Sky Bandits | |
---|---|
![]() | |
Directed by | Zoran Perisic |
Written by | Thom Keyes |
Produced by | Richard Herland |
Starring |
|
Cinematography | David Watkin [1] |
Edited by | Peter Tanner [1] |
Music by | Alfi Kabiljo |
Production companies | J&M Entertainment London Front |
Distributed by | Entertainment Film Distributors (United Kingdom) Galaxy International Releasing (United States) [2] [1] |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 105 minutes |
Country | United Kingdom |
Language | English |
Budget | $18 million [3] |
Box office | $2,295,500 [4] |
Sky Bandits, also known as Gunbus, is a 1986 British adventure film about two outlaws from the Wild West, drafted to the battlefields of WWI, who enlist in the fledgling Royal Flying Corps flying early warplanes called gunbuses.
The film was directed by Zoran Perisic and made extensive use of the Zoptic technique he had developed for the flying sequences on Superman (1978). The production holds the record for the largest film crew on a fiction film (582).[ citation needed ]
Caught after a series of dynamite-fuelled bank robberies in the dying days of the Old West, Barney (Scott McGinnis) and Luke (Jeff Osterhage) are forced into conscription in a US unit being sent to the trenches in France in the middle of World War One.
In the maelstrom of the frontlines, Barney and Luke use their gunslinging skills to shoot the pilot of a low-flying German bomber. Using the chaos to abscond from their unit, they impersonate two British RFC officers to sneak into an officer's mess, whereupon after a night of drinking they are challenged to prove themselves by piloting a Vickers F.B.5 (known as a "Gunbus"). They succeed in flying the plane, getting lost and briefly glimpsing a huge experimental German airship hidden in the clouds. Landing by coincidence at an RFC squadron base, their sighting of the airship proves enough to persuade the squadron's commander to offer them a place in his unit.
Still seeking a way out of the conflict, Barney and Luke use their newfound position to steal two planes at gunpoint, intending to fly to Switzerland. On their route they accidentally find themselves at the airship's hangar, where Luke is shot down and captured. Barney turns back to find his squadron's base has been destroyed by the airship, along with all of the squadron's planes. Defying orders once again he recovers the Gunbus and flies off, secretly landing near the hangar. Finding Luke is being held captive inside a bank, he uses his previous familiarity with blowing open bank vaults to break Luke free, before the two of them attempt to destroy the airship.
The airship takes off, and Barney and Luke pursue in the Gunbus. In the air they are joined by the rest of the squadron, who are flying an array of improvised novelty planes designed by the squadron's crazy engineer Fritz (Ronald Lacey). The squadron engages in an aerial battle with the airship as Barney and Luke land on top and use their six-shooters and dynamite to force the airship's captain to surrender.
Back in the Old West, Barney and Luke blow another bank up before racing off on horseback as they had before the war. As a posse hunt them down they are surprised however to see the pair disappear only to reappear flying over their heads in a Gunbus. As the credits roll, Barney and Luke continue to argue with each other over whether to fly to Mexico – itself deep in the midst of its own war.
The film was directed by Zoran Perisic, a Yugoslavian who moved to the UK when he was 15. He moved into special effects and did the flying work on Superman (1978). He was known in the industry as "the man who made Superman fly". [5]
Perisic learned how to speak English by watching films at a cinema in Huddersfield and later said "I suppose you could say the Western scene in Gunbus is kind of a Western hommage to Huddersfield". [5]
The film claimed to be the biggest wholly independent movie made in Britain in 1985, with a reported budget of £13 million. The film took eight years and three million dollars to get into production. It was produced by American Rick Herland, whose previous film Steppenwolf took seven years to go into production. [5]
Perisic came on board the project in 1982 to work on its effects. Brian G. Hutton was meant to direct. However a few weeks before filming was to start Hutton pulled out. Herland said, "He [Hutton] wasn't prepared to bet with us unless the money was on the table. And since we didn't have the money from the City Institutions to make the movie until a week before filming you can see there was a problem. Zoran had been on the film for so long and always wanted to direct, it just seemed perfectly logical then to let him do so." [5]
The film was shot at Pinewood Studios. [5]
The film was released in the US as Sky Pirates with a $3.5 million ad campaign but the film was a financial failure. It opened on Friday, October 31, 1986, in 1,335 theatres in the United States, the only wide release that weekend, and grossed $1,468,500 for the weekend, finishing in eighth place. [6] Its total gross was $2,295,500. [4]
