Are we stupid? - Air America (1990) Discussion

[–] dustyhonda2000 20 years ago

How many times in the X-files did the locator say something like "Du Pont Circle, Washington, D.C."? Did any episode of this show not have some connection or scene in Washington? Its along the same lines.

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[–] OCOKA 20 years ago

No, it is not along the same lines. For "The X-Files" to identify "DuPont Circle" in Washington, D.C. is hardly superfluous. To identify Laos in Southeast Asia is.

"DuPont Circle" is a public square with no visible population, less than 50 square meters in area that is virually unknown to anyone not familiar with Washington, D.C.

Laos, on the other hand, is a major Southeast Asian power and sovereign nation with a population of over 4.25 million people and a total area of 91,428 square miles.

Think about it...

Public square in small U.S. city with an inflated ego = obscure

Laos = a well-known country

Thanks for trying though.

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[–] foxjr 20 years ago

I know where Laos is, you know where it is; but I doubt 9 out of 10 americans could find it on a map.

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[–] 20 years ago

[deleted]

[–] captkirk_4 14 years ago

Re: Are we stupid?
by - OCOKA on Tue Jun 8 2004 03:03:00
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
No, it is not along the same lines. For "The X-Files" to identify "DuPont Circle" in Washington, D.C. is hardly superfluous. To identify Laos in Southeast Asia is.

"DuPont Circle" is a public square with no visible population, less than 50 square meters in area that is virually unknown to anyone not familiar with Washington, D.C.

Laos, on the other hand, is a major Southeast Asian power and sovereign nation with a population of over 4.25 million people and a total area of 91,428 square miles.

Think about it...

Public square in small U.S. city with an inflated ego = obscure

Laos = a well-known country

Thanks for trying though.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Yes a lot of Americans ARE stupid and do need the basic geography lesson.

Laos is also NOT a major Southeast Asian power. Let's see it is sandwiched between 70 million Vietnamese, 70 million Thais, and 1 billion Chinese. It has very little industry unlike it's neighbors, When you fly over SE Asia on a clear day it is shocking when you pass over the Mekong into Laos how the land is suddenly dominated by jungle and the paved highways seen in neighboring countries vanish into dirt roads. Laos is very remote and sparsely populated compared to it's neighbors, not the type of place I'd expect the average knuckleheaded American to know much about.

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[–] tryptich2 18 years ago

Well, look who's Preznit.

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[–] Eric-1226 19 years ago

>>Any other patently idiotic things witnessed in this movie? <<

I really enjoyed the movie, because I like movies with a flight/airplane theme, but yes, there were some rather odd, or even "patently idiotic" things that I witnessed in this movie. To name a few: anachronysms, such as including songs that came well after the time period (1969) upon which this film was based [Those two lounge-singers singing "Horse With No Name" is one example]. Also, how did a Los Angeles helicopter traffic pilot (Billy Covington, Robert Downey Jr.'s character) suddenly get so quickly "qualified" to fly those single-engine planes, not to mention the bigger twin-engine piston-driven C-123's?? True, he'd been a bush flyer in Canada (as they pointed out) but still, he would have needed special training and testing to be able to fly dual-engine transport planes. What was the deal with Nancy Travis's character, Corinne Landreaux, a U.S. government employee who, while working for yet another U.S. government agency (U.S. Aid) apparently was totally not in the loop as far as concerned the "darker" activities of the Air America (C.I.A.-controlled) operation going on around her? I got the sense that her character wasn't for real. In the end, where the crew jettisoned the cargo from that C-123 and then allowed a huge crowd of humans to come on board the plane, was there no load-master who did a calculation as to what effect the weight of this mass of people would have on such things as fuel consumption, center of gravity, etc.??

But I do not wish to needlessly nit-pick, as I'm more than happy to chalk a lot of these things up to artistic license. "Air America" is, all things considered, a fun, enjoyable movie and I've watched it several times with much enjoyment. The biggest kick I get out of the movie is watching Robert Downey Jr.'s character having such an anti-drug attitude, even to the point of blowing up an opium (or heroin?) production lab.

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[–] booksbelgium 18 years ago

&&&&
"How did a Los Angeles helicopter traffic pilot (Billy Covington, Robert Downey Jr.'s character) suddenly get so quickly "qualified" to fly those single-engine planes, not to mention the bigger twin-engine piston-driven C-123's??"

You brought yourself the answer to your first question: "he'd been a bush flyer in Canada" and thus we may assert that he has all the required licenses to fly a dual-engine plane, not to mention single-engine ones (with a commercial pilot license, you learn to do that).

