Review: The Rocketeer (DMC #92)
This week we blasted off into a 1930s super hero adventure in The Rocketeer! The film marks the 92nd film in our Disnerd Movie Challenge. Should you need a refresher of the plot, you can find our synopsis below. If you watched with us last night or have already seen the movie, go ahead and scroll down for the review.
Synopsis
The year is 1938. In Los Angeles, CA, stunt pilot Cliff Secord takes his Gee Bee racer out for a test flight. His mechanic, A. “Peevy” Peabody, believes the plane is good enough to take Cliff all the way to the nationals. Cliff sticks a piece of chewed gum on the tail of the plane for luck before taking off. Elsewhere, two mobsters from Eddie Valentine’s gang have made off with a rocket pack designed by Howard Hughes. The mobsters’ car is pursued by FBI agents who chase the goons into the open airfield where Cliff is flying. One of the mobsters shoots at Cliff’s plane, damaging it and causing the plane to crash land. Cliff survives the impact and escapes unharmed, but his plane is in pieces. One of the mobsters is killed by the FBI agents. The remaining mobster, Wilmer, is injured when Cliff’s plane goes down after hiding the rocket inside one of the hangars on the field. The agents question Wilmer on the rocket’s location, but Wilmer lies by saying it blew up. They find a destroyed object that looks similar to the rocket, seemingly corroborating Wilmer’s story. At Howard Hughes’s office, representatives of the U.S. government tell Hughes to make a new rocket, but Hughes refuses to do so, believing the rocket to be dangerous. Back at the airfield, Cliff and Peevy’s employer, Otis Bigelow, charges them for the loss of the racer even though it wasn’t their fault. While inspecting a different plane, Cliff finds the missing rocket. He and Peevy experiment with it that night, learning its true nature by strapping the rocket to a statute and letting the rocket fly. Ultimately, Peevy tells Cliff not to tinker with the rocket until they better understand its design. Meanwhile, Eddie Valentine argues with movie star Neville Sinclair, who hired Eddie and his group to steal the rocket. The men eventually settle on a new deal where Sinclair will triple Eddie’s price so long as the mobsters retrieve the rocket soon. After they leave, Sinclair dispatches his monstrous henchman, Lothar, to deal with Wilmer. Lothar breaks into Wilmer’s room at the hospital and demands to know where the rocket is. After getting the mobster to spill, Lothar brutally kills him and slips out of the room.
Cliff visits his girlfriend, Jenny Blake, an aspiring actress who recently auditioned for a part opposite Sinclair’s. He tells her about his earlier flight and claims it went well. After watching one of Sinclair’s movies, the couple grabs dinner at a diner. Cliff’s lie falls apart when some of his airfield colleagues overhear him talking about the nationals; they express skepticism he’ll be able to compete after the loss of the plane. Jenny, who has recently been dissatisfied with their relationship, is upset that Cliff didn’t tell her the truth and keeps treating her like a stranger. Cliff in turn feels that Jenny misses his competitions because she is always working. She leaves him alone at the diner and returns home. The next day, their relationship is further strained when Cliff visits her on set and inadvertently causes an accident, injuring one of the actors. Jenny is fired over the incident. Sinclair overhears Cliff’s attempt to tell Jenny about the rocket pack, and after Cliff leaves, he makes up to Jenny by offering her another part in the film and inviting her to dinner. Cliff arrives late at the nationals airshow where he learns his elderly friend Malcolm has taken his place. Malcolm’s aircraft malfunctions which prompts Cliff to don the rocket and a new helmet designed by Peevy. Peevy pulls Cliff’s gum from his mouth and sticks it on the rocket “for luck.” Cliff flies up to the aircraft and pulls Malcolm out of it just before it crashes to the ground. His heroic efforts are witnessed by the audience and a media sensation ensues. Other than Peevy, no one knows Cliff’s identity, and the mysterious hero is dubbed “the Rocketeer” by Bigelow. Lothar later kills Bigelow and finds out where Cliff and Peevy are living. He attacks Peevy just as Cliff returns home and gets into a short brawl with the two men. Outside, the FBI arrive to investigate Bigelow’s death and engage in a shootout with Lothar. Cliff, Peevy, and Lothar manage to escape the house, with Lothar making off with Peevy’s detailed rocket schematics. Cliff and Peevy arrive at the local diner but are trapped by a team of Eddie’s mobsters who are looking for Cliff but don’t recognize him. He overhears a mobster’s phone conversation which reveals that Jenny is on a date with Sinclair, and reveals Sinclair’s involvement with Eddie. While the mobsters are distracted, the diner patrons attack and overpower them. A stray bullet ricochets around the diner and punctures the rocket’s fuel tank. Peevy patches it using Cliff’s chewing gum, and Cliff flies off to the club where Jenny and Sinclair are.
