Air America (1990)

Cafe Society
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Yup. Still watching the aitplane flicks.

Air America (1990) is one of those throw-away films that came and went. As an action film it’s not as ‘action packed’ as, say, Lethal Weapon. As a comedy, it’s not really a knee-slapper. But I can never hear A Horse With No Name without thinking of those two guys singing in the restaurant.

Mel Gibson plays Air America pilot ‘Gene Ryack’. He’s getting his kicks flying in Laos and collecting guns, the sale of which will fund his ‘retirement’. Billy Covington (Robert Downy Jr.) is a radio traffic reporter flying a helicopter in L.A. when he gets ticked at accident gawkers who cause a traffic jam that blocks an ambulance and gets his pilot’s certificate suspended. Idealistic as he is, he’s hired by Air America and finds himself among a bunch of psychopaths – and intrigue.

I recently saw a documentary on the real Air America and everyone involved said that the heroin smuggling, as depicted in the film, didn’t happen. Of course, they would say that! :stuck_out_tongue: Whether Air America was smuggling horse or not, it worked well enough for the film.

The critics didn’t really like Air America. As I said, it’s not a slam-bang action flick and it’s not an uproarious comedy. But it’s not that bad. Light entertainment. I can think of worse ways of spending an hour and three quarters.

Besides. It has lots of pretty airplanes. :wink:

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The Few, The Proud, The Totally Insane.

Billy has a quote that sums up my experience here on the Dope: (paraphrased)

“Back home I’m always the weirdest one in the room. Then I come here and I’m not even in the top 10!”

:smiley:

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I’m watching the special features now. William M. Leary, Coulter Professor of History, University of Georgia, is featured in the documentary. he may be the same guy who was on the THC documentary I mentioned. There’s discussion of whether or not the CIA used Air America to smuggle drugs. Professor Leary says that he personally interviewed nearly a thousand former Air America personnel, and every one of them denied any knowledge of drug smuggling by the company. He asks, ‘Why would a thousand people try to cover up something that happened decades ago?.. I mean, it just doesn’t make sense.’ Martin Lee, Journalist/Author, Acid Dreams, The Beast Reawakens, counters that just because people truthfully claim to have had no knowledge of drug smuggling doesn’t mean it didn’t happen, and that there is ‘overwhelming evidence’ that the smuggling occurred.