A disappointing pseudo science fiction thriller from Clint Eastwood, the only time he ever attempted such a hi-tech undertaking from the sanctity of the canvas backed chair. Perhaps as a nod to one of his very first big screen role – an uncredited performance as a fighter pilot in Tarantula (1955), though very likely not… – Eastwood casts himself as washed up ex fighter pilot Mitchell Gant whose experiences in Vietnam (yawn…) have left him something of a reclusive wreck. He’s called out of his solitude in Alaska by a worried NATO (represented by, of all people, Freddie Jones) who have discovered that the Soviets have built a prototype Mach 6, thought-controlled super fighter, the Firefox. They want Gant, whose mother was Russian and who has an intimate knowledge of both the people and the language (he can therefore think in Russian, enabling him to use the thought controls), and who is the same size as the crack Soviet pilot who is testing the Firefox (this is important, it seems) to sneak into Russia, nab the Firefox and fly it back to the States.
Disguised as a drug smuggling businessman, Gant arrives in Moscow and sets into motion his plan to steal the aircraft. Unfortunately, said plan involves an awful of a lot of skulking around in the dark waiting to meet contacts, travelling around Russia and basically doing not very much at all. The film only really takes off when the Firefox does. Gant manages to steal the aircraft, but those crafty Russkies have actually built two such planes and they send their second machine out to get him back. The final section of the film is an exciting – if rather overlong – aerial chase and combat sequence as courageous Clint struggles to keep the Firefox in the air while the Russians throw everything they’ve got at it, trying to bring it down.
Even before the collapse of Communism in the Eastern Bloc, this looked a rather old fashioned affair. Now, it seems a lot more dated than it really is. The fault, one suspects, lies not with Eastwood, who had previously proved himself to be an unusually gifted actor turned director – see the excellent High Plains Drifter (1973) or Play Misty for Me (1971) – nor with the rest of the impressive cast. Rather it lies with the poor script by Alex Lasker and Wendell Wellman (based on the novel by Craig Thomas), the sort that needs to explain everything as it goes, the sort that consists of short bursts of clichéd dialogue, the sort that stretches credibility just a little too far. With collaborators popping up on all sides and Clint being pursued by nasty KGB types, it has all the feel of a particularly uninventive World War II movie, the KGB having temporarily replaced the Nazis. In this respect, the film is disappointingly routine, being little more than another pop at the nasty Russkies, another piece of anti Communist propaganda disguised as entertainment.
As a political thriller, Firefox has, inevitably, become rather redundant and it was really never that great to begin with. As science fiction, it fairs rather better though it remains a borderline item. The Firefox itself is a nifty piece of design, though the special effects used to get it airborne are poor. The lengthy final sequence is a drag too, pushed way beyond its natural length, presumably to indulge in yet more special effects.
Eastwood finds himself and his work turning up in EOFFTV far more frequently than one might imagine, though this is far from the best. Such a big, international spy epic was much better handled later, right at the very end of Communism, by John McTiernan, in The Hunt for Red October (1990), which told a very similar story but with submarines rather than with aircraft. Eastwood has proved an adaptable and versatile director, willing to take many chances on films that don’t promise much action at the box office, his career hitting many bases; tough urban thrillers (the Dirty Harry films), psychological horror (Play Misty for Me), biopic (Bird (1988), White Hunter, Black Heart (1990), J. Edgar (2011)), even romantic drama (The Bridges of Madison County (1995)) and of course westerns (Pale Rider (1985) and Unforgiven (1992)). Sadly, big budget spy thrillers seem to be beyond him and it’s perhaps no coincidence that since the commercial failure of Firefox, Eastwood has largely alternated between the more ‘comfortable’ urban thrillers and smaller, more intimate works. His lesson, it seems, has been learnt.
The EOFFTV Review 