the MiG 25 Foxbat that flew over Iran in 1969 leaving the Phantoms in it's sonic wakes. Now the 80s was a time of military rebuilding but also consolidation of roles of aircraft and other armament. Good example the F/A 18A Hornet. It was to be fighter for the Marine Corp and help the Navy's fighter umbrella over carriers. It failed in that role but worked as a light attack jet to replace the A4 skyhawk and the A7 Corsair. First landing gear issues with the flight deck then vertical wings cracking. The Superhornet has addressed these issues along with extended fuel range. Ole Clint served in the military during the cold war and understood the need for a movie to move votes towards allocation of military contracts.
Well if I do recall Jesus had John the Beloved, So why can't chili have fritos. That's all I'm saying.
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Quote:Thanks.
Originally posted by Fremdfirma:
Firefox Down is kind of unimpressive, as a novel, really it came across more as just plain milking the franchise than actually adding anything to it - so don't feel too bad about never getting around to reading it, honestly you won't miss much.
I disagree about a remake however. The movie is of its time, and a CGI-ed remake would just be another "Stealth", which kinda sucked IMO.
The laughing Chrisisall
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Oddly enough, I was gonna note that the Monogram model shown in the first pic also reminded me of the super-jet fighters flown in Stealth.
Also, I think that an update COULD be done, but like with Red Dawn, I would expect the govt. the plane's being stolen from would be something like China or North Korea instead of former Soviet Union. If I had control of greenlighting decisions for a major network or movie studio, I would personally put money on something like an Airwolf remake first, but a Firefox one would be certainly on a list to choose from
"The revenge of the beaten comes in refusing to fall." -- Mal, in "The Losing Side - Chapter 45" by jetflair
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Wow, fixing up my Firefox model is proving more of a challenge than I imagined...
Before:
Now (Thanksgiving):
I have a lot of gorram sanding & putty-ing & painting to do...
Luckily it's costing me nothing since I had/have all the stuff on hand anyway. AND, it'll keep me busy until my Viper gets here, that'll be the REAL challenge, Zack!
The laughing Chrisisall
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Quote:
Originally posted by AURaptor:
I never understood the premise. I mean, why go to all the trouble to steal Soviet technology ( laugh ) when we had far more advanced ALIEN technology , right in our own back yard ?
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