SKY RIDERS [1976 / 2017] [Blu-ray + DVD] [UK Release]
They Soared From The Skies To Stage The Most Daring Rescue Ever Filmed!
Action adventure directed by Douglas Hickox and starring Robert Culp and James Coburn. When a rich industrialist by the name of Jonas Bracken [Robert Culp] finds that his wife Ellen Bracken [Susannah York] and his children have been kidnapped by terrorists, so Jonas Bracken has the police try to capture them and rescue his family. But the police fail in every attempt and Jonas Bracken's last hope lies in his wife's former husband Jim McCabe [James Coburn] who has his own plan of action and recruits a team of professional hang gliders for a daring mountain top rescue from the terrorist’s mountain top lair.
FILM FACT: James Coburn's casting was announced in May 1975. The film was part of a slew of productions from Sandy Howard. After an explosion on the set of ‘SKY RIDERS’ in which a Greek electrician died, producer Terry Morse Jr. was arrested and producer Sandy Howard was detained for several weeks. A $250,000 out-of-court settlement was made, which one Variety article called a “bribe” so the crew member responsible would not be imprisoned by the military regime. The film ‘SKY RIDERS’ was a complete failure at the box office in the USA but did much better internationally. Sandy Howard hired Jack Hill to write a sequel. He later said “I pitched them my idea, which they thought was good, and I wrote the script. Well, it turned out that the movie was a big flop and no one could understand why. I knew why – it was because they had the theory that it should be wall to wall action and there is nothing more boring.” Jack Hill then wrote the screenplay for the films ‘City of Fire’ and ‘Death Ship’ for Sandy Howard. The rescue sequences were filmed in Meteora in Greece where the finale of the later James Bond film ‘For Your Eyes Only’ was also set later in 1981.
Cast: James Coburn, Susannah York, Robert Culp, Charles Aznavour, Harry Andrews, John Beck, Zouzou, Kenneth Griffith, Werner Pochath, Antonis Antypas, Telis Zotos, Nikos Tsachiridis, Ernie F. Orsatti, Barbara Trentham, Henry Brown, Cherie Latimer, Simon Harrison, Stephany Mathews and Steven Keats
Director: Douglas Hickox
Producers: Bill McGaw, Hall T. Sprague, Sandy Howard and Terry Morse Jr.
Screenplay: Garry Michael White (screenplay), Greg MacGillivray (screenplay) (uncredited), Jack DeWitt (screenplay), Stanley Mann (screenplay), Bill McGaw (story) and Hall T. Sprague (story)
Composer: Lalo Schifrin
Costume Designer: Emma Porteous
Aerial Action Direction: Greg MacGillivray and Jim Freeman
Cinematography: Greg MacGillivray (Director of Photography), Jim Freeman (Director of Photography) and Ousama Rawi, B.S.C. (Director of Photography)
Image Resolution: 1080p (Color By DeLuxe)
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1 (Panavision)
Audio: English: 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio
Subtitles: None
Running Time: 90 minutes
Region: Blu-ray: Region B/2 + DVD: PAL
Number of discs: 2
Studio: 20th Century Fox / 101 Films
Andrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘SKY RIDERS’ [1976] is a mid-1970’s thriller directed by Douglas Hickox, who is primarily remembered for the brilliant film ‘Theater of Blood,’ that featured Vincent Price in one of his better roles during his British phase, but Douglas Hickox also directed the film ‘Brannigan.’ ‘SKY RIDERS’ was Douglas Hickox’s first film after the film ‘Brannigan’ which came out the previous year in 1975.
The 1970’s had a massive increase in left-wing terrorism, like the abduction of Patty Hearst by the Symbionese Liberation Army or the activities of the Red Army Faction, to name two. Naturally Hollywood would reflect this in genre films, with ‘Black Sunday’ and ‘Day of the Jackal’ being probably the two best-remembered films during that time, as well as the appearance of numerous terrorists in the James Bond film franchise. The opening kidnap is dramatic enough, then there's a slow build as the rescue mission is planned out and the police investigation fouls up. It's fun to see the experts pretending to glide badly, doubling for James Coburn's character as he's learning to fly.
