Rocketeer Blu-Ray in December

[BobaMike]

MJ,

Thanks for sharing that article- very nicely done retrospective of one of my favorites.

Bring on the expanded score!

[Monterey Jack]

Bring on the expanded score!

Long overdue at this point.

[AndyDursin]

Bumping up this vintage thread!

First, we watched the old Disney Blu-Ray with Theo last weekend, and sadly it was the 2nd Disney disc of that era that briefly glitched up in my Panasonic UHD player. Some pixilation and brief freezing occurred right before the credits ran -- popped the disc out, did the same exact thing the second time around. I had the same thing occur with NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS too a year ago, though it was worse and I had to switch to the digital stream on Disney+.

The movie was interesting this time for me. On a purely technical level there's not a movie like it -- the sense of time and place, the evocation of the era, the production design, costumes, obviously score...all of it is just peerless. Jennifer Connelly was never more sultry or sexy than she was here too.

But while the script is pretty good on balance -- I remember the packed audience cheering at Paul Sorvino's lines and applauding at the end -- I do think it has a fundamental story issue, and that's the Rocketeer himself. He's just not very interesting, in or out of the rocketpack.

The idea of a hero slapping an engine on his back and flying around is mostly played for comical (Disney-esque) effect in the movie -- there's no sense that the ability has changed Cliff, the Billy Campbell character. When Howard Hughes asks him "how it feels" he gives a poetic response, but it's not one that seems to apply to any scene in the movie. More over, Cliff himself has no arc. He starts the movie as a terrific pilot with the hottest girl in the world. He ends the movie as a terrific pilot with the hottest girl in the world. And that's it. There's no sense (despite the sequel-planting seeds thrown in the last scene) that he needs to be the Rocketeer to fulfill some need or even heroic/patriotic duty. It's just an engine he uses to save Jenny, and when it's over, it's over (he even says as much). So there's just a flatline there that's not that compelling.

On the other end, Timothy Dalton's villain is fascinating -- the scenes with Paul Sorvino, in one his best post-Goodfellas parts, are terrific. And that's another issue, that those scenes are so good -- but also much more compelling than the mostly tepid scenes between Campbell and Alan Arkin. They're all just kind of flat, played so straight they just kind of lie there. I'm not sure this was really a great role for Arkin either -- I could've seen a number of veteran character actors being better suited to the part, especially at the time. On the other hand Campbell is fine, it's just the "golly gee whiz" role as written that's not all that interesting.

Maybe another writer should've been brought in to give more a sense of tension or interest in those scenes -- regardless, it's probably what separated THE ROCKETEER from becoming a bigger hit. Otherwise it's a warmly entertaining film and a beautiful looking one -- it's the movie DICK TRACY probably wanted to be in terms of appeal -- and I hope Disney gives it a 4K remaster at some point. The Blu-Ray transfer is fine but looks aged at times, though the soundtrack is extremely well mixed, as it always had been.

[BobaMike]

You are 100% correct Andy!
This movie has everything going for it: great FX, a good bad guy, amazing sets/art direction, a beautiful leading lady, fantastic score....but a bland main hero. It's not enough to have a great helmet and costume, the hero has to actually have some character growth.

There was also supposed to be a long jetpack chase down Hollywood Blvd, that was cut due to budget. A little more action would have helped the film.

I still love the movie though. The comics are great too!

[Monterey Jack]

Interestingly-timed bump, as I introduced this to a friend about a month back (he really enjoyed it).

Bill Campbell is indeed bland in the lead, but it works for the film's genial, "Aw Shucks" tone. I agree that one or two more action sequences would have been welcome. We barely get to see Cliff Secord fly after the "Flying Circus" setpiece! Probably down to Disney not wanting to overspend after Dick Tracy failed to live up to Tim Burton Batman expectations. Connelly is, of course, utterly luminous. I remember Owen Gleiberman, in his EW review, referring to her as "The most dazzling ingenue in many a moon".





Dalton is great, and his scenes with Paul Sorvino crackle (I've always loved Sorvino's delivery of the line, "I may not make an honest dollar, but I'm a hundred-percent American!"). Horner's score is sublime, and elevates the movie immensely (and the last 30 seconds or so of the end titles is one of the most rousing "Must air-conduct" finales of any adventure movie score I can think of). It's a shame the movie bombed, but opening around the same time as T2 must have made it seem like a musty relic that was strictly kid's stuff for people addicted to the state-of-the-art F/X in Cameron's movie.

[Jedbu]

Saw the film opening weekend at the El Capitan in Hollywood (it was also the reopening of the theater under that name [it had been the Paramount]) and the place was just gorgeous but a lot of us came to find out that the best place in the house for sound was the balcony-not the main floor-this film proved that: when Campbell flew, if you were seated on the main floor the sound did not whoosh as impressively as when you were seated in the balcony, and from then on until I left LA I would only sit in that section, and a lot of times the balcony would fill up before the main floor.

This film also has one of the greatest movie posters ever designed, and I still managed to hold onto my original.

[AndyDursin]

It's a shame the movie bombed, but opening around the same time as T2 must have made it seem like a musty relic that was strictly kid's stuff for people addicted to the state-of-the-art F/X in Cameron's movie.

It's an interesting point -- it's probably more that the '40s setting was "played out" commercially with audiences, since I doubt T2 itself had much to do with THE ROCKETEER's underwhelming box-office. ILM's FX on THE ROCKETEER were still great on their own merits and T2 wasn't a problem in terms of competition, in that you're talking about an R-rated Schwarzenegger movie versus a PG rated Disney fantasy that was aimed at the "Spielberg crowd"/family market so to speak. Those audiences only crossed over to an extent -- plus there was a much larger marketplace of audiences then than there is today to support multiple films all at the same time.

