Film Review: The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper (1981)

almost 3 years ago

(source: tmdb.org)

Lack of imagination and talent in Hollywood becomes apparent when Hollywood film makers are confronted with real life stories that look they originated as Hollywood script. On November 24th 1971 unknown man, nowadays known by the alias "D. B. Cooper", conducted the most spectacular and the most successful airliner hijacking in US history. He left the plane by parachuting out of plane mid-air with 200000 US$ of ransom and his identity and ultimate fate remained mystery to this date. Unanswered questions inspired many to give their own interpretation of the events, including poet J.D. Reed whose 1980 novel Free Fall was adapted into The Pursuit of D. B. Cooper, 1981 action comedy directed by Roger Spotiswoode.

The plot begins in the moment "D. B. Cooper" (played by Treat Williams) makes his famous jump over woods of Pacific Northwest. Among people investigating the incident is insurance investigator Bill Gruen (played by Robert Duvall). Flight attendant appears to recognise the man among many photographs of potential suspects and Gruen knows that he found his man. "D. B. Cooper" is actually Jimmy Meade, former elite US Army parachutist who served in Vietnam War and to whom Gruen used to be drill instructor. As Gruen begins to track Meade down, he carries out his carefully prepared plan and comes to Wyoming to join his estranged wife Hannah (played by Kathryn Harrold), whom he tries to win back with a ransom money. Gruen, who is determined to bring money back, is impeding his plans, as well as Meade's former war comrade Remson (played by Paul Gleason) who also wants to get his hand of Meade's money.

With mystery of D. B. Cooper still unresolved, makers of The Pursuit had a problem of their story lacking conventional ending. Instead of showing how D. B. Cooper planned and took out his heist, they wisely decided to deal only with the consequences. Unfortunately, script by Jeffrey Allan Fiskin proved to be utterly inept and change of two directors before Spottiswoode (John Frankenheimer and Buzz Kulik) didn't help either. The characters are one-dimensional or dislikable, including the protagonist being played by strangely unconvincing Treat Williams. He lack chemistry with Harrold, and even otherwise reliable Duvall doesn't try very hard. Impression is only slightly improved by two impressive stunt sequences – boat chase on the rapids and final chase between car and crop-dusting biplane. Yet, this doesn't help The Pursuit much; even viewers fascinated by the real story will be probably disappointed by obvious historical inaccuracies. Those viewers who don't care about D. B. Cooper are going to be disappointed by film that turned out to be way below its true potential.

RATING: 3/10 (+)