Cliff slips into the club and pretends to be Jenny and Sinclair’s waiter. Sinclair tries to get Jenny to share information about the rocket, but Cliff manages to get her to leave the table and meet with him. He tells her about everything that’s happened and reveals that he’s the Rocketeer, although Jenny has been so busy working she hasn’t heard of him. Cliff asks her to trust him and she returns to her table. Sinclair realizes what’s going on and sets Lothar and Eddie’s goons loose. In the ensuing fight, Cliff escapes through the roof of the club, but Sinclair knocks Jenny out with chloroform and takes her back to his home. After she awakens, he attempts to seduce her. She plays along until she knocks him out. While trying to escape, she discovers a hidden room where she find’s Peevy’s schematics and learns that Sinclair is a Nazi spy. She is recaptured by Sinclair and Lothar. Sinclair has Eddie call Cliff with a message: bring the rocket to the Griffith Observatory that night at 4 a.m. in exchange for Jenny’s life. Cliff hides the rocket, but he is captured by the FBI before he can rescue Jenny. The FBI agents take Cliff to Hughes, who has been informed of everything by Peevy. Cliff says he can’t return the rocket just yet. Using a propaganda film smuggled out of Nazi Germany, Hughes reveals that the rocket was a prototype similar to one that Nazi scientists were trying to build in order to invade the United States. Cliff promises to return the rocket after he rescues Jenny, but Hughes won’t budge. When discussing the possibility of a Nazi spy hiding within Hollywood, Cliff realizes that Sinclair is the spy. The FBI agents dismiss the theory and try to arrest him, though Cliff escapes using one of Hughes’s model airplanes while inadvertently leaving behind a clue to the location of the exchange.
At Griffith Observatory, Sinclair and Eddie hold Jenny hostage. Cliff arrives on the scene in the Rocketeer costume. When Sinclair demands Cliff hand over the rocket or he will shoot Jenny, Cliff reveals Sinclair’s real loyalties to Eddie and his gang. Eddie makes Sinclair tell the truth. Drawing his moral lines at treason, Eddie turns on Sinclair and demands he release Jenny. Sinclair simply laughs and summons hidden Nazi S.A. commandos who were hidden nearby. The commandos hold the gang at gunpoint while a massive zeppelin, the Luxembourg, appears overhead (having toured America under the guise of peace, it’s secretly been assisting with the mission). As Sinclair attempts to leave, the FBI, who followed Cliff as well as Eddie and his men, reveal themselves and a shootout begins between them and the Nazis. Sinclair and Lothar escape aboard the zeppelin with Jenny. Cliff uses the rocket to blast off towards the Luxembourg. As Cliff attempts to infiltrate the inside, he is confronted by Lothar, who secures himself to the aircraft. Cliff manages to knock Lothar off the zeppelin and gets inside. He puts the rocket down and confronts Sinclair in a fist fight. Jenny accidentally sets the craft aflame with a flair gun. During the chaos, Sinclair takes the rocket to save himself. However, Cliff removed the chewing gum patch earlier; the leaking fuel is ignited by the exhaust flame, causing Sinclair to plummet to his death and destroying the last four giant letters of the “Hollywoodland” sign. Lothar is killed when the aircraft explodes while Cliff and Jenny are rescued by Peevy and Hughes flying in one of Hughes’s own aircraft. Some time later, Hughes gifts Cliff a brand-new Gee Bee racing airplane as compensation for his deeds. As Hughes leaves, Jenny returns Peevy’s schematics to him. As Jenny and Cliff kiss, Peevy decides that, with some modifications, he can build an even better rocket.
Thoughts Before Watching
Kevin: I’ve seen The Rocketeer exactly one time, when I was around four or five years old. For some reason, I don’t remember the movie itself, but I do recall that it was the choice movie during a family movie night all those years ago. It’s not the first time in this challenge where I’ve seen a movie I couldn’t remember well only to find out afterwards that I knew more than I thought, so I imagine this will likely be the same outcome.
Megan: Unlike Kevin, I’ve never seen this one before. In fact, I’d never even heard of it until it came up in our challenge. I’m getting some steampunk/sci-fi vibes, a la Firefly, but I’m guessing it’s not gonna be anything like Firefly. Hard to say if this will be my kind of sci-fi flick or not. My best guess? Probably not.
