Air Force One

I'd seen a couple of trailers for this, then my friend got some free preview tickets to go and see it, so I saved myself ú4.50, which is always a good thing. However, I would gladly have paid to see this film.

The plot centres around the President's jet, callsign Air Force One, which is captured by Russian terrorists, who want a dictator released so that the USSR can be recreated. Before this happens, we see the President (Harrison Ford) giving a speech about how terrorists must never be negotiated with under any circumstances. Of course, before the end he is forced to stick to this policy once or twice, despite his own uncertainty.

However, it's true to say that the plot isn't really the main point of this film. No, instead this is fairly unusual, in that it puts forward some genuine questions, and makes the viewer consider their own reactions in certain situations. For example, the President's view on terrorism is fairly clear cut - he delivers the speech with no qualms whatsoever. However, once onboard the plain, he is twice faced with the fact of someone being killed unless he does what the terrorists demand, and I could easily imagine the internal struggles that a man in such a situation would go through.

This is thanks in no small part to Harrison Ford's acting. We were all making jokes when describing this film to our friends as a film in which Harrison Ford played the role he's played in every other film of late - a normal man forced to be a hero. That's not meant to be derogatory - we know he can play other roles, because we've seen the other films he's been in. However, he is extremely good at the "tormented soul" type of film - he seems to be able to put across a genuine feeling that he believes the lines he says. The scene where he almost begs Gary Oldman not to hurt his family is particularly impressive.

By means of that cunning link, Gary Oldman's acting is also superb. His Russian accent does occasionally seem to lapse into Iraqi or similar, but that's forgivable. One reviewer said that he has an amazing screen presence, and this is definitely true - he's shown it in other films he's been in, and this one is no exception.

That reminds me - Air Force One approaches the terrorism subject (a notoriously tricky one) from a slightly different angle from, say, Passenger 57. In that, the hijacker (also British - why pick on us?) is pure evil. In this, Gary Oldman delivers a speech or two about the strength of his belief, along the lines of "my belief is so strong, that in that instant [when he shot someone], it was more important than any personal morality". This is a very interesting point, and made me see him in a more sympathetic light than I might otherwise have done. I got the feeling that rather than being someone who's doing this for money or prestige or for a laugh, he's doing it because he genuinely believes that he is doing "what is right". You might disagree with his methods, but you can't say that he's wrong to believe in what he does.

Another recurring theme in Air Force One is the importance of the President being the human representative of America, rather than merely "a man". Linked to this is the willingness of many American servicemen to sacrifice themselves for their President's life (this is taken a bit further than the traditional image of someone taking a bullet).

The effects are impressive at times, but there are one or two bits which grate slightly - not to the extent of spoiling the film in any way, but one or two shots clearly involve a blue screen or computer graphics. I'm inclined to say that they're insignificant overall though.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film, which considering that I saw it at 10:30 on a Sunday morning is no small feat. It's an excellent action film, while also giving us characters that we care about, and offering up a few though-provoking ideas as well. A must-see.

Updated 29/5/98 by JWES