Bat★21 (1988)
1h 45m | PG-13
Lt. Col. Iceal "Ham" Hambleton is a weapons countermeasures expert and when his aircraft is shot over enemy territory the Air Force very much wants to get him back. Hambleton knows the area he's in is going to be carpet-bombed but a temporary shortage of helicopters causes a delay. Working with an Air Force reconnaissance pilot, Capt. Bartholomew Clark, he maps out an escape route.
Director: Peter Markle
Studio: TriStar Pictures
Genre: Action, War, Drama
Video: 720p
Cast
Gene Hackman
as Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton
Danny Glover
as Capt. Bartholomew Clark
Jerry Reed
as Col. George Walker
David Marshall Grant
as Ross Carver
Clayton Rohner
as Sgt. Harley Rumbaugh
Erich Anderson
as Major Jake Scott
Reviews
"BAT*21" is above all an exceptionally well made and very worthwhile film based upon a remarkable true story. The action sequences have been brought to the screen with the deliberate intention of not glamourising the necessary depiction of violence (to do otherwise would have been a lethal miscalculation). This film is also able to depict Hambleton's rescue as being a far from easy proposition and you constantly find yourself wondering if the mission will have a successful resolution at all, especially in light of the fact Hambleton is about to find himself caught in an area which is going to be blanket bombed by the Strategic Air Command.