I agree Firefox was a good film Clint played a pilot how was out of his element as a spy., witch added tension to the first part of the movie.I totally agree with Quentin
Yep. And he dedicated it to Clint Eastwood! It was a good book, he described the Firefox in the book as how it looked in the movie; in the original FIREFOX novel it was supposed to resemble a modified MiG-25.
I remember as a kid going to the mall every weekend after Firefox was on video and watching it at the electronic store where they would have it on a big screen television in front of the store. It wasn’t until it was actually on television that I was able to see the whole movie but I saw the end like over fifty times.
Blade Runner and The Thing premiered on the same day, so if this was released during the best release day in human history, it should have had trouble, but those two were flops at release and only became known as masterpieces years later.
I love Firefox. The journey to the plane, and the efforts to track Gant, are pretty great. I'd like more of that, but given I spent 4hrs the other night listening to an audiobook called "Inside Soviet Military Intelligence", I might be not the average viewer.
I got sober on New Year's Day in 1982. About a year later Firefox came to the Vine Theater on Hollywood, three storefronts from the corner, one dollar, two films, Vine Theater waiting for restoration. I liked the film. I think it's fine.
No, Firefox is a great movie. One of my all time favorites. I own it and watch it regularly because it's so fantastic. Included in my favorites is Young Frankenstein, 1941, Blues Brothers, Pulp Fiction, Jay & Silent Bob, Fist full of Dollars. Dracula: Dead and loving it, Breakfast Club, The NoteBook, Pleasantville, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harold & Maude.😅
Kenneth not Kennedy. Kenneth Colley also played Jesus at the beginning of The Life of Brian. He also apparently had quite a debilitating stammer/stutter according to Michael Palin.
Not Ludlum: Thomas. Craig Thomas, one of the underrated action writers of the 70’s and 80’s. He wrote Firefox and two sequels, Firefox Down and Winterhawk (no Firefox, but Gant is the main character) each with more action than the last.
Great interview and I loved the film. But there is one nitpick, Quentin says that Nigel Hawthorne was in Four Weddings and a Funeral (he thought he was the character that died), but that was Simon Callow.
I was too young to see this in the cinema but I bought the original book its based on by Craig Thomas. The film is pretty close to the book except the pilot is far more out of his depth except when in the cockpit and openly terrified at times. This earns him a certain amount of contempt from his Russian handlers who are basically sacrificing their lives for him. I thought at the time that Clint wasn't quite right for that and when I saw it, this aspect was toned down although not completely taken out.
I remember buying Firefox on VHS out of at a thrift store 15 years ago. It was only 50c and since I like Clint Eastwood movies and it has some kind of superjet on the cover I gave it a shot. I can see why it bombed at the box office. Special Effects didn't look good not even for 1982. The movie Top Gun came out just 4 years later with incredible special effects since they were actually flying Carrier Jets. The movie is basically Clint Eastwood as James Bond. The movie is silly but even with all that negative it admit it's a fun watch and work every last penny of those 50c I spent on it.
Clint Eastwood's way better as a James Bond character in The Eiger Sanction. Has women to distract him and even a darker M character called Dragon played by Thayor David from Rocky.
Firefox would benefit a lot, if the patriotic soundtrack were removed, and only the ambient sound was left, the same things happens with Ice Station Zebra ( 1968 ) that jingoistic music made to lose suspense, it also happens to The Black Hole ( 1979 ).
Nigel Hawthorne in Firefox is a bit like Alec Guinness in Star Wars, he's there to earn the big bucks whilst also hoping none of his acting friends see the film and trying not to show how far beneath him he feels it is. He is incredible in the BBC comedy "Yes Minister" & "Yes, Prime Minister".
And after the movie Firefox, there was the way better Blue Thunder with Roy Scheider playing the PTSD vet in the most advance helicopter ever and no Star Wars, Battle Star Galactica special effects. All with real helicopters.
As Hollywood continues to spiral out of control and the quality of modern films reaches the bottom, movies like Firefox should get a second look and reassessment.
The Firefox was kinda based on the paranoia about the mach 2.8 Mig 25, hypersonic's were still science fiction in those days, interestingly enough the USA had stolen one of those when the pilot defected to Japan in 1976 only a few years earlier than the movie
That's correct--and Belenko's defection was mentioned in the novel too. The interesting thing is that the Firefox also has active stealth ("anti-radar" in the novel) to go along with it's Mach 6 speed.
@@MarcMcKenzie-qb6or Yes and kind of interesting that Russia has a submarine launchable hypersonic cruise missile and there is apparently difficulty tracking these on radar because of "plasma stealth" they are ahead in this area, but maybe a manned vehicle isn't essential & harder to build
The commercials I remember as a kid were selling the Scifi action adventure part which is basically not what the movie was about at all. Very much selling to the Star wars generation.
