Bat*21 (1988)

User Rating:

6.3/10   

Director:

Peter Markle

Writers (WGA):

William C. Anderson (book)
William C. Anderson (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 October 1988 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | War

Tagline:

Trapped behind enemy lines. A whole army after him... And only one man can save him.

Plot:

Lt. Col. Iceal "Ham" Hambleton is a weapons countermeasures expert and when his aircraft is shot over...

Plot Keywords:

Escape | Vietnam | Punctuation In Title | Asterisk In Title | Digit In Title

Cast

Gene Hackman	...	Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton
Danny Glover	...	Capt. Bartholomew Clark
Jerry Reed	...	Col. George Walker
David Marshall Grant	...	Ross Carver
Clayton Rohner	...	Sgt. Harley Rumbaugh
Erich Anderson	...	Maj. Jake Scott
Joe Dorsey	...	Col. Douglass
Reverend Michael Ng	...	Vietnamese Man (as Rev. Michael Ng)
Theodore Chan Woei-Shyong	...	Boy on Bridge
Don Ruffin	...	Helicopter Crew
Scott Howell	...	Helicopter Crew
Michael Raden	...	Helicopter Crew
Timothy Fitzgerald	...	EB-66 Officer
Stuart B. Hagen	...	EB-66 Officer
Jeffrey Baxter	...	Helicopter Gunner (as Jeff Baxter)

Also Known As:

Bat 21 (USA) (alternative spelling)

Runtime:

105 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

New Zealand:R13 | Australia:M | UK:15 | Norway:15 (video premiere) | Sweden:15 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Company:

Bat 21 Limited L.P.

Trivia:

The true events surrounding this story were still classified at the time of production. Ltc Hambleton was rescued by Navy SEAL LT Tom Norris and Vietnamese SEAL Petty Officer Nguyen Van Kiet using a canoe to infiltrate to Hambleton's position and rescue him. LT Norris was awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions.

Goofs:

Factual errors: When Hambleton calls in the first air strike from the ground, the planes report carrying full loads of "snake and nape". However, the visual shows the planes carrying something along the lines of sparrow missiles. The girth of Snake Eye bombs and Napalm bombs (snake and nape) are easily discernible from the long, slender rocket-like missiles that these planes carried.

Quotes:

Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton: Bird Dog, I killed a man today. He wasn't even a soldier; he just kept coming. I couldn't stop him. I didn't want to do it. I never had to do anything like that before in my life.
Capt. Bartholomew Clark: Listen here, Bat 21. I never met you, but you don't sound like a killer to me. I'm sure you couldn't stop it from happening.

Movie Connections:

Edited into Stealth Fighter (1999)

A well-made Vietnam movie but ...

.... this was supposed to be a "true" story, so why not tell it as it really happened? Of course, there are always budget restraints and other considerations that come into play. But I can never quite work out why Hollywood changes crucial facts of a real story when making "true-life" movies of this type. Don't get me wrong - I saw this movie for the first time just last week, a full 13 years after it first appeared, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It didn't glorify war at all, and some of the scenes were quite shocking and moving. However, having read the TRUE story of BAT 21 some years ago, I couldn't help thinking "hang on a minute - it didn't happen like that!!!" In reality, the actual 1972 mission to rescue Lt. Col. Hambleton was a very complex affair that lasted for 12 days, the downed airman finally being rescued by a two-man team consisting of a US Navy SEAL lieutenant (who won the Medal Of Honour in the process) and a South Vietnamese Army Ranger. Why not include this in the movie if you're out to tell anything like the true story? Also, several US aircraft and choppers were shot down in the process, with 10 American airmen killed and two more captured. But apart from the superbly done abortive helicopter rescue attempt and the shooting of the captured crewmen, the movie led us to believe that the rescue mission merely consisted of Hambleton (Hackman) escaping & evading on the ground with Clark (Danny Glover) circling above and talking to him on the radio. In reality, Clark was himself shot down early in the mission and had to be rescued, and his role in the actual Hambleton rescue was therefore nothing like that depicted in the film.

But, that said, why let the truth get in the way of a good story? And despite its shortcomings on the historical accuracy front, this was a thoroughly enjoyable film that didn't gloss over or sanitize the horrors of war. Despite my nit-picking, I'd definitely recommend it.