In a lot of ways, “The Rocketeer” (1991) is an old-fashioned whiz bang adventure. There are the consciously-fabricated elements of a fabled lost America, with its sepia tones and well-dressed citizenry, an upright, uncomplicated hero (and seat-of-the-pants test pilot, played by Billy Campbell), his truehearted sweetheart (an aspiring starlet, played by Jennifer Connelly), and comic book Nazis. You know the kind of movie. Toss the Chuck Yeager scenes from “The Right Stuff” into a blender with “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
But looking back, “The Rocketeer” genuinely is from a more innocent time, before penny-pinching computer animation squeezed out analogue ingenuity, when superhero movies were still comparatively rare, and no studio release, not even one directed by Steven Spielberg, was expected to gross billions of dollars. Interesting to muse on the transformation of Disney from the studio that produced this squeaky-clean popcorn entertainment to the current Dark Lord of assembly line Marvel movies.
“The Rocketeer” rode the same aftershock of ‘80s blockbusters that yielded “The Shadow,” “The Phantom,” and later in the decade, “The Mask of Zorro,” before movies took a decisive turn down a darker, more violent, and decidedly dystopian trail.
Alan Arkin plays the Doc Brown character, a resourceful mechanic who can work miracles with spit and chewing gum. Paul Sorvino plays a mafia boss, who, when the chips are down, hates the Nazis every bit as much as Meyer Lansky did. Philadelphia’s Jon Polito, a Coen Brothers’ favorite, plays – what else? – the sleazy airfield boss.
For classic film buffs, there’s added enjoyment in the recreations of old Hollywood (from back in the days when the iconic sign still read Hollywoodland), with Timothy Dalton relishing his role as an Errol Flynn-like swashbuckler (one of the sets from “The Adventures of Robin Hood” is lovingly recreated), unsubstantiated rumors that Flynn was a Nazi spy (as asserted in a controversial 1980 biography by Charles Higham) here taken at face value. Remember this is fiction, folks, based on a comic book, in fact, by Dave Stevens.
There are also set pieces that are staged in a nightclub and a dirigible, Terry O’Quinn appears as Howard Hughes, other actors impersonate Clark Gable and W.C. Fields, and there’s even an uncanny resurrection of acromegalic actor Rondo Hatton (Tiny Ron quite convincing as the Creeper).
Most important is the jet-pack propelled Rocketeer himself, with serial icon Commando Cody given a seriously art deco makeover.
You can see the kind of movie they wanted “The Rocketeer” to be. It was directed by Joe Johnston, who co-designed Boba Fett and was an Academy Award winning effects artist on both “Star Wars” and “Raiders of the Lost Ark.” Among his more recent films as a director is “Captain America: The First Avenger.”
Unfortunately, “The Rocketeer” lacks uplift and euphoria. The film needed a Richard Donner (who directed “Superman”) or a Spielberg at the helm. Then it might have had that elusive spark, so that when an onlooking cries out, “It’s the Rocketeer!” we really want to laugh and cheer.
James Horner’s score captures the optimism of limitless possibility and wide-open adventure (how I miss Horner!), but he doesn’t offer a rousing secondary “super” theme that would have helped to sell the premise. In the action scenes, the music gets busy, but it fails to excite.
“The Rocketeer” never quite soars or attains the giddy heights it aspires to.
Not to talk it out…
“The Rockeeter” will be the topic of our weekly conversation on the next Roy’s Tie-Dye Sci-Fi Corner. Get fueled up! Your presence in the comments section will give us a lift, when we livestream on Facebook, YouTube, etc., this Friday evening at 7:00 EDT!
