Firefox...not the browser :-)

[dkwookie]

I just saw Firefox on telly, first time I have seen it in ages. I remember sneaking in to see this at the cinema when it was released. I was well under age for it but bluffed it through to get in.
I think this was the first film to trully fire up my enthusiasm for aerial combat, that dogfight between the two firefoxes at the end blew me away at the time. I really wanted to play a game with that dogfight. Surprised how well the fx hold up after all these years. Some great manuvers in there and it still gets the pulse racing when they drop down guns on in the canyon.
So anyone else got a fav dogfight from films?

[flynlion]

Battle of Briatain is still my favorite airplane movie. No special effects or trick photography, just lotsa realy cool airplanes making lotsa noise
My Dad took me to see it when it first came out ('68?) and I've loved flying ever since.

Of coarse, the original comedy "Airplane" is also tough to beat LoL

[kozzm0]

Originally Posted by dkwookie

I just saw Firefox on telly, first time I have seen it in ages. I remember sneaking in to see this at the cinema when it was released. I was well under age for it but bluffed it through to get in.
I think this was the first film to trully fire up my enthusiasm for aerial combat, that dogfight between the two firefoxes at the end blew me away at the time. I really wanted to play a game with that dogfight. Surprised how well the fx hold up after all these years. Some great manuvers in there and it still gets the pulse racing when they drop down guns on in the canyon.
So anyone else got a fav dogfight from films?

I remember that movie... it had Clint Eastwood in it as a veteran tortured by flashbacks, sent to the USSR to steal their super-advanced new plane that could be controlled by the pilot's thoughts (!!!) Back during the Cold War, there were endless rumors about secret technology the USSR was developing. Firefox was based in part on speculation about the Mig-25 foxbat, which isn't a dogfighter at all, of course in the movie the planes moved at high speed and impossible g's too. I remember Clint Eastwood stole the Firefox with the regular controls, and so the Russians sent the other one which was fully functional. And the spy who helped him steal the plane shot himself in the head.

The Soviets made fun of Firefox and the Hollywood Rambo genre in general with their movie "Solo Voyage" (одиночное плавание) which featured an American special forces vet tortured by funny flashbacks of people eating rice in Vietnam. And the heroes flew around in a little Ka-27 chopper.

My favorite dogfighting movie is still the Blue Max, cause it has the most accurate fighting. There was also a good descending spiral in Tora! Tora! Tora! when the two Americans took off to fight the Zeros. I haven't seen the Red Baron yet, but I've heard it's good.

I thought the fighting in Top Gun was pretty lame. Most of it was just a montage of shots strung together without really making sense.

Worst air combat movie I've seen in recent years was Stealth.

[winny]

This is actually harder than I thought it would be... Battle of Britain is a good shout, Anyone seen tora tora tora? There's some good stuff in that. It's old tho.

Oh... I know.. Return of the Jedi.

[trk29]

Originally Posted by dkwookie

I just saw Firefox on telly, first time I have seen it in ages. I remember sneaking in to see this at the cinema when it was released. I was well under age for it but bluffed it through to get in.
I think this was the first film to trully fire up my enthusiasm for aerial combat, that dogfight between the two firefoxes at the end blew me away at the time. I really wanted to play a game with that dogfight. Surprised how well the fx hold up after all these years. Some great manuvers in there and it still gets the pulse racing when they drop down guns on in the canyon.
So anyone else got a fav dogfight from films?

Thanks for the recommendation I just added it to my netflix que.

[Raw Kryptonite]

I love Firefox, despite the cheesy flashbacks and "think in Russian!" thing.
Best to watch it as a spy flick with some cool stealth fighters than a "flight" movie. Good times and a damn cool looking fighter.

[Lexandro]

The funny thing about the film is that most of the design of the aircraft was pretty much "cutting edge" real tech at the time. The forward canards for instance, and the cockpit instruments and controls. The plane had FLIR/AG&AA passive radar and active radar, analogue and digital read outs, rear aspect cam, had an angular design like the F117 (implying stealth), super cruise engines, internal weapon bays (again implying stealth).

What the film really showed was that the US was already way beyond the Russians in aircraft technology thinking and they didnt even realise it. They were assuming that the Russian boffins were near to or keeping pace with them on development.

[edal86]

I saw Battle of Britain and Tora Tora Tora (tora tora was great), I still need to see Blue Max and Firefox. I also have being waiting for the Red Baron to come out (it says "in theatres April" :S), I saw Flyboys lol.

There is Red Tails coming out in 2010, and I just noticed that there a movie about the Tuskegee Airmen already titled "Tuskegee Airmen" odd (came out 1995, just found it on youtube too, popcorn ready hehe)

Weird as it may be, the first aerial combat movie I saw was Independence Day lol (poor old man, his missile jammed)

[Danfried]

Add me to those people who feel that CGI still can't compare to footage of real planes. Battle of Britain is great, as is the Czech film Dark Blue World, which used computers to modify a lot of the unused footage from Battle of Britain! Much better than using all-CGI effects.

I also agree The Blue Max is awesome. It is also one of the few aerial combat movies that is interesting as a character study. The action is great too; the CGI in Flyboys looks ridiculously fake in comparison.

I don't want to veer off too far into science fiction shows, but I did love the dogfight between the Marine colonel and Chiggy Von Richtofen in Space: Above and Beyond -- awesome use of Beethoven's Funeral March for the music! Battlestar Galactica should get a mention -- almost every space battle was great -- but with the fighters moving realistically in space, it probably shouldn't be considered "dogfighting" anymore.

[kozzm0]

Originally Posted by edal86

I still need to see Blue Max and Firefox. I also have being waiting for the Red Baron to come out (it says "in theatres April" :S), I saw Flyboys lol.

I guess you must never watch TV if you've never seen The Blue Max. It's a great classic. Red Baron was released a while ago, it's been available on dvd and blu-ray for some time.

The US was nervous about the Soviet planes because they were confused by the mig-25 and the su-27, which they thought were the same plane. They thought it was a mach-3.2 plane that could also dogfight.

I don't think the US was ahead of the Russians as far as dogfighting planes went. Mig-29's can handle f-16's, and su-27's and f-15's are about even. The US has developed stealth but the Russians have developed OVT. Stealth tech won't last as long as OVT.