The Hunters

Within the last week, Fox FINALLY released a DVD version of the VERY seldom seen Robert Mitchum aviation classic, THE HUNTERS. My advance ordered copy from Amazon just arrived.

This is one of two war films Mitchum made for Dick Powell. The other one, the submariner classic THE ENEMY BELOW, has been widely available for the last 10 years at least. I don't understand why the long delay in releasing THE HUNTERS... but finally, the wait is over.

The Korean War has long been a forgotten conflict in American history, and the air war there has been almost completely ignored by Hollywood.

That's a shame. Fighter combat in Korea marked a significant transition period in air warfare.

The Korean War fighter pilots were the last of the old Stick and Rudder fliers. They were the last generation of knights of the sky who fought with gallantry and a respect for the skills and courage of their opponents. Even tho they were officially enemies, wearing the uniforms of different nations, the unspoken truth was that every pilot was the brother of everyone else who flew. In common they'd shared the thrill of flight, and the dangers that came along with it. They might fight to the death in the skies, but these warriors understood and respected each other.

After Korea, the airplanes became technologically advanced and ended the old ways of thinking. It was no longer a man to man confrontation; air combat became a matter of triggering a missile that killed your enemy 30 miles away, and you often never even saw your foe or his airplane. Air warfare became impersonal and detached.

In Korea, combat flying was still a very personal matter. The PILOT still flew, and FOUGHT, the AIRPLANE. After that, speeds increased and things in combat happened so quickly that men couldn't control them directly anymore... the old piloting skills were replaced by electronics, and the pilot became a mere backup system in case a fuse blew, and in reality the AIRPLANE flew the PILOT. He was just a piece of hardware... the Nut that held the stick and throttle!

There's a big difference between the men in THE HUNTERS and those in TOP GUN. I have my doubts that Maverick would have acquitted himself very well over Korea. Mitchum as Cleve Seville is a direct descendant of Flynn and Niven in THE DAWN PATROL, and Cruise in TOP GUN is a very different animal.

As far as the CD production is concerned... I'm surprised that they were able to find as good a print of the movie as they did for the DVD transfer. It appears to me that it's been digitally cleaned up; it was almost certainly computer processed to take care of color shift in the '50s vintage single strip Technicolor.

What was VERY surprising to me was the extra features. I was astonished that the teaser and trailer both feature a vocal theme song by Frankie Lane, the guy who did all those vocals for '50's westerns! You probably remember him best for his vocal on the theme of Mel Brooks' BLAZING SADDLES.

I always thought that the music for THE HUNTERS was badly overblown, but after hearing the ill conceived Frankie Lane theme song, I can now appreciate the film's score as VASTLY preferable... I like Lane, but THIS effort definitely STINKS, and invokes little more than shocked laughter.

Well, fellow airplane nuts, the waiting is over. GET YOUR COPY NOW of one of the most sought after aviation films ever made.

"The Hunters", released in 1958, showed the so-called forgotten air war from the Korean War. Robert Mitchum portrays an aging air pilot from WWII who manages to find one more war to find some success in. He lands command of an air squadron led by Richard Egan, who was his leader during WWII. Mitchum puts together a wing squadron and starts out on hunting missions. His squadron consists of a nice guy, a loud-mouth guy, and a lush whose wife Mitchum falls for. However, the squadron does come together, and manages to down quite a few enemy planes, including a Korean ace nicknamed K C Jones.

The film focuses on electrifying flight sequences that hold the attention of the viewing audience, and the cast delivers performances that do carry the story. This film has been finally released in DVD by 20th Century Fox, and I have replaced my taped VHS version with the DVD. It's very watchable, and the flying sequences still hold their own. 7/10, but a strong entry in this genre.

Not a bad war movie for the fifties. The aerial sequences are exciting and well done (pre-computer). Mitchum is his usual entertaining, stoic self, and Robert Wagner has an especially amusing role as a young, "hipster/hotshot" pilot, that takes after Mitchum.

It's on TV every once in a while. Catch it!

I never understood why this film got so little respect. I read the book years after I first saw the movie and was very impressed with the adaptation, particularly the inclusion of Robert Wagner as Lt. Ed Pell. The film is exceedingly well done in all aspects. Mitchum, Egan and Wagner all do solid work in the acting and the photography is beautiful. It is one of those rare films with a beginning, a middle AND an end.