Industrialist Jonas Bracken [Robert Culp] lives happily with his wife Ellen Bracken [Susannah York] and child in Greece. When they are kidnapped by terrorists he turns to her ex-husband, Jim McCabe [James Coburn], for help. Jonas Bracken’s family are holed up in an abandoned mountain-top monastery, placing them out of reach of conventional attack. While Jonas negotiates with the terrorists and arranges for a ransom payment, Jim is assembling a group of hang-gliding circus performers into a rescue team. They figure if they go by air they can avoid detection. The tone is a bit all over the place given the hostage situation. But there's no denying that the flying scenes are so magnificent to look at. This moves by super-fast which I do appreciate. They jump right into the nitty gritty of the plot. You hardly know these people but it feels adrenaline filled to have this rescue happen very quickly.
James Coburn was a man whose sheer presence and charm was able to salvage almost anything he ever appeared in. This is no exception: here he plays the former husband of Ellen Bracken who is married to a rich industrialist. The terrorists kidnap her and her children. James Coburn as Jim McCabe is the biological father, and he soon steps in after the police’s rescue attempts fail. Jim McCabe plans out a daring rescue mission using hang gliders.
The fantastic, barely accessible location of the kidnappers' hideout is an ancient monastery, surrounded by natural sheer-walled mountains. According to the Wikipedia entry, there are actually six in this Greek valley of Meteora, each one perched on a natural sandstone pillar. One was used in the finale of ‘For Your Eyes Only’ [1981] and maybe the same one was in the live action ‘Tintin and the Golden Fleece’ [1961]. But most of all, the gliding looks really dangerous and windy as the flock of hang gliders get dangerously close to the mountains. ‘SKY RIDERS’ however, is mostly a showcase for the amazing aerial photography in the impressive climax.
The whole film moves at a pretty relentless pace for a 90 minute film, and rarely gets bogged down with exposition. The opening sequence is absurdly violent in that way that so many films from the 1970’s were, and is quite startling. It’s kind of downhill from there, but things pick up when James Coburn hires the hand gliders and the rescuers carry out their mission. You never really get to see the interworking’s of the terrorist group — they only serve as villains, which is a shame. The action-packed climax packs a ton of firepower, though the original certificate remained a PG. The “high” point of the film is James Coburn personally performing a perilous stunt by hanging off a helicopter hundreds of feet in the air, but a reminder of how big action scenes had to be shot for real. But equally dramatic and amazing is the fantastic aerial shots of the amazing hand gliders stunts they perform and such a clever idea of rescuing the three hostages in the Greek terrorist’s mountain top lair.
The story of the making of the film would probably be equally interesting. But this has a strong cast, stronger than the storyline anyway, and a gung-ho finale, which is what I like about the actor James Coburn, as he is the lynchpin of this action film and has a no holds barred attitude, that is why I think James Coburn is especially good when it comes to action films of this calibre and especially when James Coburn makes sure these nasty evil terrorists eventually get their comeuppance.
The ‘SKY RIDERS’ is an entertaining film with interesting plot, glorious Greek exteriors and with no depth characterization. Nice and agreeable thriller with a great cast, noisy action, sensational stunts, thrills and suspense abound in this fun film and one of my all-time favourite films of the 1970’s, because it is a good and typical action film with an amazing startling finale including a particular impressive scenes about sky riding stunts and the brilliant colourful cinematography by Ousama Rawi and Jim Freeman of the spectacular location in the Varlaam monastery in Meteora in Greece.
