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User:Gerald Waldo Luis/sandbox 8

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Gerald Waldo Luis/sandbox 8
A black screen featuring the film's title and copyright tag
Title screen
Directed byDennis Earl Moore
Screenplay by
Story by
Produced by
  • Dennis Earl Moore
  • Greg MacGillivray
Starring
Cinematography
  • Timothy C. Housel
  • Richard Hart
Edited by
  • David Saxon
  • Jill Demby
Music byBasil Poledouris
Production
companies
Distributed byConoco, Inc.
Release date
August 6, 1982
Running time
33 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
BudgetUS$2.4 million
Box office$39 million

Flyers is a 1982 American short drama film written and directed by Dennis Earl Moore, who also produced it and wrote the story with Greg MacGillivray. The screenplay was written by a separate team of three. It tells the story of a man named Kyle Murphy (Roy Cooper), who owns a company which performs aerobatics for films. Meanwhile, he also guides his protege, young aviation enthusiast Tim (Perry Lang), who wishes to do the lethal aerobatics and aspires to be a pilot. Completing the ensemble cast are Margaret Blye and Hugh Gillin.

The film was proposed by the Smithsonian Institution in 1980, four years after the success of MacGillivray's first IMAX film To Fly!, which was also the National Air and Space Museum (NASM) IMAX theater's premiere film. The following year, Conoco, Inc. agreed to fund, sponsor, and distribute the film; it had previously done the same thing for To Fly!. Flyers was released on August 6, 1982 at NASM, and was subsequently released in other IMAX theaters. It received praise for its cinematographic immersion, though the plot was criticized by some as banal.

Plot edit

Kyle Murphy is a World War II veteran United States Navy pilot. Amid the South Pacific Area ocean in 1944, he declares mayday as his Vought F4U Corsair's landing gear is faulty. He then successfully belly lands at an aircraft carrier.

Years later, Kyle owns Murphy Aviation based at a hangar; his job is to restore aircraft and perform aerobatics with them for films. Employees include his wife Perk, and young aviation enthusiast Tim who is the son of Kyle's wingman Biff. One day, the company is assigned to perform a dogfight between two biplanes at Paris for a French war film. Tim begs Kyle to allow him to fly one of the biplanes, but Kyle assigns him as cinematographer and camera helicopter pilot. Back at the hangar, Tim reveals to Kyle that he has been practicing wing walking. Kyle refuses to give him aerobatic position at the company, but after some time, Tim is allowed to perform above the Grand Canyon. He begins successfully, but then releases his safety belt in a daring intention, and falls as Perk barrel rolls the plane; he is saved by Kyle.

Kyle is mad at Tim for his lethal act. The next morning, Tim goes to his house and apologizes, and they reconcile again. Upon Kyle's suggestion, Tim observes stunts on a fighter jet and a glider, which reaffirms his passion. Later, Kyle grants Tim's wish to recreate his 1944 landing. They film the next morning. Despite taking a longer time to stop, Tim manages to land, and is met with applause. Kyle praises him, and the film ends with both of them flying respective gliders back to Murphy Aviation's hangar, with Kyle behind Tim.

Cast edit

 
Margaret Blye plays Kyle Murphy's wife and coworker Perk

Production edit

In 1976, the National Air and Space Museum opened in Washington, D.C.; its facilities include an IMAX theater, with its premiere film being To Fly! by Greg MacGillivray of MacGillivray Freeman Films (MFF). Funded, sponsored, and distributed by Conoco, Inc., it became one of the most significant IMAX films of all time, with IMAX being praised as an immersive film projection format.

In 1980, the NASM's Smithsonian Institution proposed to MacGillivray another IMAX film titled Flyers, which would be MacGillivray's second IMAX film. He, wife Barbara Smith, and Smithsonian director Walter J. Boyne then teamed up with filmmaker Dennis Earl Moore to conceive the film's story. In 1981, Conoco came back from To Fly! to do the same thing to Flyers: funding, sponsoring, and later distributing the film.

Budget 3 million. Boyne commented on the rough cut, "throughout the film they have avoided the incessant roller coaster action that spoils so many IMAX films. [It has] long moments of lyrical beauty, smoothly executed, but punctuated by sharp moments of visual terror and/or the illusion of flight." Wing walking scene is "an absolute showstopper." But lamented the narrative parts, esp the glacier park scene, reeks of "strained situation and dialogue." Favored is Living Planet. Allison Griffiths.

The wing walking scene was filmed in Grand Canyon. For the part where Tim falls from the biplane, stuntman Kevin Donelly replaced Lang. Upon fall, he was set to be caught by Art Scholl's plane, equipped with three drogue parachutes. When they did not release, Scholl aimed towards a canyon ridge by 10 feet (3.0 metres). A scene early in the film where Kyle drives Tim to Murphy Aviation's hangar was filmed in Glacier National Park. The penultimate fighter scene was filmed in USS Lexington (CV-16).

The scripting, directing, and editing must be completed with a thorough understanding of the psychological relationship between the large screen and the audience. Furthermore, the photography must be composed and lighted with sensitivity to the impact and limitations of the potentiallly overpowering format. In many ways, IMAX is a new way of seeing, and this new way must be thoroughly understood by the creative filmmaker.

Release edit

Reception edit

Sources edit

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