Thoughts After Watching
We’ve seen this kind of story before
Kevin: The Rocketeer is an adaptation of a series of comic books of the same name. Set in the 1930s as World War II is looming, the story follows Cliff Secord, a character who by all accounts is just an ordinary man thrust into extraordinary circumstances. After being given special abilities, he becomes a super hero who fights Nazis. Wait… isn’t there another film with a similar plot? Oh, yes, it’s Captain America: The First Avenger! Incidentally, both films were directed by Joe Johnston, too. Plot similarities aside, this is not a criticism of The Rocketeer. The fact these similarities exist is actually much more due to the fact that the film more or less follows a formula that has been used in countless works of fiction across many genres, including super hero, action, science fiction, and fantasy. This formula is usually known as the hero’s journey. I’ll skip going into details about the formula for the sake of brevity (and because I have a feeling most of you are familiar with it). To put it very, very simply, the hero’s journey presents a protagonist who is “called to adventure.” They’re usually reluctant to do so, but ultimately embracing their heroism and coming out victorious and returning a changed person. There have been many protagonists throughout film, television, books, and comic books that embody some form of the monomyth, including: Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter, Neo, Frodo Baggins, Steve Rogers/Captain America, Sarah Connor from The Terminator, Marty McFly, and Aang, among many others that I can’t list them all here. Cliff falls into this category. Cliff starts out as what could be described as a regular guy with ordinary goals in life. In his case, he wants to be an ace stunt pilot. His world is turned upside down when he receives his “call to adventure”—in this case, the rocket. Once that happens, the rest of the story follows similar beats that can be found in the stories of many of those characters I mentioned before. This works for many pieces of fiction because characters like Cliff are meant to be relatable, normal folks that the average person can see themselves in. The idea that a regular person could save and/or change the world is an appealing story. The story threads may be similar, but a comic book adaptation like The Rocketeer doesn’t need to stray from the formula, nor should it. It’s an easy-to-follow story that would probably sit well with children. With that said, is it the best example of the hero’s journey?
As familiar as this plot is, it’s all over the place. The first half of the movie moves really slowly, with the second half being jam-packed with action sequence after action sequence that leaves little breathing room. The first half could have spent time building up the characters, though it doesn’t do a great job at that. As a consequence, all the stakes and risks that the writers could have possibly taken in the second half are missed opportunities. There’s simply a lack of suspense. Like some other action movies we’ve seen in this challenge, there’s no reason to think any of the main characters are in any danger apart from the script saying they are. As a consequence, the film is full of style, but very little substance.
Cliff is a bland hero
Kevin: I don’t think this movie quite measures up to a lot of those other hero’s journey stories. I heard this film has gained a cult following since its release. I have to wonder if its cult status has a lot more to do with nostalgia than anything else. As mentioned before, part of why the hero’s journey works is because it often presents a relatable character the viewer or reader can identify with. But as the hero of this journey, Cliff Secord is just not that interesting. Overall, the movie is sorely lacking in strong character development in terms of its hero. I don’t think this is entirely the fault of the writers, however. Bill Campbell looks so stiff most of the time, at least when compared to his co-stars Jennifer Connelly and Timothy Dalton, both of whom have more chemistry with each other than Connelly and Campbell’s characters were supposed to. Maybe this is intentional on the part of the writers, but I’m doubting that. As a character, I thought Cliff didn’t really go through much of a transformation. He rides the fence between cocksure pilot and all-around American good guy, but he doesn’t really pull off either side really well. Cliff just doesn’t have the same kind of suave arrogance that someone like Han Solo has, nor is his good boy image anywhere as likable as it is in someone like Steve Rogers. Cliff’s behavior causes rifts between him and Jenny, which ultimately leads to Jenny getting involved with Sinclair and later resulting in Cliff having to rescue her. At first, this seems like it should work. Since Cliff bears some responsibility, working to fix his mistakes would make for an intriguing story. But there’s a bit of a failure to deliver here because the tension between him and Jenny is never addressed for the rest of the film. While it’s possible that the danger they found themselves in, and the fact that Cliff arguably risked his life to save her, was enough to cause Jenny to forgive and forget, it just seemed to tie things up too neatly. In the end, Cliff gets what he wants when he receives a new racer airplane and when his relationship with Jenny is seemingly mended. But, does Jenny get anything in return? I’m not sure. I have no idea if Cliff is more enjoyable in the comics since I haven’t read them. As far as the movie goes, the main reason I don’t think Cliff is all that interesting really comes down to Campbell’s performance. It’s no disrespect to the actor at all, but just that perhaps this wasn’t his greatest role. Other actors who were considered for the roles include Dennis Quaid, Kevin Costner, Kurt Russell, and Johnny Depp. Honestly, all of those actors would have more than likely been far better choices, and probably could have made Cliff Secord a better character.
