Rocketeer

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Movie
German title Rocketeer
Original title The Rocketeer
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1991
length 108 minutes
Age rating FSK 12
Rod
Director Joe Johnston
script Danny Bilson ,
Paul De Meo ,
William Dear
production Lawrence Gordon ,
Charles Gordon ,
Lloyd Levin
music James Horner
camera Hiro Narita
cut Arthur Schmidt
occupation
synchronization

Rocketeer (Alternative title Rocketeer - The Rocketeer , original title The Rocketeer ) is an American science fiction - adventure dating back to 1991 . The film is a production of the Disney film subsidiary Touchstone Pictures and was directed by Joe Johnston based on the comic book model by Dave Stevens . The film opened in German cinemas on August 15, 1991.

action

Southern California in 1938 . The charming but somewhat awkward pilot and daredevil Cliff Secord feels unlucky. First he puts his new machine in the sand when he has to avoid an FBI agent chasing a gangster . Then he remains seated on the amount of damage caused by the crash and finally his girlfriend Jenny, a budding young actress, separates from him.

But then he and his mechanic and friend Peevy find, hidden in the hangar , what the gangsters and the FBI men were after: a rocket motor that can be strapped to the back that enables a person to fly. With the help of Peevy, Cliff had a gold-colored helmet constructed with a control device and from then on, as a masked "rocketeer", darted through the air around Los Angeles to help people.

When he wanted to tell Jenny about it, she had already given herself up to the famous screen and woman hero Neville Sinclair. However, he works with the gangster Eddie Valentine and only makes court to her to get behind the hiding place of the rocket. However, Cliff escapes an ambush at Valentine's glamorous nightclub and also reconciles with Jenny.

But then Jenny is captured by Sinclair. When Cliff tries to rush to the rescue, he is caught by the FBI agents and taken to the owner of the rocket: the millionaire Howard Hughes . He explains to Cliff that the missile was a failed project of his, which the Nazis are now after for its military uses. A spy working in Hollywood is supposed to obtain the patent and copy for the Germans .

What is slowly dawning on Cliff, Jenny quickly realizes in Neville Sinclair's villa: he is the spy who wants to exchange her for the rocket. At the handover point, events come thick and fast: Valentine is informed about Sinclair, who then evades the shooting against the gangsters and the FBI agents who are also present by means of a squad of Nazi soldiers. With his hostage in tow, he escapes into the sky on the airship Luxemburg. Only the rocketeer can still help.

In the course of the showdown on and on board the Zeppelin , Cliff can overwhelm the Nazis, save Jenny and destroy Sinclair and the rocket with a trick. At the last moment, Peevy and Hughes rescue the couple from the exploding airframe using a helicopter prototype . Cliff ends up getting his Jenny and Howard Hughes a new plane.

Trivia

  • The comic is inspired by the very successful short film series King of the Rocket Men from the 1930s and 1940s.
  • Originally Johnny Depp was supposed to play the role of Cliff Secord .
  • Leading actor Bill Campbell and later Oscar winner Jennifer Connelly were lovers outside of the sets and were in a relationship for several years.
  • Cliff escapes the FBI from Howard Hughes ' house by sailing outside on a model airplane. The model depicts the Spruce Goose , a gigantic airplane built by Hughes that was said to never fly. This is the background to the ironic end of the shot, when Hughes says, looking at the model that is flying away: "It does fly!" ("The damn thing is flying!")
  • For this film, the Disney studios used the experimental Shaky-cam for the first time , in which vibrations in the backdrop are transmitted directly to the image.
  • A scene in which Sinclair sends a message to Germany has been removed in the final version.
  • Dalton's role, Neville Sinclair , was largely modeled after acting legend and womanizer Errol Flynn . This also explains Sinclair's saying: “I do my own stunts!” (“I do my own stunts!”), Which was a trademark of Flynn. At the time, he was also suspected of having been an agent for Nazi Germany.
  • Shortly before Sinclair escapes from the burning zeppelin, he muses “I'll miss Hollywood!” This is how it happened and he crashes into the word LAND in the immediate vicinity . Until 1945, HOLLYWOODLAND was actually written in oversized letters on the hill outside Los Angeles, when the city adopted and shortened the font. With the finale, the film provides an innovative (fictitious) explanation for this.
  • Max Grodenchik, who plays the gangster Wilmer , who flees from the FBI agents at the beginning of the film , had a recurring role as Ferengi Rom in the television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine years later .
  • The extroverted millionaire Howard Hughes does not appear in the original comic, but is named. The actual creator of the rocket, the inventor Doc Savage , could not be used for licensing reasons.
  • The plane Secord flown at the beginning of the film was a Gee Bee Z Racer , the fastest continental aircraft in the world at the time, built by the Granville Brothers Aircraft Company .
  • Dave Stevens, the author of the literary original, has a guest appearance in the strip as a rocket pilot in the test film shown by Hughes.
  • The place where the handover and later the shooting takes place is the famous Griffith Observatory .
  • Actress Melora Hardin acts as a night club singer .
  • The film was or has been shortened in some places for a number of television broadcasts. The finale was particularly affected: among other things, the scenes of Sinclair shooting the German liaison agent and throwing him out of the zeppelin, Sinclair falling to the ground with the rocket and Lothar's death are missing .

synchronization

role actor Voice actor
Clifford "Cliff" Secord Bill Campbell Udo Schenk
Jennifer "Jenny" Blake Jennifer Connelly Carin C. Tietze
Neville Sinclair Timothy Dalton Lutz Riedel
A. "Peevy" Peabody Alan Arkin Norbert Gescher
Eddie Valentine Paul Sorvino Hartmut Neugebauer
Howard Hughes Terry O'Quinn Reinhard Glemnitz
Lothar Tiny Ron Hartmut Neugebauer
FBI agent Fitch Ed Lauter Dirk Galuba
FBI agent Wolinsky James cell phone Fred Maire
Malcolm Eddie Jones Norbert Gastell
Spanish Johnny Robert Miranda Gudo Hoegel

Reviews

“Turbulent film adaptation of a comic strip that combines real parts, animations and trick shots into a fast-paced, enjoyable adventure. Especially appealing thanks to the imaginative furnishings and numerous amusing nuances. "

- Lexicon of international film

media

DVD release

  • Rocketeer . Buena Vista Home Entertainment 2003

Soundtrack

  • James Horner , Cole Porter , EA Swan : The Rocketeer. Music From the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack . Hollywood Records 1991, audio carrier no. HWD CD 14 570023-2 - Original recording of the film music under the direction of James Horner

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rocketeer - The rocket man in the German synchronous file , accessed on February 6, 2008
  2. ↑ Rocketeer in the Lexicon of International FilmsTemplate: LdiF / Maintenance / Access used , accessed on September 13, 2013