Airwolf

This is my all time favorite. Borgnine and Vincent gives a really good acting in this tv show. Bellisario has created this master piece. The best tv show ever. Jan-Michael vincent rules.Also check out Nightrider and A-team.

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!

Hollywood enjoyed a period of unprecedented interest in technology during the mid-1980s with super vehicle shows such as AIRWOLF, BLUE THUNDER, THE HIGHWAYMAN, KNIGHT RIDER and the underated STREET HAWK.

Borne from the mind of one of US Television's most creative writers of quality entertainment - Donald P. Bellisario who brought us TALES OF THE GOLDEN MONKEY, MAGNUM P.I., QUANTUM LEAP and currently with the military drama series, J.A.G., it had everything with action, adventure, espionage, adult scripts, international intrigue, coupled with real-world politics (which is rare in Hollywood) even pushing some right-wing, hawkish politics into the middle of the action.

With grim-as-granite Jan-Michael Vincent in the main role as loner pilot, Stringfellow Hawke, aided by Oscar-winning movie veteran, Ernest Borgnine and a support cast including movie actor, Alex Cord (and C.I.A. Deputy Director - Michael Archangel) and TV regular Jean Bruce Scott, it was a show on the edge, that, with the exciting aerial climax at the end of most episodes pushed the boundaries of television with its movie quality action sequences, technology and locations (including the beautiful Monument Valley in Utah).

It now has a sizeable following of loyal fans worldwide (the Wolf Pack), including many people who became pilots (military and commercial) through their love of the show - many fans of which have been following the commercially successful shows of Donald Bellisario (Belisarius Productions) from its humble beginnings in the early 1980s, including the current success of J.A.G. on CBS.

A show which deserved a bigger following at the time, it's a rare gem of television history.

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.

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.