I think that most people in the world are familiar with who the Blue Angels are, certainly most Americans. This documentary takes us inside the lives of the prestigious group of elite (mostly) Navy pilots and the rigors that they face as they do their brief stints inside the group.
There is some wonderful footage up close and personal inside and around the individual jets that wouldn't have been possible until camera technology got a lot smaller in recent years and this film does an amazing job showing you just how incredible the skills of the pilots actually are.
I had the pleasure of seeing these guys do a show many years ago when I was a teenager and it was really something to behold. Of course we were on the ground during all of it so I had no idea the intense difficulty that is involved in the maneuvers that they are pulling off. I mean, of course I knew it was difficult but to see up close and personal about how incredibly close these jets are to one another when they are doing turns at 400 miles per hour is a skill that just blows me away.
I mean I suspected they were flying close to the adjacent planes but with this new footage we find out that they are sometimes a mere 12 to 18 inches apart while moving at such a speed. One wrong move and it's going to be disaster. In other stunts two planes head right towards one another and dodge at the last second.
This isn't just about the awesome stunts, that is actually kind of a minor part (although the most exciting part) of what they focus on in this documentary: They really dive in to the exclusive selective process and how it is basically the MVP's of all pilots, their intense training, and how each members is replaced on a regular basis and once their few years is done with the Blue Angels, they get put back into regular deployment right after their little bit of time with the Angels. I would have guessed that these pilots are just stunt pilots whose skills don't have much application in combat but that is not the case at all. They are the best of the best and it is considered one hell of on honor to make it into the Elite show-group.
The doco also focuses a great deal on how there are a huge amount of people involved in the show, and I presume regular fighter jet deployment, beyond just the pilots. There is a relatively massive crew involved in the maintenance, safety, planning, and transportation of the 6 jets involved in the Angels and all of these people have an interesting story to tell.
I would say that this documentary is actually a lot better than many of the films that I have seen recently. It keeps you on edge and obviously, it has a happy ending hence the rated G rating.
Especially if you enjoyed Top Gun: Maverick this is going to be something that I think you are also going to enjoy. I'm a little disappointed that I totally missed the IMAX release of this because wow! This would have been a fantastic show to have seen in that sort of theater.
Should I watch it?
I might be a bit biased because I tend to enjoy military tech documentaries but I don't think you have to have an appreciation for the military or even airplanes to enjoy this. It is super exciting to see that there are people out there that can do this and there is ZERO CGI in the entire thing. To see how difficult this is to achieve and how hard these people work and basically dedicate their entire lives to it is something to behold. I loved it and I think most other people will as well. It is currently rated higher than most films on both RT and IMDB.
Check it out!
The only legal way to watch this film is on Amazon Prime or in theaters at the moment