&&&&
"What was the deal with Nancy Travis's character, Corinne Landreaux, a U.S. government employee who, while working for yet another U.S. government agency (U.S. Aid) apparently was totally not in the loop as far as concerned the "darker" activities of the Air America (C.I.A.-controlled) operation going on around her?"

That is the main quality of intelligence agencies, aka low visibility: every single employee is not aware of all the covert ops. This is to ensure safety of operations and minimal exposure to public opinion in case of information leak.

&&&&
"Was there no load-master who did a calculation as to what effect the weight of this mass of people would have on such things as fuel consumption, center of gravity, etc.??"

Remember Saigon 1975. You don't always have time to do things properly, with the rules.

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[–] Axelbaxter 15 years ago

Quote:
&&&&
"How did a Los Angeles helicopter traffic pilot (Billy Covington, Robert Downey Jr.'s character) suddenly get so quickly "qualified" to fly those single-engine planes, not to mention the bigger twin-engine piston-driven C-123's??"

You brought yourself the answer to your first question: "he'd been a bush flyer in Canada" and thus we may assert that he has all the required licenses to fly a dual-engine plane, not to mention single-engine ones (with a commercial pilot license, you learn to do that).
End Quote.

I'd have to quibble a bit with your answer. I have an unlimited commercial pilot's license, but I am certified ONLY in SEL (Single Engine Land) aircraft. A pilot must receive specific and separate training for multi-engine, complex aircraft (constant-speed prop, retractable gear, etc.), rotorcraft, etc., and receive a check ride from an FAA examiner before being type-rated--meaning he is certified to be pilot-in-command of the particular aircraft. Further, to pilot certain types of aircraft, a pilot must also be instrument rated, requiring yet additional training and check rides.

Typically, a pilot also receives some small amount of dual-time in an aircraft he has never flown before, to become acquainted with all aspects of that aircraft's performance characteristics--that is, if a pilot is flying an aircraft that is NOT his own. Insurance regulations, you know.

On the other hand, in situations such as that depicted in "Air America", administrators might abandon formal rules, and simply be sure you are type-rated for the general type of aircraft--single-engine, multi-engine, rotorcraft, etc., then give you a quick run-down of the performance characteristics (speeds, RPM, manifold pressure, weights, etc.) of the aircraft you are about to command.

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[–] Ezekiel_Stone 19 years ago

This reminds me of a really funny episode of "King of the Hill":

HANK: So, are you Chinese or Japanese?
KAHN: I live in California last twenty years, but first come from Laos.
HANK: Huh?
KAHN: Laos. We Laotian.
BILL: The ocean? What ocean?
KAHN: We are Laotian. From Laos, stupid! It's a landlocked country in Southeast Asia. It's between Vietnam and Thailand, okay? Population 4.7 million.
HANK: So, are you Chinese or Japanese?

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[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] dave-ferrit 16 years ago

I think i`ll re-awaken this thread after watching `Hitman` recently which still fealt the need to point out that London is in England. When was the last time a film said New York - America.

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[–] ramsdellphoto 15 years ago

Well seeing that there is a London Ontario as well as the one in England, How many NEw Yorks do you know of?

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[–] CJ-Diggs 16 years ago

It benefited me, I was about 10 when I saw this in theatre. Of the over 100 nations at the time it was made, Laos wasn't a big enough one for me to have heard of at my age. It was no tourist destination in 1990 and even today Laos isn't well known being it's a small nation that was shut off to much of the world for many years.

As for any other patently idiotic things in the movie, depending on ones intelligence it doesn't have to be studied too deeply to see there are a few. I accepted long ago that movies are just movies, they're more fun this way.

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[–] SuperMarioBros3 16 years ago

When you look in a map or atlas that is exactly how it is presented.

So shut the f\/ck up and go back to your hole.

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[–] davie4u 13 years ago

Considering that a large number of Americans probably couldn't locate Laos on a map, it isn't superfluous to also state it is in Southeast Asia.

Congratulations on being one of the ones who didn't need the extra direction.

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[–] RParmly-3 13 years ago

There was a poll around the time of the last Fourth of July according to which something like 26% of people interviewed couldn't identify which nation we "declared independence" from.

So to answer your question, yes, apparently, one quarter of the potential audience is indeed that dumb. (Or uninformed, if you prefer: after all, knowing the location of Laos and the identity of our forefather-nation doesn't make a whole difference in the immediate lives of most Americans).

There's a plan in everything, kid. And I love it when a plan comes together!

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[–] melvin_schlock 13 years ago

I can't remember what else offended me apart from the stupidity of it, but this is the only film I have paid money to see and walked out of 20 minutes into it.

"Please you must forgive me, I am old but still a child."

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[–] clwowski 13 years ago

“Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.”

George Carlin