Review of Airwolf (Four Discs)

Introduction

Altogether now....

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Surely one of the greatest theme tunes of the 1980s starts off this classic show. It`s Reagan-era America perfectly represented by a TV show. An all action helicopter piloted by an all action hero (with the standard `Nam background), fighting those evil Commies, Cubans, Libyans etc.

The first series features Jan-Michael Vincent as Stringfellow Hawke (the hero) and Ernest Borgnine as his best friend and co-pilot Dominic Santini. Guest stars for the first series include David Hemmings, a very young Shannen Doherty and David Carradine.

It`s all rather preposterous. Airwolf is stolen by its designer, and Vietnam veteran Stringfellow Hawke agrees to recover it on the condition that "The Firm" (a thinly veiled CIA reference surely) helps find his brother, St John, who has been missing in Vietnam for over a decade. Hawke then keeps Airwolf until such time that his brother is found, flying more missions for "The Firm".

Episode Listing: Shadow of the Hawke (feature length pilot episode), Daddy`s Gone a Hunt`n, Bite of the Jackal, Proof Through the Night, One Way Express, Echoes From the Past, Fight Like a Dove, Mad Over Miami, And They Are Us, Mind of the Machine and To Snare a Wolf.

Once again the DVD companies have decided to stitch up reviewers by only sending out 3 discs of a 4 disc set. Grrr.

Video

A full frame transfer which really looks like 1980s American TV. It was almost all shot on film, so the film suffers from scratches, grain, dirt, dust and a bit more besides. It`s not unwatchable, and it probably looks better then when you last saw it. It just hasn`t been cleaned up in the way we have come to expect.

The major problem now is the extensive use of stock footage - this hasn`t really aged well, and an older viewer now spots the same stock footage being used over and over again. When watching this at a younger age, this wasn`t really noticeable.

Audio

A DD2.0 soundtrack, which is the original mono track replayed over both channels. It`s all pretty good, although if you are pumping it through an amp with some surround processing on, there are one or two points in various episodes when sounds disappear off in odd places.

Plenty of chances for you to hear the theme tune, and variants of it. Almost every time that Airwolf gets started up, the tune starts off again. A classic piece of 1980s synth work!

Features

No extras, and rather cheap menus that look like a 1980s ZX Spectrum game.

Conclusion

A very silly series but a lot of fun. It really captures the essence of Reagan era America - bashing Castro, Gadaffi and those god-damn Commies! The bad guys are wild stereotypes too. Another series in the long line created and produced by Donald P Bellisario, high production values and a massive budget ensures that parts of it have aged well.

It`s fun to go back and watch all this, and laugh at the world view as seen from this programme`s perspective. The episodes are largely worth watching, but mainly for the all-action helicopter stuff as opposed to any subtle drama, characterisation or storytelling.

If you used to enjoy watching this on TV in the 1980s, you`ll enjoy watching it again. It`s not something that you might show off proudly on your DVD shelves, but it`s nice to go back for a quick dip of nostalgia. Better to remember the series this way than the later series when things started to go wrong and it all went downhill swiftly.

A reasonable package all round. A fun peek at the TV of the 1980s.