Dave Kehr of the Chicago Tribune observed: "Everything that touches the human element in Sky Bandits is tritely conceived and flatly filmed. That is a shame, because it's otherwise a very handsome movie, photographed in dark, contrasty color by the great David Watkin ( Help, Chariots of Fire ) and loaded with lush period production values. But this is probably what you get when you hire a special effects technician to direct your film, even if the special effects technician is as talented as Zoran Perisic, the man who devised the flying sequences for the Superman movies." [1]
In the Chicago Sun-Times , Roger Ebert negatively compared the film to the drawings of airplanes Bruce McCall had been known to publish in the National Lampoon : "If you like McCall's work, you may like certain scenes in 'Sky Bandits.' If not, you won't. The design of the airplanes in this movie is its single, lonely, redeeming facet. Everything else is surprisingly boring, given the fact that the movie cost a reported $17 million to make. The plot involves aerial battles in World War I, but the dialogue rolls along at about the level and intensity of a couple of fraternity kids making plans for the weekend." [7]
In The New York Times , Vincent Canby described the film as "a charmless comedy", stated that "the screenplay, the direction and the performances are terrible", and observed that McGinnis' and Osterhage's characters "are intended to recall (but don't) Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." He did, however, have a positive opinion on its production design:
What gives the film its isolated moments of distinction are the fanciful flying machines conceived by Tony Woollard, the movie's production designer. They include what appear to be a Model-T Ford with wings, a six-engine bomber and a fearsome dirigible a half-mile long with the armament of a World War II battleship. Mr. Woollard's designs look like Jules Verne ideas as they might have been executed by Ronald Searle. [8]
Patrick Goldstein of the Los Angeles Times said the film "has a few inspired comic touches which might work well with younger audiences, but its heroes are so hokey and its plot so pokey that it never zooms into high gear." [2]
Pearl Harbor is a 2001 American romantic war drama film directed by Michael Bay, produced by Bay and Jerry Bruckheimer and written by Randall Wallace. It stars Ben Affleck, Kate Beckinsale, Josh Hartnett, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Sizemore, Jon Voight, Colm Feore, and Alec Baldwin. The film features a heavily fictionalized version of the attack on Pearl Harbor by Japanese forces on December 7, 1941, focusing on a love story set amidst the lead up to the attack, its aftermath, and the Doolittle Raid.
Castle in the Sky, also known as Laputa: Castle in the Sky, is a 1986 Japanese animated fantasy adventure film written and directed by Hayao Miyazaki. It was produced by Isao Takahata, animated by Studio Ghibli, and distributed by the Toei Company. In voice acting roles, the original Japanese version stars Mayumi Tanaka, Keiko Yokozawa, Kotoe Hatsui, and Minori Terada. The film follows orphans Sheeta and Pazu, who are pursued by government agent Muska, the army, and a group of pirates. They seek Sheeta's crystal necklace, the key to accessing Laputa, a legendary flying castle hosting advanced technology.
Superman is a 1978 superhero film based on the DC Comics superhero Superman, played by Christopher Reeve. It is the first of four installments in the Superman film series starring Reeve as Superman. The film was directed by Richard Donner based on a screenplay by Mario Puzo, David Newman, Leslie Newman, and Robert Benton. In addition to Reeve, the film features an ensemble cast including Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, Jeff East, Margot Kidder, Glenn Ford, Phyllis Thaxter, Jackie Cooper, Trevor Howard, Marc McClure, Terence Stamp, Valerie Perrine, Ned Beatty, Jack O'Halloran, Maria Schell, and Sarah Douglas. It depicts the origin of Superman, including his infancy as Kal-El of Krypton, son of Jor-El (Brando), and his youthful years in the rural town of Smallville. Disguised as reporter Clark Kent, he adopts a mild-mannered disposition in Metropolis and develops a romance with Lois Lane (Kidder) while battling the villainous Lex Luthor (Hackman).
Superman IV: The Quest for Peace is a 1987 superhero film directed by Sidney J. Furie and written by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal from a story by Christopher Reeve, Konner, and Rosenthal based on the DC Comics character Superman. The film stars Reeve, Gene Hackman, Jackie Cooper, Marc McClure, Jon Cryer, Sam Wanamaker, Jim Broadbent, Mariel Hemingway, and Margot Kidder.
Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, often shortened to Sky Captain, is a 2004 science fiction action-adventure film written and directed by Kerry Conran in his directorial debut, and produced by Jon Avnet, Sadie Frost, Jude Law and Marsha Oglesby. It stars Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Angelina Jolie. It is an example of "Ottensian" (pre-WWII) dieselpunk.
Superman II is a 1980 superhero film directed by Richard Lester and written by Mario Puzo and David and Leslie Newman from a story by Puzo based on the DC Comics character Superman. It is the second installment in the Superman film series and a sequel to Superman (1978). A direct continuation of the first Superman, Christopher Reeve reprises his role as Superman. The returning cast includes Gene Hackman, Terence Stamp, Ned Beatty, Sarah Douglas, Margot Kidder, Marc McClure and Jack O'Halloran.