Firefox is a great movie with a great build up to the plane with a perfect amount of flying time and action.The special effects were great for the time….Tarantino is a wind bag
It amazes me that people overlook the factual gaffes that Tarantino & Co keep making in their "expert" reviews. He refers to Nigel Hawthorne as the guy who dies in Four Weddings And A Funeral. That part was played by actor-author Simon Callow, not Hawthorne, who was the lead in The Madness Of King George. (Not to carp, but I actually think Callow is a better writer - of books - than Tarantino.) I spotted numerous mistakes in chronology, attribution and even spelling in Tarantino's Cinema Speculation, but have never seen him taken to task for them. I guess critics and reviewers are just not old enough to be knowledgable about this stuff anymore. As for what Cheech talks about as the first instance the "unified field theory" of language in movies was executed, citing The Hunt For Red October, there is definitely one instance before. That was in the Oscar-winning Judgment At Nuremberg when defense attorney Maximilian Schell switches mid-sentence from German to English while the camera does a flash zoom mid-tilt. I think it was actually a cleverer way of doing it than Red October's, which came almost 30 years later.
When I saw it in the theater I thought the spy stuff was very good, and the special effects were rubbish (even by 80s standards). I also thought Eastwood was miscast.
All these details about this thriller, the Spectacular and technological powerhouse jet, but no real character actor backbone, it was all carried by the jet, but these days the effect that CGI would have made out of Firefox, would make another Hollywood Dud,.Clint Eastwood would not have saved the film at all, we no longer have any actors like Clint Eastwood.
"On June 30, 2017, Tarantino became engaged to Israeli singer Daniella Pick, daughter of musician Zvika Pick. They met in 2009 when Tarantino was in Israel to promote Inglourious Basterds. They married on November 28, 2018, in a Reform Jewish ceremony in their Beverly Hills Home. As of January 2020, they were splitting their time between Tel Aviv, Israel and Los Angeles. On February 22, 2020, their son was born in Israel. Their second child, a girl, was born in July 2022." he knows who butters his bread in Hollywood
Come on guys, you can't talk super prototype aircraft movies w/ dogfights without mentioning the following year's "Blue Thunder." "Blue Thunder" was everything "Firefox" was not.
@@nebulous6660 A Vietnam Vet suffering flashbacks and PTSD steals a super-aircraft, eludes pursuers and other aircraft, to end with an aerial dogfight. It's FIREFOX in LA. As for the Cold War, the aircraft is part of Casper Weinberger's blank check to Reagan (Military Industrial Complex) fileted down to LEO. It's as Cold War as it gets. Ever read Orwell's "1984"? What is the aircraft doing surveillance on its citizens? Helicopters.
Obviously two smart guys chatting about a subject they adore... but because they're American, because inauthentically 'unattached and insouciant' ...to be 'cool' is considered paramount. And yet they both do secretly care and to a profound nerdish level, they just come across as childish.
The final quiet walkout to the plane that he steals is FUCKING EPIC
Great sequence, agreed.
I agree Firefox was a good film Clint played a pilot how was out of his element as a spy., witch added tension to the first part of the movie.I totally agree with Quentin
underrated movie. I loved the first half especially with clint lurking around the streets, lots of cold war tension.
I’ve always found Firefox to be an interesting Cold War artifact.
A great Movie
I saw it with my dad and brother and we all really enjoyed it.
Amazing how Tarantino throws cultural references along the movie. Truly amazing how he has read every single critic's review.
Firefox author Craig Thomas also wrote a sequel to his original best seller, Firefox Down.
Yep. And he dedicated it to Clint Eastwood! It was a good book, he described the Firefox in the book as how it looked in the movie; in the original FIREFOX novel it was supposed to resemble a modified MiG-25.
I liked Firefox when it came out myself. :)
I remember as a kid going to the mall every weekend after Firefox was on video and watching it at the electronic store where they would have it on a big screen television in front of the store. It wasn’t until it was actually on television that I was able to see the whole movie but I saw the end like over fifty times.
Blade Runner and The Thing premiered on the same day, so if this was released during the best release day in human history, it should have had trouble, but those two were flops at release and only became known as masterpieces years later.
I love Firefox. The journey to the plane, and the efforts to track Gant, are pretty great. I'd like more of that, but given I spent 4hrs the other night listening to an audiobook called "Inside Soviet Military Intelligence", I might be not the average viewer.
I got sober on New Year's Day in 1982. About a year later Firefox came to the Vine Theater on Hollywood, three storefronts from the corner, one dollar, two films, Vine Theater waiting for restoration. I liked the film. I think it's fine.
