Bat★21

Vietnam, 1972. Lieutenant Colonel Iceal Hambleton is flying as an electronic warfare specialist aboard an observation aircraft. It is shot down and he is left alone in the middle of a dense enemy position. The only person he has radio contact with is Bartholomew Clark, a forward air controller. The rescue takes eleven days. Peter Markle directs. Gene Hackman plays Hambleton and Danny Glover plays Clark. The story is real. What Hambleton knew made his capture unacceptable, and extraordinary resources were spent getting him out. It remains among the longest and most costly rescue attempts of the Vietnam War. The detail that stays with you is the method of communication. Because the radio could be intercepted, positions could not be given openly, so Hambleton's love of golf was used: his route was described through the hole lengths of courses he had played. That actually happened. The film's position is not anti war and it is not a victory either. The cost of the operation, the aircraft lost and the personnel killed, is stated plainly. Who it is for: viewers who like war films built on real events and survival narrative. Who it is not for: the Vietnamese are used almost entirely as background, and the film asks nothing at all about the war itself.