Die Jagd

As someone who likes chase scenes and was really intrigued by this fascinating true-life tale, I was optimistic heading into this film but too many obstacles got into the way of the good story it should have been.

THE BAD - I'm a fan of Robert Duvall and many of the characters he has played, but his role here is a dull one as an insurance investigator.

The dialog is insipid and the pretty Kathryn Harrold is real garbage-mouth. From what I read, there were several directors replacing each other on this film, and that's too bad. You can tell things aren't right with the story. I couldn't get "involved" with Treat Williams' portrayal of Cooper, either. He should have been fascinating, but he wasn't in this movie. It's also kind of a sad comment that a guy committing a crime is some sort of "folk hero," but I admit I wound up rooting for the guy, too.

Not everything was disappointing. I can't complain about the scenery, from the lush, green forests of Oregon to the desert in Arizona.

I'd like to see this movie re-made and done better, because it is a one-of-a-kind story.

Here is a fine example of some good ol' Hollywood exploitation. They took the story of famed airplane hijacker D.B. Cooper and decided to make it into a "what if..." scenario by adapting a fictional novel called "Free Fall." Talk about a missed opportunity! Cooper (Treat Williams) lands easily in the woods of Oregon. Just as easily, insurance investigator Gruen (Robert Duvall), whose company is out the ransom money, discovers Cooper is a former charge of his from the Army and begins his pursuit. If you can distance the idea that this is about D.B. Cooper, it is a pretty entertaining chase flick in the SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT vein. I'm sure they threw the Cooper name on there to get the public interested which is a disservice to the film itself. Co-starring Kathryn Harrold, Ed Flanders, R.G. Armstrong and Paul Gleason (in a really scummy turn).

Nothing much to talk about the film but just its follows the plot loosely and it was somewhat enjoyable.

I suggest to watch it only if you don't know anything about D. B. Cooper aka Dan Cooper.

It's really hard to take this movie seriously, especially to anyone who is fascinated by the D.B. Cooper story. I think my biggest problem with the movie is that it just starts with Cooper jumping out of the plane. There is no stage of the actual highjacking and little realism of the jump itself (it happened at night time during a storm). During the actual highjacking, the bomb was not left behind by the highjacker and there was never a stewardess locked in a bathroom. The movie seems to be a parody of the events with a cheesy-hillbilly soundtrack. You almost expect a Jerry Reed/Cledus cameo or even Cheech & Chong at some point. My problem is they had the opportunity to do so much more with it and failed miserably. In recent years, the alleged highjacker was supposedly identified (see Brad Meltzer's decoded). I, for one, love the D.B. Cooper story and hope that someone will serve the story justice, but may be somewhat undeserving seeing as how the "Dan Cooper" who made the infamous jump literally flew from justice himself.

What a disappointment this turned out to be. I realize that the actual true crime committed by the unknown thief coined as "D. B. Cooper" is still the only unsolved plane hijacking and so I was really looking forward to watching this film but unfortunately it turned into less than a crime and more like a poor mans car chase comedy that still didn't work.

Treat Williams is an excellent actor and actress Kathryn Harrold is easy on the eyes. Add to that Robert Duvall as the ex marine sergeant turned insurance investigator chasing this pair across the state lines and I thought it would be more interesting than it turned out to be.

I give it a disappointing 4 out of 10 IMDb rating.