Can't believe Tarantino didn't correct him about Hunt for Red October. They got the language shift from Judgement at Nuremberg
No, Firefox is a great movie. One of my all time favorites. I own it and watch it regularly because it's so fantastic. Included in my favorites is Young Frankenstein, 1941, Blues Brothers, Pulp Fiction, Jay & Silent Bob, Fist full of Dollars. Dracula: Dead and loving it, Breakfast Club, The NoteBook, Pleasantville, To Kill a Mockingbird, Harold & Maude.😅
Great movie I always loved it
Kennedy Cowley is Admiral Piett in The Empire Strikes Back
"You are in command now, Admiral Piett."
Kenneth not Kennedy.
Kenneth Colley also played Jesus at the beginning of The Life of Brian.
He also apparently had quite a debilitating stammer/stutter according to Michael Palin.
QT on Firefox SFX: "This is not a bunch of dorks fucking about with a computer!" Lol
Not Ludlum: Thomas. Craig Thomas, one of the underrated action writers of the 70’s and 80’s. He wrote Firefox and two sequels, Firefox Down and Winterhawk (no Firefox, but Gant is the main character) each with more action than the last.
Bronco Billy is one of my favorites
The US actually had the SR1 Blackbird when this film came out!!! 2500mph? That's fast!
SR71 blackbird
I could definitely see that Clint was interested in the script for the espionage part. The Eiger Sanction was probably made for that reason.
6:50 LOL, if you watch, ROCKY 4! Great channel Anthony, thumbs up!
I worked in a video store & i thought i was film expert...his knowledge amazes me
The book has the same abrupt ending, and the sequel picks up literally seconds later.
I wonder if he covered Blue Thunder? That's a good one.
Great interview and I loved the film. But there is one nitpick, Quentin says that Nigel Hawthorne was in Four Weddings and a Funeral (he thought he was the character that died), but that was Simon Callow.
They do look similar
I always thought the plot was ripped off from a Dale Brown Novel. Day of the Cheetah.
Freddie Jones (just like his son Toby Jones) was a fantastic character actor. Especially in The Elephant Man.
I remember I really liked it, but the reason I went in the first place was that I really liked the book, so I had different expectations.
Roger Avery's accents are hilarious in this review
I was too young to see this in the cinema but I bought the original book its based on by Craig Thomas. The film is pretty close to the book except the pilot is far more out of his depth except when in the cockpit and openly terrified at times. This earns him a certain amount of contempt from his Russian handlers who are basically sacrificing their lives for him. I thought at the time that Clint wasn't quite right for that and when I saw it, this aspect was toned down although not completely taken out.
I remember buying Firefox on VHS out of at a thrift store 15 years ago. It was only 50c and since I like Clint Eastwood movies and it has some kind of superjet on the cover I gave it a shot. I can see why it bombed at the box office. Special Effects didn't look good not even for 1982. The movie Top Gun came out just 4 years later with incredible special effects since they were actually flying Carrier Jets. The movie is basically Clint Eastwood as James Bond. The movie is silly but even with all that negative it admit it's a fun watch and work every last penny of those 50c I spent on it.
Clint Eastwood's way better as a James Bond character in The Eiger Sanction. Has women to distract him and even a darker M character called Dragon played by Thayor David from Rocky.
Firefox would benefit a lot, if the patriotic soundtrack were removed, and only the ambient sound was left, the same things happens with Ice Station Zebra ( 1968 ) that jingoistic music made to lose suspense, it also happens to The Black Hole ( 1979 ).
@James-qd8he Even now, in modern movies you see teenagers listening to music from the seventies and eighties, totally out of reality.
Nigel Hawthorne in Firefox is a bit like Alec Guinness in Star Wars, he's there to earn the big bucks whilst also hoping none of his acting friends see the film and trying not to show how far beneath him he feels it is. He is incredible in the BBC comedy "Yes Minister" & "Yes, Prime Minister".
I loved Firefox, lol.
And after the movie Firefox, there was the way better Blue Thunder with Roy Scheider playing the PTSD vet in the most advance helicopter ever and no Star Wars, Battle Star Galactica special effects. All with real helicopters.
And BLUE THUNDER was written by Dan O'Bannon (ALIEN) and Don Jakoby, who would both write the screenplay for LIFEFORCE!
As Hollywood continues to spiral out of control and the quality of modern films reaches the bottom, movies like Firefox should get a second look and reassessment.
Or 'Airwolf' on TV the year after that.
Nigel Hawthorne is not the guy who dies in Four Weddings. That was Simon Callow.
