Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag (2004)

Red Flag is the international training exercise for air forces of allied countries where many of the world's best pilots meet for the most challenging flying of their careers. Red Flag is ... See full summary »

Director:

Stephen Low

Writers:

Stephen Low, Denny Kuhr (story)

Stars:

John Stratton, Robert Novotny, Sam Morgan

1 nomination.

Cast

Credited cast:
John Stratton	...	Himself (as Captain John Stratton)
Robert Novotny	...	Himself (as Major Robert Novotny)
Sam Morgan	...	Himself (as Major Sam Morgan)
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Randy Cason	...	Himself (as Tractor)
Michel Perron	...	Additional Voice
Charles Edwin Powell	...	Additional Voice (as Charles Powell)
Harald Winter	...	Voice (German Pilot)

Storyline

Red Flag is the international training exercise for air forces of allied countries where many of the world's best pilots meet for the most challenging flying of their careers. Red Flag is the final training for pilots and their aircrews before being sent into actual combat. Follow pilot, John Stratton, as he makes his way through this extraordinary event held in the desert of Nevada.

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Plot Keywords:

imax | 

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Genres:

Documentary

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Certificate:

G

Details

Official Sites:

Official site

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2 December 2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Air Force: The Battle for Red Flag

Box Office

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$30,000,000

Company Credits

Production Co:

K2 Studios, Stephen Low Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

40 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

FIGHTER PILOT Wins LFCA 2005 "Best of Festival" Film Award.

Los Angeles, CA - (May 5, 2005) The Large Format Cinema Association (LFCA) has selected Stephen Low's FIGHTER PILOT: OPERATION RED FLAG to receive the LFCA 2005 Conference and Film Festival "Best of Festival" Film Award. Voted on by all attendees at this year's conference, the award recognizes the best films presented to industry peers and delegates during the annual four-day event.

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Goofs

At the beginning of the movie, John takes of from Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, not from Eglin AFB, Florida. However at the outside shot, the radio call's Miami center. Mountain Home AFB, Idaho to Nellis AFB, Nevada takes him no where near Miami.

User Reviews

Fake and forced

I was excited at the prospect of watching Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag, thinking that it would be a genuine documentary. How wrong I was. The saccharine sweet narration can be rather vomit inducing at times, however in places it is delivered in a dull, lifeless monotone. The documentary aspect of the film is very shallow indeed as it simply glosses over things and never really actually educates or demonstrates anything, we are just treated to some very basic facts figures over the top of some visuals that are, admittedly, stunning.

Some of the cinematography is excellent and I would love to be able to say make the whole experience worthwhile however it suffers from bad editing and staging and a lack of continuity making it obvious that many shots were filmed in various locations nowhere near Red Flag, and during some of the dogfight sequences it's hard to keep track of who is who as the aircraft keep chopping and changing between shots so you have no real idea who is flying what.

There is an excessive amount of pyrotechnics used to stage various explosions making the whole affair feel rather fake and forced. Ultimately this isn't a documentary and it isn't a film. It doesn't educate and it doesn't entertain, and it feels like a huge missed opportunity given the access the film crew had to the Red Flag exercises.