Bat 21

Amazon.com

Gene Hackman is a fighter pilot in Vietnam. When he gets shot down behind enemy lines, he manages to hang on to his radio--and maintains contact with Danny Glover, back at the base. Hackman must rely on his own instincts--and the long-distance assistance of Glover--to work his way back to his own territory. The script, by Marc Norman and William Anderson, can't rise above war-movie clichés and Peter Markle's direction can't lift it. Neither can David Marshall Grant, as an overly passionate copter jockey whose rescue attempt proves more hindrance than help. But crafty veterans Hackman and Glover know a thing or two about transcending mediocre material with performances of depth and humanity. --Marshall Fine

Description

Only the bravest of men risk their lives to save others! In this "suspenseful and engrossing actiontale" (Boxoffice) based on a true-life rescue story, Oscar(r) winner* Gene Hackman (Unforgiven) and Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon) portray a pair of valiant American soldiers up against impossible odds for survival and rescue within war-torn Vietnam. After his reconnaissance plane is shot down behind enemy lines in Vietnam, Lt. Colonel Hambleton (Hackman), a career soldier who's used to calling the shots from behind a desk, must now figure out a way to survive in the jungle! Luckily for him, he manages to establish radio contact with an Air Force pilot, Bird-Dog (Glover), who makes it his mission to save his stranded comrade. To plan the dangerous rescue, the two soldiers communicate by secret code. But when the enemy intercepts their messages, it's only a matter of time before the code is broken...leaving both men at risk of being caught and imprisoned.

Customer Reviews:

Bat 21 & the Air Force.......2007-01-21

As an Air Force retiree, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. I first viewed it back in 1992 and have seen it once since then. The story line is cool, brings in the viewer quickly, doesn't clutter it up with all those introductions and is well packed with suspense, action, and comaradarie. My only negative for this flick is it's too short. I would've preferred more scenes where Gene Hackman was performing ground-controller duties against the VC or NVA, and more aerial footage of the environment in which he and his crew members got shot down.

Overall, it's a great flick that helps promote the Air Force and the circumstances our flight crews can go thru during combat, especially when they are shot down.

Exciting Rescue.......2006-08-30

Gene Hackman plays a career Air Force intelligence officer with a passion for golf. He looks for the day when he can retire and try to join the pro tour. In the meantime, however, he is still a serving officer in Vietnam.

Retirement is fairly close when he gets shot out of the sky while riding on a B-52 mission. He is the only survivor and he is someone that the Viet Cong would very much like to capture. He has to run for his life. In his running, he is aided by a forward air controller played by Danny Glover.

Hackman knows that the area he is in is due to be carpet bombed in a few days and he has to get out of there. The problem is that the VC are listening in on the radio and that makes planning problematical until golf proves to be a useful escape tool. Hackman knows the layouts of the world's military golf courses like the back of his hand and comes up with a code using golf terms and the layout of well known military courses to let the rescuers know how to keep up with him. Its still tough going, though, and the VC don't give up easily.

This is a rather good movie and one could almost be fooled into thinking that Danny Glover really does love his country...almost.

[Three-and-a-half stars out of five] Not bad Vietnam era film but one more attempt to ring $ outta Bo Gritz-style 'Behind Lines'.......2006-08-18

Cast: Jerry Reed (!), Danny Glover, Clayton
Rohner, Gene Hackman. Hackman is a good actor
but is a little long in the tooth to play this
kind of roll. Col. escapes behind enemy lines
in southeast asia and Reed wants him back, but
Glover goes out on his own to get Hackman back.
Obvious parallels with '83's fine Uncommon Valor
w/ Hackman in '80's going back to southeast asia
to get Amer-I-can missing P.O.W.s (as Bo Gritz
wannabe, of course). Eighth film of such nature
and not bad at all. The others: Missing In Action,
I-III, Rambos, I-III, P.O.W.-The Escape, w/ David
Carradine.

BAT 21.......2006-03-14

Excellent. Shows true events that happen to pilots in Vietnam. Keeps you in suspense.
Steve101st Airborne (Vietnam)

Gene Hackman on the Golf Course in Viet Nam.......2005-10-28

Gene Hackman is Lt. Colonel Iceal Hambleton. In real life Lt. Col. Hambleton was flying as a navigator on an EB-66 electronic countermeasures plane, call sign Bat-21. When a surface-to-air missile hits the plane, Col. Hambleton is the only man able to eject from the aircraft, landing in the northern portion of South Viet Nam. For the next eleven and a half days Col. Hambleton evaded capture by the North Vietnamese Army until he was rescued in one of the largest and most complex rescue missions of the Viet Nam War. These true events, for which 234 medals were awarded, inspired this movie.

In the movie Col. Hambleton is nearing possible rescue by a Jolly Green Giant rescue helicopter when Viet Cong destroy the helicopter. The Viet Cong, who are using the people of a nearby village to protect themselves from American attack since the Viet Cong know that Americans typically attempt to protect non-combatants, kill all the crew. However, this time the rage of Col. George Walker (Jerry Reed, in one of his best roles) causes the village to be destroyed by napalm bombs.

Col. Hambleton is on the run for his life, both from the North Vietnamese Army and from an impending air strike by B-52 bombers. Using the call sign Bat-21 and his URC-64 survival radio, Hambleton follows directions from forward air controller Captain Bartholomew Clark along a path based on golf courses that Col. Hambleton has played.

What I find amazing about this movie is that while there are events that illustrate the tragedy and inhumanity of the combat in Viet Nam, much of the movie focuses on the people in the movie. There is a touching moment where Col. Hambleton passes a boy on a bridge, and the two exchange gifts, forgetting for a moment the ideologically generated conflict going on around them. It is also apparent to me that Col. Hambleton had nothing against the Vietnamese people; he was just a soldier with a job to do.

Movies typically do a poor job portraying any war or combat, with few exceptions. Similarly, this movie misses much with respect to the true story. This movie also invents things that never happened, or misrepresents other events, likely all for the sake of pace and action. However, this movie does catch the spirit of one man surviving incredible odds in war to not only do his job, which was to fight an enemy, but to get himself rescued in the process. From that viewpoint this movie is a winner.

Average customer rating:

Bat 21 & the Air Force
Exciting Rescue
[Three-and-a-half stars out of five] Not bad Vietnam era film but one more attempt to ring $ outta Bo Gritz-style 'Behind Lines'
BAT 21
Gene Hackman on the Golf Course in Viet Nam

BAT 21
Starring: Gene Hackman , Danny Glover , Jerry Reed , David Marshall Grant , and Clayton Rohner
Director: Peter Markle
Manufacturer: MGM (Video & DVD)
ProductGroup: Video
Binding: VHS Tape

General | Action & Adventure | Genres | VHS | Video

Vietnam War | Military & War | Genres | VHS | Video

Anderson, Erich | ( A ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Glover, Danny | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Grant, David Marshall | ( G ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Hackman, Gene | ( H ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Reed, Jerry | ( R ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Rohner, Clayton | ( R ) | Actors & Actresses | VHS | Video

Markle, Peter | ( M ) | Directors | VHS | Video

Deals Under $8 | Today's Deals in Video | Features | VHS | Video

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ASIN: B00004Y872
Release Date: 2000-11-07