Forum: Off-topic

I had read that Top Gun was inspired mostly by Cunningham's adventures (just like the auto racing remake of Top Gun, Days of Thunder, was based roughly on the life of Tim Richmond, but I won't say anymore about a NASCAR movie cause Habu will throw something at me).

And I have read the rumors about Cunningham not being the smartest (politically speaking) when it came to advancing himself. I think another thing to consider is the political environment in Hollywood and getting a movie made about a conservative republican Vietnam war hero. Wesley Clark has a better chance of getting a movie made about his life. But, I digress. TC, you make a good point about he flying sequences. That would be the biggest hurdle to overcome.

F-16.net Sponsor

I had read that Top Gun was inspired mostly by Cunningham's adventures (just like the auto racing remake of Top Gun, Days of Thunder, was based roughly on the life of Tim Richmond, but I won't say anymore about a NASCAR movie cause Habu will throw something at me). And I have read the rumors about Cunningham not being the smartest (politically speaking) when it came to advancing himself. I think another thing to consider is the political environment in Hollywood and getting a movie made about a conservative republican Vietnam war hero. Wesley Clark has a better chance of getting a movie made about his life. But, I digress. TC, you make a good point about he flying sequences. That would be the biggest hurdle to overcome.

Oh yeah, almost forgot, read "Scream of Eagles" by Robert Wilcox, the story of the founders of Top Gun. Also, by Wilcox, read "Wings of Fury," the story of how we learned from our Vietnam experience, and quickly won the skies over Iraq in Desert Storm. Both are great books. I read Wings of Fury in a matter of 5 days. It was so awesome, that I had great trouble putting it down.

Ok, how about some movies? Someone mentioned Blue Thunder, without mentioning the EXTREMELY fake cockpits of the Vipers (didn't they have center-mounted sticks? LOL!) Also, a glaring goof...They were on alert from March AFB, and looking at their patches makes them "alert" pilots from AFSC (that's the old AF Systems Command for you youngsters) and specifically, from the AF Flight Test Center! ROFLMAO!!! Oh yeah boys, those menacing, fearsome, unbeatable, TEST PILOTS are going to sit 5 min alert and dogfight with you over Downtown LA! What a riot! This should have been listed as an action comedy.

Oh and here's something cool...get blasted with a case of Bud one night and sit down with your DVD of Iron Eagle and try to count just how many goofs there are in the film. My AF buddies (both active and ex) love to get together with a couple cases & some pizza, and watch & die laughing!

sorry about the double post, my comp went stupid on me

Hmmm... it's been a while since I saw 'Flight of the Intruder', but wasn't there a bit where a MiG-19 acquired the A-6 with an IR missile and on the RWR panel a light with 'IR' on it turned on? Sorry... couldn't help it...

TC wrote:

then filming might be impossible, because the only F-4s the U.S. has flying, are drones.

Not exactly true. The USN has one F-4 they fly every so often for ejection seat tests from the aft cockpit (at least I haven't heard they retired it, and it did a test within the last two years.)

Also, the Ford Foundation has an F-4E in flying condition. I have a friend who was in the cockpit of it. They wanted him to restore the cockpit, but he hasn't had time to work on it. The bird flys at somes shows though, with Gen Steve Ritchie (USAF Ret.) at the controls. The plane is painted in Vietnam colors (USAF Green camo) with a couple of MiG stars on the intake ramp.

Kevin
The Ejection Site

kmceject, isn't that the one Steve Ritchie has been doing the air show rounds in, flying around with a MiG-15? I've seen that plane close up, they did a beautiful job of restoring it - although they didn't fly that day due to some hydraulic problem. Sad

habu2, yup that's the one. The outside looks great, but the cockpit looks so-so from what I hear. The seats show a fair amount of wear and I forget what my friend said about the panel, except I know he could do a great job fixing it up. He has fixed up several cockpits for museums, and has restored two F-111 crew modules to the point they look factory fresh. (Both the F-111D and F-111F were ejected, stripped and left to decay for a while before he got them too.)

Kevin
The Ejection Site

Yeah, only saw it from ground level, canopies were closed. Recognized Ritchie in the crowd from his pictures.

Yeah, forgot about that Navy F-4, although, I do believe it is an S model, and if I'm not mistaken, is flown at Point Mugu, CA. I doubt very seriously though, that as a single asset, they would allow it to be used for movie filming. Yes, I'm also aware of General Ritchie's jet. It is a D model, completely different from the J model of Duke Cunningham. So, yes, while a potential movie of the Duke would be cool, I would have to say it would be a no-go. Besides, like I said before, most of his exploits were altered to be placed into the script of "Top Gun." BTW, was I the only one who caught that unit patch goof for the Viper pilots in Blue Thunder? Man, that's a riot everytime I think about it!

Since this thread has progressed from movies to books I would like to recommend "Goin' Downtown" by Jack Laughton. True story about an incident over Haiphong Harbor involving a 105 pilot. BTW, Gen Ritchie was at an airshow nearby here a couple of years ago......I had to work so I asked my wife if she would go and get his autograph. I have one of those Lou Drendel copies of "....And Kill MIGs". He signed it for her and allowed her to take his picture holding my grand-daughter. One of the pictures showed him and Chuck Debellvue (sp) and he asked my wife if she knew which one was him. When she pointed him out in the picture he said "That's right.....the good looking one". You guys should check out "Goin Downtown" .....it is a kick-a$$ book.
check six
stik

CGI fellas....CGI....gotta love it.
Sure it's always much better to have live footage, but when that's not possibe....

Some CGI looks downright ridiculous though. Take for instance, ID4, and that Cuban Missile Crisis movie. Even Apollo 13 for crying out loud! They could have gotten away with showing stock footage of a Saturn V launch. Shoot, that's what made The Right Stuff such a good flick. I mean, look at it this way, if Top Gun had used CGI instead of real footage, it would have been a completely useless movie. As it is, it's only partially worthless

Oh I know...I said that my first choice is live action, by all means. But when you have no aircraft to work with...take the XB-70 for instance...there's no way you could get live footage for that. I don't think all the editing in the world would make a convincing scene by today's standards. The aerial scenes were pretty damn good in 13 days. And there again, they had to use CGI and miniatures...there aren't any flyin U-2Cs or F-8s. For what it had, it was pretty good. Even Pearl Harbor had some great aerial stuff...the rest of the movie was a steaming pile of dung. As was xXx...I had to sit through that damn thing because my friend was playing it, but I wish I could have skipped to the 30 secs of live Su-22 footage. The only 30 secs of the movie worth watching.

Did anyone here know that much of the flying sequences in "Thirteen Days In October" were CGI? OK, the U-2 shootdown was RC but the F-8 sequences (thinking of the low altitude recon run) were all CGI.

Forum: Off-topic

The Falcons of Iron Eagle/Aviation movies