The film ‘SKY RIDERS’ combines the methodical plotting of mid-seventies thrillers with the spectacle of the budding blockbuster. It’s without a doubt an action packed edge of your seat film, but serves as a sort of prototype for a different kind of action film that would soon be everywhere with the rise of Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Chuck Norris. You can see traces of the over-the-top escapism that would soon be the status quo. ‘SKY RIDERS’ exists in that magical sweet spot between the minimalism of the early seventies and the excess of the blockbuster era, in that strange, wonderful little pocket called 1976. So sit back and enjoy the ride of your lifetime, and feel part of the action packed adventurous film.
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Blu-ray Image Quality – 20th Century Fox and 101 Films presents the film ‘SKY RIDERS’ with a stunning 1080p image and really shows off the film with the amazing 2.35:1 Panavision aspect ratio. The colours are produced in really wonderful pastel colours that really suits the film and really shows off each scene in the film to its best quality. Skin tones are very realistic, and despite the pastel colours, some colours that really stand out reds, greens and blues. Outdoor scenes are also very natural looking and cinematographers Greg MacGillivray, Jim Freeman and Ousama Rawi, B.S.C. pulls out the stops and makes the Color by DeLuxe image standout with total perfection. The contrast is really superb, and especially with the mid-range colours is most attractively rendered. A one point in the film sadly we get this white line down the middle of the screen, but luckily only lasts about 10 seconds and now again we get some white sparkles. So all in all, this definitely gets a much deserved five star rating for a 20th Century-Fox film released in 1976. Please Note: Playback Region B/2: This will not play on most Blu-ray players sold in North America, Central America, South America, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Southeast Asia. Learn more about Blu-ray region specifications.
Blu-ray Audio Quality – 20th Century Fox and 101 Films brings you the film ‘SKY RIDERS’ with one standard 2.0 LPCM Stereo Audio experience. The audio is nicely rounded and also gives us a good dynamic range and is also very clear, and a well-modulated sound with no distortion or age-related surface noise, pops, or crackles and the dialogue from the actors is very clear and precise and especially you can hear all the actors speaking without any hindrances and definitely no distortion. Also outstanding is Lalo Schifrin composed film score and really adds ambience to the film that really helps you to enjoy this audio experience and especially with the very dramatic scenes in the action packed film and Lalo Schifrin should have got some kind of award for his wonderful composed film score music. So all in all, this soundtrack definitely gets a five star rating from me.
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Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:
The 101 Films Blu-ray release of ‘SKY RIDERS’ sadly does not have any special features.
Finally, ‘SKY RIDERS’ is to my mind the perfect good action packed film, with a strong performance of James Coburn and impressive aerial photography. It’s a brilliant film to watch on a lazy Sunday afternoon. After catching ‘SKY RIDERS’ on TV in the eighties, I've waited until now to see it in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio. It was only previously available in cramped “what the hell is going on” pan-and-scan vision on the television. ‘SKY RIDERS’ is good action packed fun, with a fairly unique premise. Directed extremely well by Douglas Hickox and is a genuinely exciting film that can actually keep a viewer watching to the very end conclusion. It's breath-taking, with the expected impressive aerial stunts and lots of amazing Greek scenery. The music by Lalo Schifrin is just perfect as it's quite rousing and the film just steadily builds the whole time towards a fantastic action climax. The acting is fine from most everybody involved, with James Coburn making for a rugged and engaging hero, Robert Culp shows us of his grim determination to rescue his family whatever it takes, Susannah York a feisty victim, and Charles Aznavour solid as the intrepid Inspector Nikolidis. The people playing the hang gliders include John Beck, Barbara Trentham, Henry Brown, and Steven Keats, and they're a very likable bunch. Werner Pochath and Zouzou are appropriately odious as the two main nasty terrorists. This is clearly not a film that is not very well known, which is too bad as it deserves much better recognition, because there are some amazing aerial shots and the stunt hang glider pilots are very skilled and I am absolutely delighted I now have this very favourite film of mine in my Blu-ray collection. Very Highly Recommended!
Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film Aficionado
Le Cinema Paradiso
United Kingdom
