Duel en hélicoptère

I've seen "Birds of Prey" only once, decades ago, but I remember it as great fun. It's also a piece of cultural history. It first aired on TV in January 1973, as the U.S. war in Vietnam was officially rushing to an end, and it's a cops-and-robbers adventure about helicopters, the chariots of choice of that conflict.

The setting is a big city in the American West. The villains are robbers -- Vietnam vets, perhaps? -- who make their getaway by chopper. The squabbling heroes are two middle-aged men who served together in World War II. One of them (played by Ralph Meeker) is now a successful bureaucrat, serving as the city's police chief. The other (played by David Janssen) is somewhere between a free spirit and a ne'er-do-well, a man who flies a traffic helicopter to earn a living but has never left behind the memories of the air war of his youth. When the robbers take to the skies, the battle of the generations is on.

They didn't call such men such as Meeker's and Janssen's characters "the greatest generation" in 1973. They called them "the establishment." This movie is nostalgia for the simplicities of World War II before such nostalgia was fashionable.

If the DVD version does indeed feature modern rock instead of the original movie's 1940s sound track, it's a shame. But maybe it's inevitable. Now that the World War II veterans have grown old and the Vietnam veterans have taken their place in the middle-aged zone, few viewers would recognize the great big band standards. Alas, time flies. Like a bird.

David Janssen and Ralph Meeker are perfectly cast in this TV movie as World War II flying buddies who have had disparate levels of success in adjusting to post-war life. Meeker's character, McAndrews, is an apparently well-balanced police captain in Salt Lake City. Janssen's character, Harry Walker, flies a helicopter for a local radio station and has not been able to put the war behind him.

Janssen's character witnesses a bank robbery and chases the perpetrators, who are also in a helicopter. The aerial stunt work is top-notch, and the film was made on location in Salt Lake City at a time when you could fake very little with special effects.

But the core of the movie is the relationship between Walker and McAndrews. Walker feels alive for the first time in a long time as he chases the bad guys. McAndrews tries to restrain Walker through most of the movie, although it's clear he sympathizes with his old friend. And at the end he's as crazy as Walker.

When the movie was originally televised, a beautiful and perfectly appropriate version of the song "I'll Get By" played over the opening credits. I have searched long and hard for a recording of that version of that song without success. It wasn't the cover by Keely Smith, or by Billie Holliday.

I wouldn't have looked so hard for a recording if the song was included in the videotape of "Birds of Prey." I suspect that whoever put the movie on video would have had to pay royalties to someone if the song was retained. So this despicable person replaced "I'll Get By" with an instrumental big band song that is probably in the public domain.

This thrifty gent likewise axed a song from the body of the movie to which Janssen's character sings along. So the videotape viewer is left to wonder what song Janssen is singing as an instrumental big band number plays.

David Jansen plays the phenominal role of ex-World War II fighter pilot who is a traffic heliocopter pilot. After seeing robbers flee a crime in a heliocopter he follows, refuels along the road, frees the hostage and enters into a showdown with the robbers.

The film has many scenes of sensational flying.

This was one of my favorite movies as a kid. I just loved the flying-scene and the cool hardened look of Jansen. I think it´s too little helicopters in movies now a days. Helicopters are probably the coolest and most impressive vehicle ever invented. Maybe, the morrow-accident recalls too much bad memories to the directors? Nevermind this is a good film (especially because it´s TV-film from the 70´s) recommended especially for teenagers and war-veterans..

Just corny enough to be fun, once the chase starts - hang up onto your seat. Not a movie for those prone to air sickness. Only Blackhawk Down holds a candle to it in terms of 'copter flicks, and the actual stunt flying here is better, a lot better. I'm guessing the copyright holder of the original version of "Three Little Fishies" is hanging onto it tightly, as it's hard to find as it is. I've always thought the movie is really about us old, burned out old-time hero types, always tempted to take that one last fling at glory that we know we really shouldn't. Great fun flick, one of my faves. Needs restored on DVD with some Dolby sound remastered. A must see for anyone who likes helos.