Talk:Air America (film)

Untitled

I removed the following from the article as it makes no reference to what scene it refers to and uses poorly worded English. The scene was taken in Mae Hong Son Province, the northern Thailand, in order to cope with the events happen in the script. After the film, the province was greatly promoted by the western travelogue media. The scene of Mae Hong Son Province was published by the famous travelogue magazine Conde Nest Traveller in May, 1993, as a cover page title. If it's worth putting back then reword it befor doing so. --Cab88 18:58, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Questionable Historicity Section

Though it's already clear from this article that there is some political spin in the movie, it is also notable that the movie conveys the belief that Air America was involved in drug smuggling in Laos. It might be worthwhile to mention that the historicity of this depiction is in dispute. The article already cites a quote from one of the moviemakers that makes pretty clear what their position is on this subject. There are also studies that can be sourced for this issue, including Twilight Warriors: Covert Air Operations Against the USSR by Curtis Peebles, pp.254-255. Peebles mentions two of the foundational sources for this issue: McCoy's The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia which accused Air America of drug smuggling, and Prof. William Leary's investigation and interview of 300 people, which concluded that there was no evidence of Air America's involvement in drug smuggling. 70.191.196.187 (talk) 16:03, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

I read and enjoyed both of Christopher Robins' books on this subject. I even enjoyed this movie, except for the anti-American, anti-war, anti-Vang Pao spin. Many people who are intimately familiar with the Air America (airline) and the anti-communist "Secret War" in Laos, including myself, happily anticipated the movie's release, but were sorely disappointed by the final film screenplay's false slanders and propaganda spin. In general there are individual Wiki contributors and editors who are intent upon censoring the truth of the Indochina Wars in favor of the communist victors, and they tend to revise history in preference of erroneously misnaming of Cold War and Second Indochina War battlefronts as the Vietnam War, Laotian Civil War, Cambodian Civil War etc. We can learn much more about history if we tell it like it was, instead of attempting to make it what we want it to be based upon our own personal politics. I've added the article on this film to Category:Propaganda films. The film was fun, and I liked the acting, but it really did a hatchet job on Robins' work and the truth. Dr. B. R. Lang (talk) 18:48, 2 August 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for your comment. My point isn't necessarily that the film innaccurately portrayed history since this is an opinion (though one that I'm inclined share with you), but rather for the purposes of making a more informative encyclopedia article, that this article should include a piece on historicity issues with the movie, with the drug smuggling as one of the primary issues. Naturally, the deviations from Robbins' books (which I haven't read yet), should probably be sourced as part of this since the movie was supposedly based on it. One could argue that the Air America article (the one about the real Air America) already addresses this issue. However, there is precedent for having historicity sections in notable movies that portray historical events or situations. Examples include the Saving Private Ryan article, King Arthur, and the Good Shepherd, to name a few. The article already hints at deviations from Robbins' book and from other histories in general, but I think it's worthwhile to provide some more detail and organization.70.191.196.187 (talk) 08:13, 4 August 2008 (UTC)

Air America delivered food (rice, etc.) and "hard rice" (weapons, ammo, etc.). These pilots were not drug smugglers. The "Saving Private Ryan" article is a joke, the movie was just a cartoon, and people tend to believe movies more than history, so don't let entertainment sway you. A good book about top secret air operations in the Vietnam War is "Air Commando One" by Warren A. Trest, Smithsonian Institution Press, 2000. 64.169.155.97 (talk) 02:34, 7 September 2011 (UTC)

In the question of the film about Air America operations, Roger Spottisswoode (if that is his real name) has done a serious dis-service to those personnel who flew Air America missions. In addition to his amateurism as a film-maker, he misrepresents the whole operational mileu as some kind of military history farce (perhaps this is all he knows). The reality was not at all as he portrays it. It has be to explained, to the readership, how he got financing and completion bonding/insurance for such an amateurish script scenario which does not support the operational reality. Hollywood should stay away from historic reality and it is notewothy that Mr. 'Spottisswoodde' has not found much work afterwards. Miletus (talk) 21:05, 14 January 2012 (UTC)

"Not found much work"? The guy has directed close to twenty mainstream Hollywood films until today after Air America, including blockbuster box-office hits starring Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and entries to both the James Bond and the Tom Ripley franchises. I wouldn't exactly call that "didn't find much work afterwards". --93.223.194.254 (talk) 21:52, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

I don't know about you guys, but what I find a far more infuriating historical inaccuracy than whether Air America was involved in drug smuggling or not is that the film is supposed to take place in 1969, and yet we're seeing local performers at a bar do a cover version of A Horse with No Name, a song which wasn't released until 1972. --93.223.194.254 (talk) 21:35, 18 August 2018 (UTC)

Help!

Under 'Reception' I reversed names under the picture (Gibson is on left, Downey on right) but lost the pix. Can't seem to get it back. Can someone more skilled than me at Wiki formatting fix it? Thanks. American In Brazil (talk) 13:46, 21 February 2021 (UTC)

Thanks, @Kylie Tastic, but Mel is still on the left and caption below pix refers to him on the right. Can you fix? American In Brazil (talk) 13:50, 21 February 2021 (UTC)