Out of the Sun
This short film takes viewers on a whirlwind tour of the history of air combat, from World War I through the Vietnam War. It was produced by General Dynamics sometime prior to 1990 and re-released by Lockheed Martin in the mid-nineties. As a promotional short for the F-16 Fighting Falcon, the film reviews the development of aerial combat to place the F-16 in historical context. Informational narration is supplemented with snippets from interviews of top fighter aces. The aces focus on the characteristics that make great fighter pilots and great fighter aircraft. The interviewees include World War I ace W.C. "Bill" Lambert; World War II aces Douglas Bader, Stanford Tuck, Adolf Galland, Erich Hartmann, Gabby Gabreski, Tex Hill, and Svein Heglund; Korean War ace Ralph Parr; and Vietnam War ace Steve Ritchie. The film includes historical footage and stills, along with opening and closing segments briefly featuring the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
The_Maverick@The_Maverick
The fighter pilot interviews conducted for this documentary/promotional short were also published in a book, _Tumult in the Clouds_ . I read the book first, which mentioned this film. That led me to track down **Out of the Sun** on DVD. The DVD cover art is pictured here - a release by the now defunct East West DVD.
Note that the description on the DVD case is completely misleading - this is not an in-depth documentary about the F-16 fighter jet. While it was a promotional video created by General Dynamics to market the F-16, that aircraft only makes token bookend appearances at the start and end of the film.
The book and DVD compliment each other, and if you like one, you'll also want to get the other. Here's my capsule review of the book, where I also touch on **Out of the Sun**:
This is a bit of a hidden gem.
Externally it looks like a children's picture book, being a slim 55-page hardbound volume with a colorful glossy cover. Fortunately, I didn't judge the book by its cover!
Despite having been fished-in by blind-buys of lackluster air combat books in the past, the description of _Tumult_ piqued my interest -- a book of firsthand accounts from fighter pilots, illustrated with aviation art by a staff artist for aircraft manufacturer General Dynamics. Plus, reasonably priced copies were in abundance despite the 1990 publication date.
The book consists of _brief_ interviews with fighter aces who fought in WWI, WWII, Korea, and Vietnam. The presentation is much like articles you might have seen in aviation magazines of the seventies or eighties. The primary focus is on World War II, with just one World War I pilot interview (understandably) and only one interview concerning air combat in Vietnam. All but one of the interviews are accompanied by an attractive action-oriented painting of an aircraft flown by the ace, and the book is further illustrated with vintage photos.
Now, this is not an authoritative or comprehensive history of fighter combat. Instead, _Tumult in the Clouds_ gives you a ringside seat to casual Q&A interview sessions with twelve famous fighter aces - including Bader, Tuck, Galland, Gabreski, Hartmann, McCampbell, Risner, and Ritchie. The questions posed to the aces can feel a bit random at times, but that approach ended up being a part of the appeal for me. And the book's artwork (by the author/editor) and photos are eminently suitable for browsing.
As noted at the start of the book, the interviews of the fighter aces were conducted in the 1980's for **Out of the Sun**, a 30-minute promotional film for the General Dynamics F-16 fighter jet. Unfortunately, the interview excerpts presented in the film are even shorter than the segments in the book. Still, watching the film takes the book up a notch, as it brings the words of the interviews to life. Fighter combat aficionados will want to pair the book with **Out of the Sun**.
The primary disappointment of _Tumult_ is the lost opportunity for more in-depth interviews with these aces, most of whom have now passed. Still, the unique approach of _Tumult_ (reminiscent of the book _The Aces Talk_ ) makes it worth a look!
[Note: Although featured in the book, David McCampbell and Robbie Risner do not appear in the film, unfortunately.]