Die Jagd

The mystery of what ever happened to D. B. Cooper is completely abandoned by this film. What we already know is nothing more than a teaser opening with Cooper jumping out of a hijacked plane with $200,000 in twenty dollar bills. What happened after the jump has bee speculated about for well over fifty years. What did not happen is the remaining hour of "The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper." Robert Duvall chasing Treat Williams by car, boat, and plane plays more like a cartoon than a feature film and is a huge misfire. Not recommended for Cooperites. Recommended as brainless nonsense that fails to hold interest and doesn't come close to telling the intriguing story of America's only unsolved plane hijacking.

I understand people who were disappointed that the movie did not really dig into the real story of Coopers, hijaking a passenger plane by threatening with a bomb. He jumped out with a parachute, along with 200.000$, now worth about 1,5 mio$ and vanished completely. The traceable money was never found, and not spend, at least not in the US :-)

This true story only serves as a pretext to make a run and chase road movie, which I actually enjoyed, because of many original funny and sometimes spectacular scenes. I won't tell anything to not spoil your fun.

Suffice to say, that the script has 10x more ideas than most of todays movies. Be it his escape from the forest, or the chase with junk cars.

Each situation entertains the viewers good mood, if watching with a positive attitude and without expectations.

The movie starts with a plane, and ends with a plane.

I know what it takes to fly these old warbirds, and the stunts are fantastic, with no visual content cheating by a shaky camera or computer software.

I really would have given it a 6+, because it is a bit simple minded, and lacks sometimes a little bit in coherence.

The subject of this work is the infamous D. B. Cooper, who high jacked a jet over Washington state in 1971 by utilizing a bogus bomb, collected $200,000 from the airline company, and then parachuted toward ostensible oblivion, evading one of the most extensive collections of law enforcement personnel in United States history. The production, burdened with serious problems from its outset, with directors John Frankenheimer and Buzz Kulik being replaced in turn by Roger Spottiswoode, is marked by obvious re-shooting as continuity is at times seemingly abandoned. Nonetheless, although flaws abound and logic is sparse, the film succeeds as entertainment, and since the fate of Cooper may ever remain unknown, recounting his story from whole cloth is suitable, with this version fashioned from American poet J. D. Reed's debut novel, "Free Fall". As action opens, Cooper (Treat Williams) is preparing to leap to hoped-for safety into forested Washington (played by Oregon), and he is seen as he eludes state troopers by hiding his bagged stash of 20 dollar bills inside of a freshly slain buck (Cooper jumped with, among his supplies, a collapsible rifle within his pack, and it is deer hunting season). Apparently, the only man capable of tracking the fugitive is Bill Gruen (Robert Duvall), the victim airlines' insurance company investigator and coincidentally the former Army Ranger instructor of Cooper, whose actual name is Jim Meade, and soon Gruen has trailed Meade to his home where he has joined his wife Hannah (Kathryn Harrold). Jim and Hannah head for Mexico, with Gruen close behind, as is one Remson (Paul Gleason), another former Ranger mate of Meade, with an agenda of his own, and subsequent events are stuffed with outrageous incident including a dangerous raft pursuit through Wyoming's Snake River rapids. As is no novelty, Duvall gathers in the acting laurels here with his nuanced reading as a persistent insurance company investigator. Because of its false starts, the film has too much dross to be effectively tidied up by Spottiswoode, but scoring by James Horner is consistently interesting, a musical blend featuring battling banjos, along with jew's harps, dobros, and other instruments of folkish characteristics that highlight British grounded whirligig dances. The D. B. Cooper high jacking is an incomplete story because there is no certainty as to his fate, and a variety of tales may be invented as a result; this one, in spite of its weaknesses, may be enjoyed on its own terms as it provides solid entertainment and a correctly ambiguous ending.

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.

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).