Product Description

The Superbit titles utilize a special high bit rate digital encoding process which optimizes video quality while offering a choice of both DTS and Dolby Digital 5.1 audio. These titles have been produced by a team of Sony Pictures Digital Studios video, sound and mastering engineers and comes housed in a special package complete with a 4 page booklet that contains technical information on the Superbit process. By reallocating space on the disc normally used for value-added content, Superbit DVDs can be encoded at double their normal bit rate while maintaining full compatibility with the DVD video format.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #56146 in DVD
• Brand: Sony
• Released on: 2001-10-09
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English, Spanish, French
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 124 minutes

Amazon.com essential video
You know that old dramatic principle of suspension of disbelief? You'll have to rely on it for this box-office smash, but you won't be disappointed. Harrison Ford plays a U.S. president who single-handedly employs his rigid antiterrorism policy when a band of Russian thugs hatch a mid-flight takeover of Air Force One. Gary Oldman, who chews the scenery as the lead terrorist, will shoot a hostage at the slightest provocation. Glenn Close plays the sternly pragmatic vice president who negotiates with Oldman from her Washington seat of power. If you can believe that the aircraft's pressurized cabin can sustain hundreds of rounds of machine-gun fire, you'll buy anything in this entertaining potboiler, especially thanks to Ford's stalwart heroics and some nifty special effects. Director Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot) keeps the action moving so fast you won't be sweating the details. Don't forget your parachute! --Jeff Shannon

From The New Yorker
In Wolfgang Petersen's ludicrous thriller, Harrison Ford plays a red-blooded, two-fisted President who, when Air Force One is hijacked, turns into a business-suited guerrilla, foiling the plans of the ruthless, goateed head terrorist (Gary Oldman). The picture's attempt to satisfy the aggressive fantasies of a graying white-male audience is weirdly fascinating. It's something you don't see every day: a geriatric comic book. -Terrence Rafferty
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker

Customer Reviews

Get Off of my plane
Air Force One DVD

Air Force One starring Harrison Ford is one of my favorite movies for all the wrong reasons.

First it shows you what an U. S. President ought to be:
- An Honorably discharged veteran (in the movie he had won the Congressional Medal of Honor)
- Brave ( he chose to stay behind and fight the terrorist who had hijacked the plane)
- A man of action, not just words.
Glenn Close plays a superb Vice-President. In the movie the President's family on the surface mirrors Bill Clinton's, wife with a teenage , blonde headed daughter. Too bad reality is so different.

Anyhow as Bill Clinton recently said it's all a fairy tale.

Highly recommended for people who want to know how a President is suppose to be and for fans of Harrison Ford.





Gunner February

P. S. Did you know Harrison Ford was a carpenter when discovered for the first Star Wars movie?

"Get off my plane!"
Air Force One, the 1997 summer hit directed by Wolfgang Petersen (The Boat/Das Boot, In The Line of Fire) and starring Harrison Ford as President James Marshall, stretches the term "willing suspension of disbelief" to its limits, yet, incredibly, it works.

Co-starring Gary Oldman, Glenn Close, Wendy Crewson, Liesel Matthews, William H. Macy, and Dean Stockwell, Air Force One's premise is simple: Russian ultra-Communist terrorists take over the President's plane on its way back to the U.S. from Moscow. Marshall, who by happenstance is separated from his family and staff during the takeover, must use his military training (he's a former Air Force pilot) and his wits to regain control of Air Force One and rescue the hostages before the terrorists achieve their aims.

The terrorists, led by Ivan Korshunov (Oldman), are seeking the immediate release of General Alexander Radek (Jurgen Prochnow), who was snatched from his palace in Kazakhstan by a joint team of Russian and American Special Forces. Radek and his followers believe in the restoration of the old Soviet Union, and until both Russia and the U.S. intervened, had ruled Kazakhstan with as much regard for human life as the Taliban exhibited when they ruled Afghanistan. After a ceremony hosted by the grateful Russian President in which Marshall warns rogue nations and terrorists that "we will no longer be afraid. It's your turn to be afraid," the American delegation heads to one of Moscow's main airports to board the Presidential plane.

Little do they know that Korshunov and his team, using falsified press credentials, have passed through both Russian and American security and are aboard. Ironically, they are given a tour of Air Force One by the unsuspecting assistant press secretary, Melanie Mitchell (Donna Bullock). And why not? To the Secret Service agents and the Air Force Security detachment, Korshunov and his people are reporters, harmless and unarmed. So how in the world are these guys going to storm Air Force One, "the most secure aircraft in the world?" Hmmm....and why do Korshunov and Secret Service agent Gibbs (Xander Berkeley) exchange that glance as they pass each other, eh?

Petersen and screenwriter Andrew W. Marlowe never do explain Gibbs' motivations for his subsequent actions (as the director admits in the audio commentary track), but by the time audiences start asking those "real life" questions about plausibility, the sheer adrenaline rush provided by this action-packed film suppresses the "yeah, right" response to its premise. The Air Force (which willingly participated in the production of this film) says there is no escape pod in Air Force One's list of defensive measures, and viewers know that no sane person, whether terrorist or not, is going to fire automatic weapons inside an airborne plane unless he or she knew the mission was going to fail anyway.

Mixed in with the gunfire and explosions that punctuate the film, Petersen and Marlowe endow their characters with depth and believability. Petersen makes viewers care about each person being held hostage, warts and all, so that when one is lost, it feels real. Even Korshunov is played in such way that his motivations feel true and heartfelt, even if his cause is not just.

Yet Petersen and his cast and crew make audiences forget these dull real life facts. By the time the credits roll to Jerry Goldsmith's rousing End Title Suite, the viewer will wish the current occupant of the Oval Office were replaced by Harrison Ford's President Marshall, who is not only a man of political integrity but also a man of action.

Good Action Adventure Film
When Air Force One, carrying President James Marshall and his family, is taken over by terrorists, the President makes it to the escape pod on the plane, but he refuses to leave while his family is still on board. With all members of the Secret Service dead and the terrorists threatening to kill a hostage every half-hour until a prisoner is released from a Russian jail, it is up to Marshall to stop the terrorists. Will he be able to stop the terrorists and save his family?

Okay, in this type of film viewers know from the beginning that the good guys are going to win and the bad guys are going to lose, badly, but not before lots of people die. But, while somewhat predictable, and highly implausible, this is still a good thriller, with plenty of edge of your seat chills. There's just enough twist on the action adventure formula to keep the viewer from guessing what will happen next.

Director Wolfgang Petersen deserves most of the credit for making this film work as well as it does. There are plenty of thrilling action sequences, especially the one that closes out the movie. Harrison Ford is a bit stiff as the President at the beginning of the film, but loosens up and does fine once he gets into action hero mode. Gary Oldman is wonderfully creepy as the main terrorist. Glenn Close and Dean Stockwell do fine as the Vice President and Defense Secretary. William H. Macy is, as always, perfect in a supporting role. Wendy Crewson is also good as the First Lady.

This is a good action adventure film.