Bandits is a 2001 American crime comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Harley Peyton. It stars Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, and Cate Blanchett. The film was released in theaters on October 12, 2001. It received mixed reviews, and Thornton and Blanchett's performances received critical praise. Thornton and Blanchett were nominated for Golden Globe Awards for Best Actor and Best Actress – Motion Picture Comedy or Musical, and Blanchett was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Geoffrey Gilyard Unsworth, OBE, BSC was a British cinematographer who worked on nearly ninety feature films during a career that wound up spanning over more than forty years. He is best known for his work on critically acclaimed releases such as Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, Bob Fosse's Cabaret and Richard Donner's Superman.
Santa Claus: The Movie is a 1985 British-American Christmas film starring Dudley Moore, John Lithgow, and David Huddleston. It depicts the origin of Santa Claus, and his modern-day adventure to save one of his elves (Moore) who has been manipulated by an unscrupulous toy company executive (Lithgow). It was directed by Jeannot Szwarc and was the last major fantasy film produced by the Paris-based father-and-son production team of Alexander and Ilya Salkind.
A front projection effect is an in-camera visual effects process in film production for combining foreground performance with pre-filmed background footage. In contrast to rear projection, which projects footage onto a screen from behind the performers, front projection projects the pre-filmed material over the performers and onto a highly reflective background surface.
Memphis Belle is a 1990 British-American war drama film directed by Michael Caton-Jones and written by Monte Merrick. The film stars Matthew Modine, Eric Stoltz, and Harry Connick Jr.. Memphis Belle is a fictional version of the 1944 documentary Memphis Belle: A Story of a Flying Fortress by director William Wyler, about the 25th and last mission of an American Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, the Memphis Belle, based in England during World War II. The 1990 version was co-produced by David Puttnam and Wyler's daughter Catherine and dedicated to her father. The film closes with a dedication to all airmen, friend or foe, who fought in the skies above Europe during World War II.
Barney's Great Adventure is a 1998 musical comedy adventure film based on the children's television series Barney & Friends, featuring Barney the Dinosaur in his first feature-length film. The plot follows Barney, along with three young children named Cody, Abby, and Marcella, as they discover a magical egg in a barn. After learning that the egg is a dream maker, Barney and the gang must return the egg to the barn before it hatches. The film was written by Stephen White, directed by Steve Gomer, produced by Sheryl Leach and Lyrick Studios and released by PolyGram Filmed Entertainment on March 27, 1998 at Radio City Music Hall in New York and worldwide on April 3, 1998 in the United States and Canada at the height of Barney's popularity.
Look, Up in the Sky! The Amazing Story of Superman is a 2006 documentary film from executive producers Bryan Singer and Kevin Burns which details the history of the Superman franchise, from comic book, to television, to the big screen. The story of Superman is told through archival footage, as well as interviews with many of the actors, directors, and producers involved with the Superman media over the years. The closing credits feature outtakes from the Christopher Reeve Superman films, including an outtake of Marlon Brando improvising during the recitation of a poem in a scene deleted from the original version of Superman II.
Cardington Airfield, previously RAF Cardington, is a former Royal Air Force station in Bedfordshire, England, with a long and varied history, particularly in relation to airships and balloons.
Planes is a 2013 American animated sports comedy film produced by Disneytoon Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Directed and co-written by Klay Hall and produced by Traci Balthazor-Flynn, it is a spin-off of Pixar's Cars franchise. Despite not being produced by Pixar, the film was co-written and executive produced by Pixar and Walt Disney Animation Studios' then-chief creative officer John Lasseter, who directed the first two Cars films, while the remaining writers of the film included Jeffrey M. Howard. The film stars the voices of Dane Cook, Stacy Keach, Priyanka Chopra in her Hollywood debut, Brad Garrett, Teri Hatcher, Danny Mann, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Roger Craig Smith, John Cleese, Carlos Alazraqui, Sinbad, Val Kilmer, and Anthony Edwards. In the film, Dusty Crophopper (Cook), a crop duster plane in the town of Propwash Junction, wants to complete Wings Around the Globe with racing planes, especially Ripslinger (Smith), despite his fear of heights, with the help of naval aviator Skipper Riley (Keach), who trains him.
Sky Bandits may refer to:
Joyce Green, at Long Reach, near Dartford, was one of the first Royal Flying Corps (RFC) airfields. It was established in 1911 by Vickers Limited who used it as an airfield and testing ground. At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the RFC followed and established a base. Subject to frequent flooding and a reputation as being unsuitable and too dangerous for training, it was eventually replaced by a more suitable site at RAF Biggin Hill.
Roy Field was a British special effects artist in the film industry. He worked on the first seven James Bond films before joining the team of 1978's Superman. He experimented with using animation to depict the flight of Superman and also used optical printing techniques to depict bullets bouncing off his body. The team shared the 1978 Academy Award for Best Visual Effects and the 1978 Michael Balcon award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Field received two BAFTA nominations for visual effects on the Jim Henson films The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986).
Zoran Perisic is a Serbian-American visual effects artist. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Visual Effects for the film Return to Oz. He also won a Special Achievement Academy Award for the film Superman.