But maybe it’s because he has a bland plot
Megan: Personally, I don’t think Cliff’s portrayal it’s entirely the fault of Bill Campbell. Actors can really only do so much with what they’re given in the script, and I don’t know that swapping in a better actor would have solved all this story’s problems. At its core, this story has a lot of plot (events happening) but no real story (emotional journey). We’re taken through the events of Cliff’s transformation from average Joe to the Rocketeer, but we never really get his emotional journey because the film relies on plot-driven conflict rather than character-driven conflict. For instance, the disagreement between Cliff and Jenny really only serves the plot—the writers needed an excuse to put Jenny in danger so she could be rescued (more on the eye roll of a damsel in distress trope a bit later). As Kevin already pointed out, we don’t see a satisfying resolution between Cliff and Jenny. Sure, they have a quick word while hiding in the plants at the night club, but they don’t fully resolve things in that scene. Later, Cliff rescues Jenny from danger and by the film’s end they seem fairly happy, but are things actually resolved? After the credits roll, is there any real hope for these two as a couple? I think we’re meant to think that all is well, but without seeing that resolution on the screen, it feels unfinished.
There was plenty of opportunity to insert a little bit more of that emotional journey in this film. Already I can think of Cliff and Jenny continuing their argument at the night club while fighting off/hiding from their attackers, perhaps filling the fight scene with some playful couples banter (with Cliff sarcastically telling Jenny “Really, this is the place you’ve been begging me to take you? Real classy joint.” before throwing his next punch.) Perhaps the two would have made up mid-fight scene only to be separated when Jenny is captured, or better yet, maybe the fight was still unresolved and Jenny willingly went with Sinclair (now THAT would be a gut-wrenching “all is lost” moment for Cliff—to have the girl he loves betray him like that). Alas, as it stands, I don’t really know how deeply Cliff cares for Jenny, let alone any of his other friends, because he never has an opportunity to express that emotion. It’s all chase scene, fight scene, shoot-’em-up, oh look, we’re flying planes now. All that action doesn’t do it for me if there isn’t any heart behind it.
Can we get more women behind the camera, please?
Megan: If you ever needed an example of the male gaze in cinema, this film has plenty for you. Let’s start with the way we’re introduced to Jenny vs. the way we’re introduced to Cliff. It tells you a lot. With Cliff, the first image we see of him is…well…okay, it’s his butt—he’s fully dressed in his pilot uniform and walking toward the yellow airplane with his backside toward us in the corner of the frame. This, however, is not meant to be an alluring image. In fact, you (like me) may have forgotten that this was actually the first shot we saw of him. You probably remembered the next shot, when the camera angle changes and we finally see his face as he prepares to take flight, reassuring Peevy that he knows what he’s doing. The reason we don’t remember the first image being his butt is because we’re not supposed to. The camera angles in this scene tell us that what’s important is this yellow airplane that takes up most of the screen, and that our cocky hero is about to fly in it.
Now, contrast this with how we first meet Jenny. We see a center-screen close-up of her bare legs as she slowly pulls on pantyhose and clips them into place at the top of her thigh. The camera then pans up to show us the rest of her body before finally showing us her face. My guess is you probably remembered that visual—because you’re supposed to. It’s supposed to be alluring. In this scene, the camera angle tells us that what Jenny is actually doing—getting ready for her date with Cliff—isn’t nearly as important as how sexy she looks doing it. Even the conversation between Jenny and her roommate in this scene is forgettable:
JENNY: Whose is it?
IRMA: Yours.
It’s two named female characters, but they’re talking about Cliff (thus failing the Bechdel test). The only reason for this scene is to setup that Jenny is Cliff’s girlfriend—the one he has a photo of in his cockpit. Beyond that, we learn nothing about Jenny as a character. In the same amount of time it took to give us a first look at both Cliff and Jenny, we learned far more about who Cliff is, his chosen profession, his personality, and his friend/mentor than we learned about Jenny and her roommate.
