The Best and Worst War Movies About Crashed Aviators
This has to be the most specific sub-genre of war film I've ever written about. This isn't just a film list about aviators, this is a film list about films that feature pilots that end up crashing. Which, of course, is a real thing. In past wars, especially Vietnam and Korea, pilots were shot down all the time. Many of these pilots were taken prisoner by enemy forces. And the stories they tell are breathlessly fascinating and often make great movies...but not always. Here's the best and the worst of them.
The Best!
Two decades before Rescue Dawn would offer the definitive "pilot shot down" cinematic experience, Gene Hackman starred as another pilot shot down over Vietnam, pursued by the Vietcong. A capable thriller with the ever-game Hackman offering another fine performance.
The Worst!
A strange artifact of war-time cinema, Behind Enemy Lines features Owen Wilson (most popularly known as the comedian in films such as Wedding Crashers) in an action-oriented role as a pilot shot down over Bosnia. I say "artifact" because watching this film, it's almost impossible to take Wilson seriously, given the number of silly roles that he's been in. Very loosely based on a real account of an airman that was shot down during the Bosnian air campaign, it's more accurate to say this is a purely fictional account based loosely on the idea of "something that happened once in real life." The film aspires to be nothing more than an action film, following this pilot on the run from Bosnian forces, and it's a silly one at that, being the sort where the protagonist manages to outrun the shockwave of an exploding grenade.
Click here for the Best and Worst War Movies about the Balkans.
The Best!
Although the downed aviators of the two Blackhawk helicopters of the title offer the film its motivation - as a contingent of Delta Force operators and Army Rangers race to secure the crash site in the hostile city of Mogadishu, Somalia - the film is more about the Rangers and Delta Force than the pilots themselves. Still, this remains one of the great combat films of modern times, and one of Ridley Scott's best films.
Click here for the Top "Last Stand" War Movies.
The Best!
Rescue Dawn is a 2006 war drama film directed by Werner Herzog, based on an adapted screenplay written from his 1997 documentary film, Little Dieter Needs to Fly. The film stars Christian Bale, and is based on the true story of German-American pilot Dieter Dengler, who was shot down and captured by villagers sympathetic to the Pathet Lao during an American military campaign in the Vietnam War.
Rescue Dawn is a fantastic film because of its intense realism in re-creating what it was like to be a prison of war during the Vietnam War, an experience that has to rank as one of the most awful experienced by any human at any point in the history of civilization. If that sounds like an extreme suggestion, well so is this film and its portrayal of life as a prisoner in the jungles of Vietnam.
Unfortunately, this film, despite otherwise being a masterpiece, also made my historically inaccurate war films list.
){kind=link}
1. Bat 21 (1988)
The Best!
Two decades before Rescue Dawn would offer the definitive "pilot shot down" cinematic experience, Gene Hackman starred as another pilot shot down over Vietnam, pursued by the Vietcong. A capable thriller with the ever-game Hackman offering another fine performance.
){kind=link}
2. Behind Enemy Lines (2001)
The Worst!
A strange artifact of war-time cinema, Behind Enemy Lines features Owen Wilson (most popularly known as the comedian in films such as Wedding Crashers) in an action-oriented role as a pilot shot down over Bosnia. I say "artifact" because watching this film, it's almost impossible to take Wilson seriously, given the number of silly roles that he's been in. Very loosely based on a real account of an airman that was shot down during the Bosnian air campaign, it's more accurate to say this is a purely fictional account based loosely on the idea of "something that happened once in real life." The film aspires to be nothing more than an action film, following this pilot on the run from Bosnian forces, and it's a silly one at that, being the sort where the protagonist manages to outrun the shockwave of an exploding grenade.
Click here for the Best and Worst War Movies about the Balkans.
){kind=link}
3. Blackhawk Down (2001)
The Best!
Although the downed aviators of the two Blackhawk helicopters of the title offer the film its motivation - as a contingent of Delta Force operators and Army Rangers race to secure the crash site in the hostile city of Mogadishu, Somalia - the film is more about the Rangers and Delta Force than the pilots themselves. Still, this remains one of the great combat films of modern times, and one of Ridley Scott's best films.
Click here for the Top "Last Stand" War Movies.
){kind=link}
4. Rescue Dawn (2006)
The Best!
Rescue Dawn is a 2006 war drama film directed by Werner Herzog, based on an adapted screenplay written from his 1997 documentary film, Little Dieter Needs to Fly. The film stars Christian Bale, and is based on the true story of German-American pilot Dieter Dengler, who was shot down and captured by villagers sympathetic to the Pathet Lao during an American military campaign in the Vietnam War.
Rescue Dawn is a fantastic film because of its intense realism in re-creating what it was like to be a prison of war during the Vietnam War, an experience that has to rank as one of the most awful experienced by any human at any point in the history of civilization. If that sounds like an extreme suggestion, well so is this film and its portrayal of life as a prisoner in the jungles of Vietnam.
Unfortunately, this film, despite otherwise being a masterpiece, also made my historically inaccurate war films list.
Source...