From Jaws to gyroscopes: Roy Scheider and Blue Thunder

Flying silently on to cinema screens in 1983 on whisper mode was John Badham's Blue Thunder.

Piloting the titular prototype urban police helicopter was Roy Scheider, heading to the skies rather than diving into another Jaws adventure, meaning his involvement in the action thriller meant he was not available for Jaws 3D (1983).

How you feel about the boy’s own adventure that is Blue Thunder - written by Dan O'Bannon who gave us Alien and Don Jakoby -  probably depends on whether you saw it when it first came out, or when it was first screened on TV. To today's audiences the high-tech is anything but, but therein lies part of its charm and nostalgia.

It is arguably part of director John Badham's tech trilogy warning about the dangers of new technology and man, with Wargames (1983) and Short Circuit (1986), all in their way more pertinent today than they were even back then, and were part of a group of films with tech gone wrong or used for bad such as Looker, Runaway, Terminator and Robocop.

Although it is about a helicopter in the sky, Blue Thunder is very grounded and is one part 1970s paranoid conspiracy thriller and another 1980s high-tech action.

Part of what makes it work is the often hand-held workman-like direction of John Badham, filming on location in LA - with some gorgeous vistas of the LA sky, both by day and night.

It makes some great use of locations and has a really exhilarating climactic helicopter chase through urban LA, squeezing between building and under low bridges, which would never happen today, and as a result the amazing stunt work still stuns to this day. Scheider showing he was the best of the best three years before Tom Cruise in Top Gun (1986).

And talking of Scheider, that realism is only heightened when you see him in the sky in the cockpit in several shots. His character of Frank Murphy is a real joy, Scheider is perfect for this role, and is effortless and likable. He just oozes cool and charisma, such is the power of Roy Scheider.

For many it is kind of what Chief Brody did next after leaving the shark problem behind in Amity, much the same way you could view The French Connection (1971) as being like what Brody did before moving to Amity.  As with many films and shows of that era, his character has PTSD as a result of events that happened whilst he was a pilot in Vietnam, with his past eventually coming back to haunt him in ways he could never have imagined.

It's also part buddy cop movie, with old hand Scheider paired with newbie Richard Lymangood (Daniel Stern), who I thought both riffed off each other really well and the film kicks up a gear when Stern's character is murdered. The build up to that is effectively handled as you think several times that he really is going to make it.

Framed, a grounded Scheider steals the helicopter and must now get the evidence to the media to clear his name and evade capture and being shot down. Those involved come at him with all guns and fighter jets blazing, but you can’t keep a good cop down, especially when he is packing this much firepower at his fingertips.

There is also great support from Murphy's superior, Warren Oates chewing scenery and almost his desk in his final role – the film is dedicated to his memory - but his scenes with Scheider are lovely to watch and although they are at odds, there is also a lot of warmth.

We also have the villain of the piece, a rival pilot played by Malcolm McDowell, ironically the actor was terrified of flying, and we really can’t wait for him to get his just desserts. They may have been deadly rivals, but in real life the pair had great respect for one another and when Scheider passed away McDowell sent flowers to the funeral as he was unable to attend due to filming commitments.

And lastly there is Scheider's funny and gutsy love interest, Kate, played Candy Clark, who starred alongside Richard Dreyfuss in American Graffiti. She has a great scene in a drive in movie theater and some of the homelife scenes with her child and Scheider are also nicely reminiscent of the family scenes in Jaws.

I've enjoyed taking flight with Blue Thunder once again, to quote Murphy it’s “outstanding” and Scheider is never not a great watch - plus I always wanted his great watch - and he was always an actor to follow because he was in a film, not because of the film itself.

And that was part of the beauty of his post Jaws output, you'd get a Hitchcockian thriller, followed by a musical, Blue Thunder and then a sequel to 2001. He and his choices were never not interesting.

As for Blue Thunder, it had a budget of just over $22 million and made over $42 million upon release in the US. Although it was a film it was also a short-lived TV series, with support from Dana Carvey and pre-Police Academy Bubba Smith. There was no Scheider, and Airwolf had air dominance over that in television land.

Catch you later!

Words by Dean Newman

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