I strongly recommend it.

Now, if it can just be made available on DVD and VHS.

First, a bit of history: James Horowitz, West Point class of 1945, shot down a MiG-15 on July 4th, 1952, while flying an F-86E with the 335th FIS, 4th Fighter Interceptor Wing in Korea, and used a typewriter equally as effective as his Sabre. Under the pen name (and later changed his name to)James Salter, he published a novel, "The Hunters," about Sabre pilots fighting in Korea. 4th Wing 2nd Lt. James F. "Dad" Low became America`s 17th and most junior jet ace with his fifth MiG kill on June 15, 1952, just six months out of flight school.Unlike the older pilots, many of them WWII veterans, Low became proficient in the use of the new A-4 automatic ranging gunsights on the E and F models of the F-86 Sabre. The novel and movie`s "bad guy," Lt. Pell, is a defiant, risk taking junior fighter jock, played in the movie by Robert Wagner (I`m a killer man! I cut em up,you know!)Both Low and Salter acknowledge that the "Pell" character is, in fact, James F. Low. Korean War historians speculate that Robert Mitchum`s character, Major Cleveland Saville, is based on one or two of the four USAF Medal of Honor recipients from the Korean War: either Maj. Louis J. Sebille, who died in his F-51 as commander of the 67th FBS, 18th FBW, or double ace Maj. George A. Davis, shot down in his F-86 as commander of the 334th FIS, 4th FIW. James Salter is pretty much of a recluse, but was interviewed by Tom Brokaw for NBC Nightly News three years ago. The movie`s 54th Fighter Group is apparently a contraction of the actual 4th and 51st F-86 Fighter Interceptor Wings from Korea. The F-86F30 Sabres in the movie were painted with the distinctive yellow band and checkered tail markings of the 51st FIW, but with yellow noses much like the Sabres of the 12th FBS of the 18th Fighter Bomber Wing, and with post-Korean War anti-glare panels. A major technical flaw is an insertion shot of a crashing "Sabre dancing" F-100 Super Sabre in place of an F-86. American F-84F Thunderchiefs were painted up and used for the Russian-built MiG-15 in both "The Hunters" and "The McConnell Story." If you look closely, not all of the F-84Fs are painted like MiGs in "The Hunters." The movie`s top MiG pilot is "Casey Jones" (7-11, the Crapshooter,)shown to be Chinese. We now know that virtually all the top MiG pilots were Russian. There were many "Casey Joneses" flying for North Korea. When bandit trains (an actual phrase used in allied radio jargon and used in the movie script) took off from Antung Airfield in Manchuria, the real or mythical flight wing leaders were dubbed "Casey Jones." A 4th Wing F-86 Korean War veteran told me that Salter`s book was "too close to the way the 4th Wing really was in Korea," and that the Air Force wanted the script changed if they were to cooperate in the making of the movie. Even though a big budgeted movie, budget restrictions prevented producer-director Dick Powell (my mother grew up with him in Mountain View, Arkansas) from filming oversees, preferable in Japan. According to Robert J. Lentz`s excellent book, "Korean War Filmography," "The Hunters" combines Korean War aerial drama-in beautiful DeLuxe color and widescreen CinemaScope photography-with more turgid human drama on the ground involving sexual desire and fears of inadequacy. Only a few Korean War films actively depicted the sky battles in "MiG Alley" and "The Hunters" does so with better aesthetics and greater excitement than "Sabre Jet" or "The McConnell Story." Until the advent of "Top Gun" and its imitators, "The Hunters" remained the premier jet air-to-air combat film in terms of its aerial proficiency." I loved the book and the movie as a 12 year old kid in 1958, and have always remembered the tune to Paul Sawtell`s theme music march. For years I searched nationwide for a video of this movie, with no success. A couple of years ago, a friend of mine noticed "The Hunters" was on Cinemax at 2 AM and taped it for me. Hopefully, 20th Century Fox will release "The Hunters" on VCR or DVD, or, better yet, produce a new Korean War movie involving the legendary air battles between the F-86 Sabre and the MiG-15!!