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Bat 21 (1988)

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From Time Out Film Guide

An unsatisfactory mix of low-key heroics, buddy-buddy humour, and anti-war sentiment, this downbeat Vietnam pic has reconnaissance expert Hackman (codename Bat 21) - a career colonel with no frontline experience - struggling to survive in a jungle crawling with North Vietnamese troops after ejecting from his plane. Making radio contact with spotter pilot Glover (codename Birddog), he maps out a coded route to a rendezvous. Cue for a cross-country hike punctuated by brushes with NVA patrols, a machete-wielding peasant, and an ambiguously angelic Vietnamese child. Certain scenes achieve a genuine tension, as when Hackman has to watch a captured chopper pilot sent into a waterlogged minefield by NVA soldiers; but this is immediately undercut by a retaliatory bombing raid that destroys a camouflaged NVA hideout, regardless of civilian casualties. Like the film as a whole, such scenes elicit sympathy more for the tacitly guilty Hackman than for the innocent victims.

Author: NF

Time Out Film Guide

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ScottyDog said...

Posted on Mar 02 2008 17:56 Bat 21 is based on the memoirs of Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton who was shot down during the Vietnam war while mapping SAM sites for the Air Force.
The real Iceal Hambleton spent 12 days evading the NVA and lost 40 pounds before being rescued by Navy Seal Tom Norris.
Although Bat 21 is a bit touchy feely in some scenes, it is a great story about personal triumph and courage in the face of insurmountable odds.
Bat 21 is based on the memoirs of Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton who was shot down during the Vietnam war while mapping SAM sites for the Air Force.
The real Iceal Hambleton spent 12 days evading the NVA and lost 40 pounds before being rescued by Navy Seal Tom Norris. Both were awarded the Medal of Honor.
Although Bat 21 is a bit "touchy feely" in some scenes, but is a great story about personal triumph and courage in the face of insurmountable odds.
The other review on this site says Hackman is some how guilty of gaining sympathy for the killing of innocent victims. This is patently false. Hackman’s character tried to stop the airstrikes because there were civilians in the village being used as cover or human shields by the NVA.

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