MovieChat Forums > Above and Beyond (2015) Discussion > Pleasantly surprised

Pleasantly surprised

posted 9 years ago by nagmashdriver
2 replies | jump to latest

I'm an American Israel, former SAG member, movie, airplane and war history enthusiast. So, I saw this today at the Prescott Arizona film festival with a critical eye.

My biggest fear is that because this is a (Nancy) Spielberg production, the CGI would dominate and ruin the film just like the abominable 2012 Lucasfilm bomb, "Red Tails".

YES, there was CGI because of the lack of real footage from the extremely hard-pressed and embryonic Israel Air Force. So, it was used to increase the drama with the recreations of the training, flights, crashes, etc.

I was pleasantly shocked that ALL the cuss words, including the "F-Bomb" were not bleeped out. Amazing; I guess Nancy doesn't share her brother's politics.

When Paul Rubens came on the screen I snickered with the memory of his embarrassing arrest in 1991 but quickly got engrossed by the story of his father, one of the machal pilots!

Kol ha kavode, Nancy, you done good!

[–] a-friedma 9 years ago

I too was impressed with this documentary. It was great to see first-person recollections from some of the volunteer pilots who are now in their 80s and 90s, but you can still sense the bravado and moxie they had in their 20s. Although it was apparent that CGI had to be used to show 'footage' that probably never existed, it was well done and felt 'real'.

I particularly liked the stories of smuggling planes and weapons out of the U.S.

[–] dannieboy20906 7 years ago

I am about half way through the video and I have seen very little film that looks like CGI. What you may have mistaken as CGI is some modern footage shot using Spanish built versions of the Bf(Me) 109 and 'antiqued' to appear like vintage film.

There are brief shots that may be CGI showing air combat maneuvering. However, the shots are so brief that they may well be actual gun camera footage, except for the shot from behind that shows the Arab Spitfires scattering while being fired on by an Israeli Messerschmidt. No airplane would be in the right position to take such film, gun camera or not.

The best diplomat I know is a fully charged phaser bank.