Air America [Special Edition]

MOVIE DESCRIPTION:

Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. play a couple of what-the-hell flyboys flying contraband to Laos during the Vietnam War. Gibson doesn't seem to care about anything but the "guts and glory" aspects of the job, but Downey has serious questions about the moral implications of their mission. When a Laotian general expresses more concern over the wellbeing of an opium shipment than the men who are risking life and limb to fly it in, Gibson comes around to Downey's way of thinking. By film's end, Gibson is stuck in one of those character-building dilemmas so common to films of this nature: should he deliver his cache of weaponry, or should he dump it all to rescue a bunch of refugees? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

DVD FEATURES:

• Region: 1
• Number of Discs: 1
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Cinemascope)
• Audio: Dolby Digital 5.1, Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
• Screen: Enhanced Wide Screen Letterbox for 16x9 TV
• Subtitle: English, Spanish
• Features:
  • • cc 16 x 9 newly remastered feature
    • 5.1 Dolby Digital audio
    • Feature audio commentary with writer/co-producer John Eskow
    • "Pre-Flight -- Storyboards and Previsualization": Featurette showcasing scenes of storyboards-to-film comparisons
    • "Air America -- Flight Log": Making-of featurette/interviews
    • "Return Flight -- Revisiting Air America": Newly videotaped interviews with select members of the cast and crew as they reflect on making Air America (also included are perspectives of historians, along with the filmmakers, in a detailed discussion on the controversial assertions that the film makes about the CIA and the drug trade in Laos)
    • Theatrical trailer

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:

• Director:

  Roger Spottiswoode

• Producer:

  Daniel Melnick

• Screenwriter:

  John Eskow, Richard Rush

• Book Author:

  Christopher Robbins

• Cinematographer:

  Roger Deakins

• Composer (Music Score):

  Charles Gross

• Musical Direction/Supervision:

  Becky Mancuso, Timothy R. Sexton

• Editor:

  John Bloom, Lois Freeman-Fox

• Production Designer:

  Allan Cameron

• Art Director:

  Tony Reading, Steve Spence

• Co-producer:

  John Eskow, Allen Shapiro

• Executive Producer:

  Mario Kassar, Andrew G. Vajna

• Set Designer:

  Fred Carter

• Costume Designer:

  John Mollo

• Makeup:

  Lois Burwell

• Special Effects:

  Roy Fields, George Gibbs

• Stunts:

  Vic Armstrong

• Casting:

  Jane Jenkins, Janet Hirshenson

• Line Producer:

  Michael J. Kagan