Blu-ray Thunder

Introduction

Altogether now....

Da
Da da da da
Da da da da

Surely one of the greatest theme tunes of the 1980s.

Except of course that was from Airwolf, Reagan-era America perfectly represented by a TV show. An all action helicopter piloted by an all action hero (with the standard 'Nam background).

The 1980s saw lots of "technology enhanced vehicle" based action shows like Street Hawk and Knight Rider. Curiously it was also a time for helicopters, with two helicopter based TV shows, the aforementioned Airwolf and Blue Thunder. The 1984 Blue Thunder TV series (featuring lots of footage from this film!) was a spin off from this film, released in 1983. The TV show lasted only 11 episodes before being cancelled by executives at ABC who felt that CBS' Airwolf would beat them in the ratings. Airwolf went on for another three seasons.

As I've mentioned, the Blue Thunder story started out with this feature film, which tells the story of Frank Murphy (Roy Scheider), an LAPD helicopter pilot and 'Nam vet (already another link with Airwolf). He is joined by a rookie partner Lymangood (Daniel Stern) who is earns the nickname JAFO (Just Another F****** Observer). During a flight, they get themselves in trouble for hovering around a certain apartment block following a neighbour's complaint.

But they then earn a reprieve, and are asked to pilot a new super-copter "Blue Thunder" a military-style helicopter intended for police use as a surveillance platform (featuring directional microphones, video cameras, onboard computers and "whisper mode"), to help with crowd control and riots. This is set in the lead up to the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics.

Along the way, Murphy bumps into his old Army nemesis, Colonel F.E. Cochrane (Malcolm McDowell), who is currently the primary test pilot for Blue Thunder. Murphy still doesn't trust him, and maybe he'll be proved right.

(The screenshots in this review are from the original DVD and do not reflect the greatly improved video quality of this Blu-ray disc)

Video and Audio

A 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer, which looks pretty damn good. I'd go as far as saying that it's never looked better, and even if you saw it in the cinema in 1983, it still looks better than it did. It looks like all the cleaning and tidying that was done for the special edition that came out a few years ago has been reused and improved upon here. The detail level here is amazing, and just look at the extra feature from 1983 to see how bad it used to look.

A 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtrack, which is again much better than it's ever been. It's still not up to the standards of a modern action film, but it's certainly better than you've ever heard of it. All the dialogue is nicely audible, there are plenty of helicopter sounds, and quite a few explosions too.

Extra Features

Unlike some Blu-ray discs, this one is really just a repackage of the old special edition DVD, as the extras are the same too, apart from BD-Live.

First up a full length commentary featuring director, editor and another of the filmmakers. There's a lot of detail about the film, the production, the actors, extras, studio problems, censorship problems and more. Whilst this is not the best film ever made, the commentary is interesting and worth a listen if you're into that sort of thing.

Two main featurettes, The Special: Building Blue Thunder and Ride With the Angels: Making Blue Thunder, which is split into Pre-Production, Production and Post-Production. Like the commentary, they give lots of good background to the film and feature recent interviews with most of the major players.

And finally we come to the original 1983 "making of" featurette, a classic example of how not to do it. Basically an extended trailer with a cheese stuffed voice over. And it shows you how bad this film used to look. Compare the visuals in this to the nice crisp image on offer in the main feature!

Conclusion

As I've already mentioned, this is not the best film ever made, but it's an interesting insight into 1980s America. Even ignoring the rather heavy handed Orwellian Big Brother overtones, there's still something in this film that rings a bell with a modern audience. Are you willing to throw away some freedom in exchange for security?

The cast do a pretty good job, given what they have to work with and Roy Scheider turns in his usual performance. On this evidence, I'm not going to agree with David's assertion (in another review) that Malcolm McDowell is probably the greatest living British film actor (I've also sat through all of the filmed scenes in Wing Commander IV, having completed the PC classic many years ago). He gives a very cliched villain performance in this, aping (badly) Patrick McGoohan in The Prisoner.

If you've seen this before and enjoyed it, then this is the best way yet to own it. It's worth replacing any existing copy that you have with this one. If average 1980s helicopter films are not your thing, best to stay away.