Published via Ecency

(source: tmdb.org)

There are various ways in which Hollywood approached Vietnam War, ranging from tales of heroic US military fighting the noble fight against evil Communists to bleak dramas about flower of American youth being needlessly sacrificed in senseless slaughter. However, one of the more unusual approaches to this difficult subject was to use that dark and traumatic chapter of US history as basis for family-friendly entertainment. Operation Dumbo Drop, 1995 comedy directed by Simon Wincer, did exactly that.

The plot, which is very loosely inspired by real historical events, is set in 1968. US Special Forces Captain Sam Cahill (played by Danny Glover) leads mission to aid Montagnard village in Central Vietnam who, in exchange, provide intelligence about Ho Chi Minh Trail, used by North Vietnamese to supply weapons to Communist guerillas in South Vietnam. Cahill, who has built excellent relationship with the villagers is being replaced by inexperienced Captain T. C. Doyle (played by Ray Liotta) who carelessly gives Nestle candy bar to village children. When North Vietnamese soldiers arrive in the village, they realise that the villagers have been helping their enemy and, as punishment, kill the only elephant in the village just before the important festival. After learning this, Cahill promises villagers that he would bring them another elephant. He and Doyle recruit Chief Warrant Officer Poole (played by Denis Leary), black market expert, to help them buy new elephant and also bring couple more servicemen for the mission. However, bringing the large animal to faraway destination over territory full of enemy soldiers appears to be more difficult that they imagined. Cahill and Doyle use various mods of transportation and when anything else fails they deliver the elephant via parachute drop.

Operation Dumbo Drop was produced by Disney, studio at the time known almost exclusively for family-oriented films. Its executives were probably thrilled with the high concept of huge exotic animal being brought from the sky via parachute – an image prominently displayed in film’s poster and trailers. Australian director Simon Wincer was carefully chosen for the project, thanks to his experience with action and war films (like The Lighthorsemen, as well as Free Willy, another film featuring large exotic animal which turned out to be big hit. His efforts, despite logistical and other problems associated with shooting at Thailand locations, were satisfactory from strictly technical standpoint. The elephant is well “played” by combination of real animals, animatronics and other special effects. Wincer directs film confidently and he is helped by decent cast who delivers solid works, despite the claims of its stars that they did only for the money.

While satisfying in strictly technical sense, Operation Dumbo Drop ultimately suffers because its high concept. Script by Gene Quintano and Jim Kouf is a poor execution of bold and potentially promising idea to depict war as background for uplifting family-friendly story. The film is supposed to be primarily intended for children who, in 1990s as there are now, don’t know much and can’t relate to Vietnam War in the same way as Boomer management of Hollywood studios. In order to make the story “cute” and inoffensive, large deal of liberties are taken when it comes to depiction of actual story, but the most important is almost complete lack of explicit violence. Nobody, except in brief scene in prologue, gets killed or seriously injured despite being involved in heavy combat involving automatic weapons, artillery and missiles. This sanitised treatment of the conflict that left millions of people killed and other millions crippled or affected by pollution will look like in poor taste for anyone slightly familiar to actual history. And that remains even with some half-hearted attempts of pacifist message which coincided with normalisation of relations between USA and its former wartime adversary. Some may argue that the treatment of war of something worthy of family entertainment paved the way for American public to embrace military misadventures in Middle East a decade later. Operation Dumbo Drop, however, failed at the box office and nowadays can be interesting mostly to cinephiles interested in curiosities.

RATING: 4/10 (+)