Main Cast: Gene Hackman, Danny Glover, Jerry Reed, David Marshall Grant, Clayton Rohner
Release Year: 1988
Country: US
Run Time: 112 minutes
Plot
Based on a true story, Bat 21 follows the harrowing adventures of Lt. Colonel Iceal Hambleton (Gene Hackman), whose plane is shot down over enemy territory while on reconnaissance behind enemy lines in Vietnam. Because Hambleton used to call the shots from behind a desk, he lacks combat survival experience and is forced to adapt while the enemy surrounds him on all sides. As the Air Force plans a risky rescue mission, he is befriended by pilot Bartholomew Clark (Danny Glover), who can't land to pick up Hambleton due to the enemy activity but keeps him company by radio. Hambleton's plight takes a turn for the worse once the brass decide to execute an intensive bombing mission in the area, whether or not they can rescue Hambleton. The colonel, meanwhile, confronted for the first time by the horrors of war, begins to reassess his role in the bloodshed. An overlooked film at the time of its release, Bat 21 is a smaller war picture that focuses on an ordinary man in an excruciating situation, and how it ultimately changes his life. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
Review
Bat 21 is based on the real-life exploits of Lieutenant Colonel Iceal Hambleton, a high-level desk jockey who's never seen the war upfront -- until he's shot down and forced to see it far closer than he ever wanted. In this way the film, shot on location in Malaysia, is unique among war movies, particularly Vietnam films. We see the horrors of war, not through the jaded eyes of a combat veteran or the innocent view of a trembling young recruit, but through the eyes of an older man who's been part of war for years, but has never really known what that meant. He has managed to be both intimately involved in the war and to have kept his hands free of blood, if only physically. Like him, we start the movie alienated from the dark events that often constituted the war, and through him, we come to know better. Due to the extensive and sensitive nature of his knowledge, Hambleton's real-life retrieval became the largest one-man rescue effort of the Vietnam war -- and highly controversial, given the real and potential losses involved in his safe return. Though Bat 21 packs a real punch, it does not set out to chronicle the violence of Vietnam with the same honest brutality of films like Platoon. Instead, it is a personal movie, a film that tells the story of two men whose fates have become intertwined, Gene Hackman's Hambleton and Danny Glover as the pilot who won't abandon him, and both men excel in their roles. Compared to more expansive, more traditional war films, the personal focus of Bat 21 is unique. The end result is a taut, suspenseful story of two atypical cinematic warriors, a combat story whose relative "smallness" is refreshing. ~ Matthew Doberman, All Movie Guide
Erich Anderson - Maj. Jake Scott; Joe Dorsey - Col. Douglass; Timothy Fitzgerald - EB-66 Officer; Stuart Hagen - EB-66 Officer; Scott Howell - Helicopter Crew; Alan King - Helicopter Gunner; Rev. Michael Ng - Vietnamese Man; Michael Raden - Helicopter Crew; Theodore Chan Woei-Shyong - Boy on Bridge; Don Ruffin - Helicopter Crew; Jeff Baxter - Helicopter Gunner; Willie Lai - NVA/VC Officer; Bonnie Young - NVA/VC Officer; Michael Lee
Credit
Art Riddle - Art Director, James Terry Welden - Art Director, Terry Weldon - Art Director, Michael Balson - Co-producer, Mark Damon - Co-producer, David Fisher - Co-producer, Gary A. Neill - Co-producer, David Saunders - Co-producer, Audrey M. Bansmer - Costume Designer, Craig Huston - First Assistant Director, Peter Markle - Director, Everett Creach - Second Unit Director, Stephen E. Rivkin - Editor, Jerry Reed - Executive Producer, Jerry Rees - Executive Producer, Evzen Kolar - Line Producer, Christopher Young - Composer (Music Score), Louis Lazzara - Makeup, Vince Cresciman - Production Designer, Mark Irwin - Cinematographer, Evzen Kolar - Producer, Karen Riddle - Set Designer, Richard Johnson - Special Effects, Ike Magal - Sound/Sound Designer, Everett Creach - Stunts, William C. Anderson - Screenwriter, George Gordon - Screenwriter, Peter Markle - Screenwriter, Marc Norman - Screenwriter, Philip Holahan - Second Unit Director Of Photography, William C. Anderson - Book Author, Robert "Bobby Z" Zajonc - Pilot