Also it's worth noting it didn't completely "bomb" --ROCKETEER reportedly had a $35 mil budget and made $46 mil domestic, which meant maybe after home video and such it could've broken even over time. It still outgrossed POINT BREAK, THELMA & LOUISE, DYING YOUNG (which I remember Premiere magazine thought was going to be the biggest movie of the year!), BILL & TED'S BOGUS JOURNEY, DEAD AGAIN, HUDSON HAWK and numerous others that summer (come to think of it, there were a lot of "meh" movies that summer). But it was supposed to be one of the big summer movies, and was Disney's possible ticket to a genre franchise, so it was a disappointment for sure in that regard.

I think it underperformed for reasons I outlined plus back at the time -- unlike today -- the Disney brand WASN'T cool. Like at all. That was one reason why, a couple of years later, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS ended up switching from Disney to Touchstone branding at the last minute, since had it gone out under Disney some of that "edgy audience" Tim Burton usually attracted wouldn't have wanted to see it. (It really took something like PIRATES' massive box-office, with a PG-13 rating along with it, to associate the Disney label with movies that crossed out of the "pure kids stuff" realm. If they tried putting that out a decade earlier it would've been a Touchstone release).

THE ROCKETEER being a "Disney movie" in 1991 did give off the impression it was more of a kids movie than something like RAIDERS even though they were going after the same kind of audience. Being in high school at the time I don't think anyone other than a couple of my friends would even admit to seeing it!

Saw the film opening weekend at the El Capitan in Hollywood (it was also the reopening of the theater under that name [it had been the Paramount]) and the place was just gorgeous but a lot of us came to find out that the best place in the house for sound was the balcony-not the main floor-this film proved that: when Campbell flew, if you were seated on the main floor the sound did not whoosh as impressively as when you were seated in the balcony, and from then on until I left LA I would only sit in that section, and a lot of times the balcony would fill up before the main floor.

I also sat in the balcony for THE ROCKEETER, in an old '30s styled movie palace up in Toronto, that had been fully restored and outfitted for THX. I wrote about it above...

viewtopic.php?p=37795#p37795

The sound was just phenomenal, and it remains my favorite movie viewing experience of all time.

[Jedbu]

Let us not forget, this was the summer before Disney's resurgence really began: THE LITTLE MERMAID had gotten critical raves and did very well at the box office in 1989, with many hoping that it would turn around the box office track record of the previous decade. That they had gotten the team of Ashman/Menken to do the songs and score was seen as a breakthrough and with the critical huzzahs for a rough cut of BEAUTY AND THE BEAST at the NY Film Festival in the spring, I think Disney thought that THE ROCKETEER would kick things off for the summer and then the buzz over BATB would push that film into the stratosphere upon its release at Christmas. Well, the Johnston film stumbled, and many were concerned that might be a setback (having lyricist Howard Ashman pass away just after getting most of the songs for the upcoming ALADDIN completed was a really sad event for Disney) but BATB got some of the greatest critical reviews in the company's history since MARY POPPINS and becane probably their most beloved animated feature since SNOW WHITE (I think only THE LION KING rivals it for that title), and snagging the first Best Picture nomination for an animated feature was earthshaking and led to not only more recognition in the film community for the art of animation, but to other companies feeling that the field for feature-length animated films was wide open, which turned out to be a good (and in some cases, questionable) thing.

[AndyDursin]

Sure, I mean the animated part was resurgent by then, coming off LITTLE MERMAID and with BEAUTY AT THE BEAST to come months later. I guess I was trying to say they were struggling to make their live-action movies -- branded under the Disney name, which you would consider a "Disney movie" so to speak -- relevant under that moniker. Something like WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT went out as a Touchstone release; so did DICK TRACY and NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS. That's why I don't think it helped that THE ROCKETEER was a "Disney movie" back then -- it does feel like a very lightweight Disney film, especially since so much of the picture goes after comical gags. There's no real sense of heavy danger going on, you can tell the "Disney influence" was there and it weighs it down just a little...or just enough that the kind of audience that would've supported it might've passed it by since it was like "hey this is a Disney movie, it's for kids". That was very prevalent back in the '80s and '90s as Disney tried to go outside the little kid demographic in so far as their own movies went (why they had to create Touchstone).

[Jedbu]

Considering how much cleavage Connolly shows in the film, I was surprised this did not go out as a Touchstone film when it was released-totally different for Disney, as is Dalton's fate.

[Monterey Jack]

Considering how much cleavage Connolly shows in the film, I was surprised this did not go out as a Touchstone film when it was released-totally different for Disney, as is Dalton's fate.

I'm betting a lot of boys were kick-started into puberty by Connelly in this movie.



Today's DIsney product is so de-sexualized in comparison to this, it's ridiculous. Even the current PG-13 Marvel stuff is so chaste it makes The Rocketeer look like Porky's.

[Eric Paddon]

I have never seen the film. And I *think* one of the reasons why I passed on it back in my college days was that when I saw the lead was Bill Campbell, all I could think of was him as Stephen Carrington's gay lover who gets blown away in the infamous "Moldavia Massacre" storyline of "Dynasty" (one of the most laughable pieces of bad 80s TV there ever was) and I just couldn't take seriously in my mind the idea of going to a film with him as the action lead. Might not have been the most enlightened attitude on my part, but that was my only frame of reference for him.

[BobaMike]

It's definitely worth seeing, as everything we mentioned above, the FX, score, actors, art design, is top notch stuff.