An Underrated Classic? The Rocketeer movie, review, film, sequal, superheros When I ask people about small movies that they absolutely love, occasionally the Rocketeer comes up as an answer. I had only seen this movie once as a kid, and am not embarrassed to admit that I had no clue what was going on. In fact, all I remember about the movie is the hero pushing a truck with his rocket pack, and some guy catching on fire.
So I took a second look at it and found out that Disney made this little known Superhero film. I figured that with the news of Disney's latest business purchase, I'd take a look at how they handled a superhero film before it became a popular genre.
Enter the Rocketeer, a more wholesome family friendly figure than Batman. His crazy antics draw off the retro-feel for what life in a 1930's American comic book was like; back when people had attention spans. The first thing that you'll notice is that the opening is a bit slow and tame; the credits, the introduction to the characters, the police chase. Yup, even the police chase plays it safe, despite the fact a (background) character is killed in it, it never feels exciting...just neat and clean.
Thanks to that event being over with, a jetpack is hidden were our hero Cliff Secord (Bill Campbell) finds it. This leads up to the really complicated introduction of the Rocketeer's first appearance. You have to listen carefully to why people are doing everything, or else some events in the movie won't make much sense. Why is Howard Hughes involved? Why does James Bond have a mustache? Why is a clown flying a crop duster towards a crowd of people? Well, the movie explains this, but it gives a line or two for each explanation, so if you doze off for a minute, you might be lost.
That probably explains why I had little recollection of what this film was about.
The characters are alright; they're the archetypal characters you'd find in an film about heroes. You have Cliff Secord/Bill Campbell, who plays the eager but dense Rocketeer. He really has no defining characteristics, it's kind of creepy to watch. He just stands there with a stunned look on his face for most the movie; the look will either morph into a smile, or an expression of worry. He also has perfect hair for the whole film, despite wearing a helmet for a third of it. The actor can deliver his lines well enough, but he's so two dimensional that I wanted to punch him.
Cliff has the supporting characters that all young heroes have, the kind that exist just to support him. He has an independent but kidnappable girlfriend, who is an actress, because girls that are anything other than models or actresses don't belong in superhero films. (As Ms. Rachel Dawes knows very well.) He's got the old boss who knows how things work and is looking out for his best interest. He doesn't have a zany or troubled best friend, but he does have a variety of humble townsfolk who like him and tell him what to do. Again, all this is very tame, making The Rocketeer a rather quiet kids film.
Howard Hughes is also a character in this film, although the actor looks more like Walt Disney than America's top aviation pioneer. He's shown to be a strict but nice guy who is in no way a creepy germaphobe. Actually, he's kind of cool in this.
The villains are where this movie really shines, you have gangsters, Nazis, the FBI, and Timothy Dalton playing himself.
Actually, Dalton plays Neville Sinclair, an actor who is trying to get the prototype jetpack for his own reasons. Dalton is great as the villain, he mixes the perfect blend of suave and slimy, then just gets a bit melodramatic to help liven up the scenes he is in.
Timothy has some competition trying to beat him to the Jetpack. The FBI are after Mr. Hughes prototype, but they are hindered by Eddie Valentines' all-American mobsters; as those two fractions impede each other, a large mute German with strong facial features is killing his way towards the prototype.
This is kind of where the film loses it's audience a bit. Kids don't know what Nazi's are, they don't know about the 1930's, the great depression, or why everyone is going after the jet pack, since if the hero has it, it must be good. The movie bases itself on kids stories from that time, but the problem is that that demographic no longer exists. Unless a child is extremely bright, many under the age of 13 are not going to get everyone's motives and reasoning. But most teenagers would be bored at the films pacing and tame feeling. So really the only audience left are the parents that want to see an action film they can take their kids to, and the mega-nerds that are fans of 1930's post-Superman pulp fantasy heroes.
The lack of an existing demographic is why this film didn't do too well in theaters. In fact, I believe it bombed domestically; probably why people are so eager to like this movie. It's clearly a movie that didn't deserve to fail.
This movie has some things going for it, besides Timothy Dalton. The graphics were made by the Industrial Light and Magic studio, and they still look pretty impressive. Especially considering that this came out in 1991, just before Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Jurassic Park changed the landscape of special effects. They (the effects) are a bit dated, but on par with most of what you'd see in a high budget television show today. They aren't overused and were definitely one of the high points of the movie when it was released.
The Rocketeer was also one of the first comic book movies I know of that wasn't based off of a hugely famous property. It was a risky project to greenlight and I applaud everyone involved for trying. It was also one of the first superhero movies that was a period piece/historical fiction.
The film really does feel like a comic book from the 1930's. I think that praise for that goes to the comic book version of the character, created by Dave Stevens. But the movie adapts the source material well, it creates a solid piece of retro-fun, and apparently that sense of fun translated well with the few people that saw it. Just treat the plot like one from a 1930's comic book, and all of the plot wholes, sudden character changes, and completely melodramatic climax (on a Zeppelin) are forgivable and work well as a film. Just like a good novel, the film wraps up nicely, leaving room for a sequel, but giving enough closure that it feels the story is complete.
The film still has a lot of problems though, the one that bugged me the most was the character of the Rocketeer himself. (I still want to punch him.) Cliff's transformation into the Rocketeer is well handled and believable, but by the end of the film, he never really reaches his potential. He constantly messes up throughout the whole movie, and never makes a perfect flight with the pack, until the final act where suddenly he's a master of it. A lot of the time in combat, he's running around and randomly doing Stephen Colbert poses, preferably next to the American flag.
There's a lot of pro-American stuff in here, even the gangsters make a stand for Lady Liberty. I didn't mind it too much, since that draws from the source material, (and Superheros in general,) but I know it will turn some people off. Although this USA-all-the-way sentiment might make some people like the film better.
As mentioned before, the characters are archetypal, and a lot of them aren't given much screen time. In fact, it really does feel like there were some scenes in this movie that were missing. I don't know if they cut them out on the DVD, or if they never made it to theatres, but occasionally a character would pop up who we've only seen for five to ten seconds before, and the film would expect us to know them. A director's cut or deleted scenes might be a good idea when the inevitable 25th anniversary edition shows up.
So, does this make the grade as an underrated classic? Well, it's very underrated, that's undeniable. But I can't call it a classic of any sort, I don't know if I'd even qualify this as a cult classic. It's definitely worth seeing if you catch it on TV, or find a copy at your library, but I wouldn't recommend anyone buy this. Besides the nostalgic value, I can't really see why people are as passionate about this film as they claim. If you love this film, but haven't seen it in a while, you should probably watch it again before telling people they HAVE to see it.
I enjoyed the Rocketeer more as an adult than I did as a kid, but by now the movie has shown it's age and better films have entered the superhero niche market. This is one of the few films that I think could use a reboot or sequel (with a new cast) to introduce it to a new generation, and get away with stuff that costumed vigilantes were never allowed to do on film in the early 90's.
I'll now leave you with a fan made trailer that captures the spirit of the movie better than the actual previews:
I was 10 when this movie came out, and I understood the plot, characters, and motivations without any trouble. I'd seen Indiana Jones, I knew what the Nazis were. Bad. That's really all that mattered at that time. Whether Hughes really worked with the Nazis is a conspiracy theory I was unaware of until much older, though.