The Firefox was kinda based on the paranoia about the mach 2.8 Mig 25, hypersonic's were still science fiction in those days, interestingly enough the USA had stolen one of those when the pilot defected to Japan in 1976 only a few years earlier than the movie
That's correct--and Belenko's defection was mentioned in the novel too. The interesting thing is that the Firefox also has active stealth ("anti-radar" in the novel) to go along with it's Mach 6 speed.
@@MarcMcKenzie-qb6or Yes and kind of interesting that Russia has a submarine launchable hypersonic cruise missile and there is apparently difficulty tracking these on radar because of "plasma stealth" they are ahead in this area, but maybe a manned vehicle isn't essential & harder to build
The commercials I remember as a kid were selling the Scifi action adventure part which is basically not what the movie was about at all. Very much selling to the Star wars generation.
Firefox is a great movie with a great build up to the plane with a perfect amount of flying time and action.The special effects were great for the time….Tarantino is a wind bag
I found the book far more enjoyable than the movie.
I saw it and I knew what I was going to get. Didn't bore or anything but the CGI, even for those days, was pretty crude.
I liked this movie also. Eastwood cannot do pure action. He needs to add quiet moments.
Starting to understand Brad Pitt's intentional bad Accent in IB... a Wink to Clint, & FireFox
Can someone produce the model
It amazes me that people overlook the factual gaffes that Tarantino & Co keep making in their "expert" reviews. He refers to Nigel Hawthorne as the guy who dies in Four Weddings And A Funeral. That part was played by actor-author Simon Callow, not Hawthorne, who was the lead in The Madness Of King George. (Not to carp, but I actually think Callow is a better writer - of books - than Tarantino.)
I spotted numerous mistakes in chronology, attribution and even spelling in Tarantino's Cinema Speculation, but have never seen him taken to task for them. I guess critics and reviewers are just not old enough to be knowledgable about this stuff anymore. As for what Cheech talks about as the first instance the "unified field theory" of language in movies was executed, citing The Hunt For Red October, there is definitely one instance before. That was in the Oscar-winning Judgment At Nuremberg when defense attorney Maximilian Schell switches mid-sentence from German to English while the camera does a flash zoom mid-tilt. I think it was actually a cleverer way of doing it than Red October's, which came almost 30 years later.
I've seen that movie a few times. It's a strange film. I don't think it was great but it was interesting.
I wonder what he thinks on The Big Bus (1976) 😵💫
When I saw it in the theater I thought the spy stuff was very good, and the special effects were rubbish (even by 80s standards). I also thought Eastwood was miscast.
I thought Firefox was awesome for the time. I'm surprised nobody reacted to it yet.
All these details about this thriller, the Spectacular and technological powerhouse jet, but no real
character actor backbone, it was all carried by the jet, but these days the effect that CGI would have made out of Firefox, would make another Hollywood Dud,.Clint Eastwood would not have saved the film at all, we no longer have any actors like Clint Eastwood.
"On June 30, 2017, Tarantino became engaged to Israeli singer Daniella Pick, daughter of musician Zvika Pick. They met in 2009 when Tarantino was in Israel to promote Inglourious Basterds. They married on November 28, 2018, in a Reform Jewish ceremony in their Beverly Hills Home. As of January 2020, they were splitting their time between Tel Aviv, Israel and Los Angeles. On February 22, 2020, their son was born in Israel. Their second child, a girl, was born in July 2022."
he knows who butters his bread in Hollywood
Come on guys, you can't talk super prototype aircraft movies w/ dogfights without mentioning the following year's "Blue Thunder." "Blue Thunder" was everything "Firefox" was not.
It had helicopters & had nothing to do with the Cold War.
@@nebulous6660 A Vietnam Vet suffering flashbacks and PTSD steals a super-aircraft, eludes pursuers and other aircraft, to end with an aerial dogfight. It's FIREFOX in LA. As for the Cold War, the aircraft is part of Casper Weinberger's blank check to Reagan (Military Industrial Complex) fileted down to LEO. It's as Cold War as it gets. Ever read Orwell's "1984"? What is the aircraft doing surveillance on its citizens? Helicopters.
The arcade game was way better than the movie!
It was also one of the first Laser Disk games (after DRAGON'S LAIR and SPACE ACE).
Obviously two smart guys chatting about a subject they adore... but because they're American,
because inauthentically 'unattached and insouciant' ...to be 'cool' is considered paramount.
And yet they both do secretly care and to a profound nerdish level, they just come across as childish.
Simon Callow dies in 4 Weddings.
Slow and depressing with disappointing special effects at the end. I've watched it 5 times !
Even by 1982 FX standards, it sucked!
How old were you when it came out? I was 4. I don’t remember much about the Spy story, but the flying I clearly remember.
Mitchell Gant!