SKY RIDERS

US, 1976, 91 Minutes, Colour.
James Coburn, Sasannah York, Robert Culp, Charles Aznavour.
Directed by Douglas Hickox.

The Sky Riders is quite an action-packed thriller that depends on quality photography of hanggliding for its impact. These sequences are very well done indeed and keep the audience involved in a plot that, on reflection, is high on far fetched implausibility. But, given the Greek settings, an emotional response to kidnapping, Susannah York and her children suffering, husband Robert Culp grimly arranging ransom, some dialogue on the inequality of wealth, Charles Aznavour as a single-minded police chief, James Coburn in literally high-flown heroics, what matter about the impossibility of it all, except at the end a little bit more sentiment and concern would have been nice.

1. The impact of this film as an action thriller? Its success and quality?

2. The contribution of the Grecian locations? Colour and music? The atmosphere of the kidnap, the police, the monastery, the sky riding, the escape?

3. How well did the film visually portray the atmosphere and use of kite flying? The technical aspects of the filming? The visual look and feel of the sky riding? How enjoyable is this for an earthbound audience? The presentation of heroics with the sky riders? How real did the film seem, how plausible? Did this matter?

4. The initial set-up of the kidnapping, its execution? The fear, the swiftness, the deaths of the servants? The response of Ellen and the children? Their imprisonment? Audience feeling for them and against the kidnappers?

5. The complication of Ellen and the children being so wealthy, the kidnappers and their attack on the unequal distribution of wealth? Did this complicate audience response to the issue?

6. The portrayal of the revolutionaries? Was there any sympathy of the screenplay towards them? Presenting them as persons for example, the girl on guard and her cruelty? The mastermind and leader and his explanation of himself to Ellen? Their skill in the kidnapping, their choice of the hideout and its layout? The exploration of the values they stood for? Their demands for money and weapons? Bombs in the record car and the deaths of the policemen? The importance of the conversation about the Paris Revolution and Ellen's slow clap?

7. The impact on ionas and his response? His co-operation with the police? With McCabe? How real a person did he seem? His anxiety and his efforts? His participation in the final attack on the monastery?

8. The portrayal of the police? The chief and his assurance? His hard-hitting attitudes and the prudence of this? His attitude towards the husband and towards McCabe? His grudging admiration at the end?

9. How interesting a character was Jim McCabe? The initial seeing of his work, flying, smuggling? His background of prison and marriage? The marital complications? His concern for his son? His feeling and involvement? His shrewdness?

10. Audience admiration for the sky riders? The detailed portrayal of their performance? Seeing them with McCabe's eyes? His analysis in finding out where the monastery was? (And the significance of his conversation with the expert about his life?) His looking at the eagle and imagining what could be done? The detailed scenes of his training and learning the techniques? Did this make the subsequent heroics more plausible? His skill in recruiting the group for the rescue?

11. The film spent much of its footage on the rescue. Was this appropriate? How exciting? The complication of flying at night? The way this was photographed with the full moon? The silence and the wind? The detail of the flying? How plausible was the siege and the actual rescue? Getting the children and Ellen off on time? The siege from the mountainside? The helicopter climax? McCabe? on the bottom of the helicopter, shooting at the machine and dropping off to safety?

12. Why does this kind of excitement appeal to audiences? Was it too gory? The attitude of Ellen at the end towards her husband, children, McCabe?

13. Did the film utilize its social context? Any judgement being made on the revolutionaries ? their failure, the suicide of the leader? The success of the film as a contemporary thriller?