In Jenny’s subsequent scenes, we’re not meant to take her or her acting career aspirations seriously because all the characters around her don’t take her seriously. All the guys at the diner making fun of her while she tries to defend the movie she and Cliff saw is one thing, but what’s worse is that Cliff—the guy we’re supposed to be rooting for—doesn’t support Jenny’s acting career at all. He’s unimpressed by her possible speaking role, dismissive about her past acting gigs, and so clueless about Jenny’s work that he walks onto set and gets her fired. Because Cliff is the hero of the film, we’re meant to side with him that Jenny’s acting career is going nowhere, yet as a woman watching this film, my big takeaway is that Cliff is an ass. It’s no surprise to me that Jenny is then easily swayed by Neville Sinclair’s attentions—he’s the first man we’ve seen who actually takes her career seriously (even if it’s all just a ploy for Neville to get what he wants).
Things don’t get much better for Jenny once Neville enters the picture, though. He introduces her to W.C. Fields, at which point the camera angle shows us his point of view—a close-up of Jenny’s cleavage. (Thank the male gaze for an entire exchange that is completely unnecessary for the story yet sexually objectifies the female lead.) In this one night Jenny is objectified, seduced, lied to, chloroformed, kidnapped, imprisoned, gaslit by her captor (“I’m just as much a victim as you are.” Yeah right, Sinclair.), kissed and groped without her consent, used as a bargaining chip, held at gunpoint, and nearly blown off a blimp by an explosion. To her credit, she also chooses to go back and help Cliff fight off the bad guys after he told her to get out of there, successfully knocks the largest bad guy unconscious with a statue, tricks Sinclair with her acting skills so she can knock him out with a vase, sneaks into Neville’s secret vault, and becomes the first character to discover that Neville Sinclair is working for the Nazis. After she had such a passive role in the first part of the film, it was refreshing seeing her have some agency in the second half of the film, but it hardly makes up for the sheer number of times she is a damsel in distress/victim of the male characters.
In the end, it’s obvious this film was made by a team of male creators. I didn’t have to look at the movie’s credits or IMDb to guess that the writers, director, and cinematographer on this film were all men. It shows. It’s in the choice of camera angles that sexually objectify Jenny. It’s in Jenny’s lack of character development. It’s even in the excessive violence and toxic masculinity of the male characters. Have men always been this, well, gross? Or did our culture make them that way? It’s a bit of a chicken-or-the-egg conundrum, but I bet if they’d had more women working behind the scenes, we wouldn’t have had the same issue.
There is one small win to take away: despite the sexist male gaze, this film does manage to sneak by with a passing Bechdel test score thanks to this conversation:
IRMA: Boy oh boy is she a block of wood. You know, your audition was so much better.
JENNY: Irma, everybody’s audition was better. It doesn’t matter when you’re the producer’s niece.
IRMA: So she gets to play a scene with Neville Sinclair and we play scenery. I love Hollywood.
The film sets, special effects, and music are saving graces
Kevin: The best thing The Rocketeer has going for it is its wonderful 1930s aesthetic. One of the issues I find with some period pieces is that they sometimes don’t pull off the time period they’re representing. Luckily, this movie doesn’t have that problem. The film has a strong retro look and feel to it that never looks out of place. In particular, I really liked the design of the Rocketeer suit. The sets looked authentic, if nothing else likely because there wasn’t too much the filmmakers had to change since a lot of the film is shot outside. For an early ‘90s film, the effects look really good. It’s clear that there is a mix of practical and computer effects. While the computer effects are noticeable when they’re used, they appear to be used so infrequently that there’s not much time to care about how out of place they look. For example, there’s one particular shot of Sinclair and Jenny escaping to the zeppelin that is so obviously using green screen, indicated by the blurry glows surrounding the characters. However, the shot quickly movies to another before you can dwell on the dated effects.
Megan: Totally. When it comes to the rocket effects and the explosions, it all fits with the movie so well that you’re rarely taken out of the story. When it comes to the makeup on the one giant Frankenstein-looking hitman, however, it leaves something to be desired. It’s so obvious that his face is done up with layers of prosthetics and makeup that he just looks out of place with a story that is otherwise based in what we know as the real world.
Kevin: Finally, the score composed by the late James Horner is, in my opinion, one of, if not the best score we’ve heard so far in the challenge. This isn’t surprising given Horner’s body of work, which includes many well-known films including a couple other films we’ve watched in this challenge, with perhaps his most famous score being 1997’s Titanic. Given his resume, it would only make sense for the score in The Rocketeer to be as good as it is. Although these things are done well and help make the film watchable, it’s not quite worth a rewatch.
