"Blue Thunder" is certainly my kind of movie as it achieves in casting actors I enjoy watching and has a military helicopter with state of the art weaponry and exceptional flying capability. When you such names as Roy Scheider, Warren Oates(aka God), Daniel Stern, Candy Clark(who I have never liked more than in this movie), and Malcolm McDowell, I'd be hard pressed to imagine how it could go wrong. Blue Thunder is a new form of police duty. Scheider plays a former helo-pilot during Nam who has the grueling task of warding off past demons which return to cause unneeded stress as he's in the air with co-pilot Stern hunting down street scum. Scheider is to pilot along with Stern the Blue Thunder much to the chagrin of McDowell who knows him from Nam. We later learn of a nasty little incident between the two which explains the obvious tension both share whenever they are near each other. McDowell is government now and contributes to a specific event, regarding the shooting of a political figure out to help the lower rung of society by one of the very kinds of criminal low lives she was vocal in her community at protecting. How McDowell is involved and how Scheider is out to shake him(and those others who are participants in this covert incident)is the meat of the film's storyline which accompanies the helicopter action that is the bread and butter of "Blue Thunder". Candy Clark is Scheider's girlfriend who is dragged into the developing plot concerning a conversation on a recorded tape and how she will be needed to deliver it to a news organization in order to see those involved are brought to justice. Stern is the affable partner of Scheider who suffers a tragic fate in order to lend a hand in taking down those who are responsible for a murder cover up. Oates is Scheider's disgruntled boss who has trouble defending him during moments of reckless behavior(Stern uses the photographic equipment to peep in on a naked woman doing aerobics! Scheider stealing the Blue Thunder in order to see that the tape is turned into the proper people). Oates, even in such menial roles which service the plot as a barking police captain, manages to steal all his scenes! Lord knows, Oates' captain has plenty to complain about when his pilots cause such disturbances as using the helicopter for other means besides police work! Candy Clark's driving in this movie is of supreme comedy relief as she evades certain harm repeatedly, particularly at the end when being chased by police out to arrest her. But, I wanted action in the air, and there are plenty of helicopter chases, even if such instances are preposterous when pondering them realistically(would even as good a pilot as Scheider really be able to outsmart heat seeking missiles fired at him from military jets?!). McDowell is, as always, perfectly loathsome, as a hot shot helicopter pilot whose superiority complex and treatment of Scheider make him such a wonderfully hissable villain. Badham keeps this movie humming along despite a long running time, staging some impressive action sequences along the way. Scheider, always quite the charmer, is appealing in the lead hero role. Regarded as unable to carry a movie, I always thought Scheider did so effortlessly. Scheider and Oates, you guys may be gone, but will never be forgotten.
Review of Blue Thunder
