Supercopter

Donald Bellisario the man who created Battlestar Galactica and Magnum PI, and later Quantum Leap, thought of this great action TV movie, which spawned a mega-hit show. The story runs that Dr. Moffet (David Hemmings) has created a super helicopter which with the help of thrusters can fly faster than a jet fighter, is equipped with twin machine guns, multiple rocket launchers, and Sunbursts to evade heat seeking missiles. Unfortunately he is a bit evil, and defects to the Libyans, taking his creation with him. Michael 'Archangel' Briggs (Alex Cord) the chief of a highly secretive organisation, the Firm, needs someone to go into Libya and bring back Airwolf. He turns To Stringfellow Hawke (Jan-Michael Vincent in the role which made him tv's highest paid actor), a former Vietnam pilot, who agrees after much negotiating. A top piece of TV entertainment, and the preface to one of the most successful shows of the 1980s.

The great thing about the Airwolf series is the super-cool hero, Stringfellow Hawk. He's an ace helicopter pilot who is a cello player, art collector, and an environmentalist. He doesn't eat red meat. He's genuinely cool without any fake macho bull-crap.

I also like the way he blows away villains who really need killing, but generally spares the lives of low-end flunkies. The fact that Stringfellow does not own a television is a big bonus.

Stringfellow is proud without being arrogant. He is a thinking man's hero. Airwolf is a must-see.

It is a shame that the actor (Jan Michael Vincent) fell short of the heroic ideal of the character he played. I recall that they re-launched the show without him after he cracked up. I saw one episode, but it wasn't the same.

Being a child in the 1980s, of course I watched the "Airwolf" TV series, and I loved it back then. I got nothing but fond memories of the series. And when I stumbled upon the 1984 movie "Airwolf" by random chance here in 2022, there was just no doubt about it that I had to watch it. If for nothing else, then for sentimental reasons.

Oddly enough, then I didn't even knew that they had made a TV movie about "Airwolf". So I was rather surprised when I stumbled upon this movie.

Writer and director Donald P. Bellisario definitely managed to put together something that felt like the TV series. And while there was a familiarity in that sense, then it was also what restricted the 1984 movie, I feel. While this is a TV movie, it actually just felt like a prolonged episode of the TV series, for better or worse. In a sense, of course it was good, because you feel right at home here, but on the other hand, I feel like a TV movie could have offered more.

It was nice to see the original cast in the movie, that being Jan-Michael Vincent, Ernest Borgnine and Alex Cord. It was also nice to see the likes of David Hemmings and Eugene Roche in the movie as well.

If you enjoyed "Airwolf" as a TV series back in the 1980s, then you will also enjoy this 1984 TV movie.

My rating of "Airwolf" lands on a six out of ten stars.

What will probably surprise viewers who find the video of this pilot in video stores is the amount of foul language in something that was made for TV. Well, that's explained by the fact that what's on video is the edit that was released to theaters overseas, with the language a silly way to try and hide the made-for-TV origins.

I can see why this was released to theaters overseas; some of the production values are pretty high, and would fit pretty comfortably on a movie screen at the time. Still, I am sure that the people who did see this in a theater were pretty disappointed. Now, the opening sequence is great, flashy and action-filled. However, after that point there is hardly any action until the very end, and filled with talk talk talk. Strange thing is that despite all that talk, a number of plot points remain unclear, like why the two pilots decided to defect to Libya with Airwolf's designer. And while some production values are high, there are also some surprisingly shoddy moments. The island assault sequence, for example, is incompetently directed and edited. And some cost-saving measures like stock footage or reused footage come across like contempt for the viewer. Still, I must admit these cost-saving measures are nowhere as blatant and lazy as what was done for the ill-advised fourth season of the show!

Oh, my. When I was a kid I couldn't miss a week of this series, and this is the movie that started it all. It really has a decent plot, given the times it was made in. In 1984, the idea of a third world nation like Libya getting something nasty from a shadowy mercenary type was very real. In 1982, Israel had taken out an Iraqi nuclear reactor that Saddam Hussein had bought from contacts in Europe. In 1982, also, the Falklands war saw the British running into a lot of trouble with Exocet missiles hitting their destroyers.

In "Airwolf," one scene which took a lot of guts to do features an attack by the hijacked helicopter launched against a destroyer. The idea of nasty weapons getting to nations that might mean ill to people has only become more powerful. In 1987, three years after the television movie aired, a U.S. Frigate, the Stark, was "accidentally" hit for real by an Iraqi fighter in the Persian Gulf.

So, in that context, and with the height of the Cold War, the idea of powerful organizations like "The Firm" that Moffet was working for and which our two main pilot good guys get involved with, made for some powerful stuff. The performances only added to the power of it, especially for a kid like myself, with Jan-Michael Vincent doing a great job as the brooding, reluctant hero, and Ernest Borgnine (Who I had only seen doing comedy in reruns of "McHale's Navy" at the time) doing incredible work as well. This series really was a nice thing for him, and boy did he deserve the chance to do something like this. Finally, who could forget Alex Cord as Archangel, all in white except for the black lens in his glasses over his injured eye? White limousines, a white helicopter of his own, and beautiful female aides dressed in white, and the cane he walked with because of his injuries. Definitely a chilling figure in his own right. Man, this was an awesome show for a kid in 1984. Also, it makes points about the duties of people to what is right, the question of when the lines of the fight for good cross with the desire for power, and all the classic stuff. Bellisario came through with this and "Magnum, P.I." about the same time, I believe, which was quite good for him. Everyone associated with this project turned in good work - including the folks who designed the fold-out cannons on Airwolf's winglets, which were impressive in how they folded out and so forth. - Vincent was awesome in the melancholy and quiet scenes where he was just playing his cello by the lake or hanging out and thinking. The show topped this all off with one of the best scores of the 1980s. Definitely a winner. The toppings are all there, but underneath, with the writing, directing, and the performances, the substance is there in force. Great, great show.