200 000 dollars en cavale

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.

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.

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.

Plays like a backpacker's version of Midnight Run (1988), with Duvall in the de Niro role and Williams in Grodin's. Except this one substitutes mindless action for character development and rust bucket jalopies for clever dialog. The result is more tiresome than funny, despite the attractive cast. In fact, Williams plays DB Cooper's part like it's all a big joke that only he thinks is funny—I agree with the reviewer who finds him way too cutesy. In fact, that could apply to the entire movie.

Worse-- any well-meaning viewer hoping for insight into the heist itself will be sorely disappointed. We see nothing of the crime except for the dramatic dive from the airliner. I suspect that's because threats to blow up the plane would have "serious-ed up" the movie. Then Williams' Cooper would no longer be humorous at all. The one worthy aspect links Cooper to army ranger training, seemingly apt preparation for such a daring wilderness crime.

The movie does have two scenic attractions. There's the great snow-capped panorama of Jackson Hole that keeps the eye entertained whatever the nonsense on the ground. Second is Kathryn Harrold's Hannah. In skintight jeans she presents another kind of natural grandeur that may give backpacking a whole new look. Despite the visuals, however, the topic deserves better than the third-rate Keystone Cops treatment it gets here.

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.