| American Fighter Pilot | 
 enlarge | Director: Jesse Negron
Actor: Tony Scott; Ridley Scott; Leon Malas; Jon Mccallum; Eric Parkinson
Studio: Hanover House
Category: DVD
Buy New: $24.95
New (1) Used (1) from $14.97
Avg. Customer Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 34808
Format: Box Set, Closed-captioned, Color, Digital Sound, Dts Surround Sound, Dvd-video, Full Length, Full Screen, Original Recording Remastered, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Number Of Items: 3
Running Time: 435
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 7.5 x 5.4 x 1
MPN: D9006D
UPC: 761450900639
EAN: 0761450900639
ASIN: B0007XG4D2
Theatrical Release Date: March 29, 2002
Release Date: September 15, 2005
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
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Amazon.com
Top Gun gets the reality-TV treatment in American Fighter Pilot, a riveting seven-hour TV series that grants an all-access pass to the Air Force's most elite pilot training program. Produced immediately following the terrorist attacks on New York's World Trade Center on 9/11/01, this is a serious examination of Air Force culture and the profound responsibility of warriors-in-training. The glory and glamour of being an F-15 "Eagle Driver" is presented as a noble privilege, in addition to the sheer adrenaline rush of piloting the Air Force's most versatile jet-fighter killing machine. Coproduced by Top Gun director Tony Scott and his director brother Ridley, and created with intelligent focus by Jesse Negron, AFP follows every stage of a pilot's rigorous 110-day training course at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida, where "Top Gun" hopefuls endure an intense regimen of academics, flight simulation, two-man flights with intensely critical trainers, solo flight tests, basic fighter maneuvers, weapons deployment, dogfight combat scenarios and, ultimately, the selection of a "Top Gun" pilot in each graduating class. There's plenty of high drama and male bonding to accompany AFP's wall-to-wall soundtrack. Most of the series' appeal comes from its focus on three well-chosen pilots-in-training: A promising Top-Gun candidate with prior experience as a B1 Bomber pilot; a devout Christian and expectant first-time father; and a hot-shot maverick who learns there's more to being a fighter-ace than living the Tom Cruise lifestyle. Their different personalities give the series a perfect blend of style and substance, and the constant threat of failure gives each of them added depth and conviction that anyone can relate to. These are proud, respectable young men who are living their dream, but AFP never forgets the higher purpose to which they've been called. A basic "making-of" featurette shows how the series' amazing in-flight footage was achieved. --Jeff Shannon
Description
Complete Season One Set -- contains 7 hours of programming, plus bonus materials including "the making of" documentary, interviews with Tony Scott, Jesse Negron and Leon Malas, additional footage, effects and animation and much more!
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| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 Great idea - but badly executed! October 16, 2008
I bought this dvd series through Amazon a while ago now, and although I don't regret buying it, it really is quite a painful series to watch because of what has been done during the post-production process.
The editing is truly shocking, with far too much stop/start, slow motion/fast forward bits added in for 'effect' - which in my honest opinion adds nothing of any value to the production. The aircraft and people are interesting enough, but the editors have ruined this series by trying to be far too clever for their own good.
Borrow a copy from a friend or rent it at the local dvd store, and spend the money you've saved on buying a few beers to settle your nerves while watching this series.
Looking for the DVD July 31, 2008
We were huge fans of this series before it got cancelled. I am trying to locate the dvd of the series, but can't seem to find a copy anywhere. Anyone know where to get one? My email address is organicgoddess@hotmail.com if you can help! Thanks!
 don't bother with this one May 28, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
american fighter pilot , I might have watched it on free to air tv but don't bother buying it's a disapointment , I guess I hoped for more or some , actual inside plane footage , not just a Big Brother show that happened to include pilots ,
american top guns May 13, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great documentary if you like fighter jets and what it takes to get there then this series is well worth it
A great program, polluted with some annoying editing April 29, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I originally found out about this program when viewing a Google Video trailer for a documentary that used to be called "Eagle Drivers". The trailer included various briefing shots, small insights about life in a squadron, and some vary nice aerial and flightline footage. I was thrilled that someone was going to release a documentary that actually went into some detail about the training procedures and life as an aspiring military aviator instead of a dull narrative dubbed to dated, stock footage of military flying.
I did a little bit of searching and discovered that the project had turned into a "reality" TV show which was unfortunately canceled after a few episodes had aired. I wasn't able to find any more footage online than just the trailer, and I was very intrigued to check out the show. I found it here and was a little put-off by some of the reviews, but I decided to take the plunge.
It is a 3 DVD set and spans 7 one-hour episodes an an hour-long interview. The show follows 3 Lieutenants who are beginning training at Tyndall AFB in Panama City, FL to fly and fight in the F-15C. A big part of what drew me to the program is how much I like that plane. 2 of the pilots, Todd Giggy and Marcus Gregory, are straight out of Undergraduate Pilot Training and only have a small amount of flying experience from the airframes there (the T-37 and T-38). The other pilot, Mike Love, has former experience as a B-1 pilot.
They are filmed during various briefings and debriefings, simulator and centrifuge training, at the squadron bar, at home with their families, and there are a lot of shots with comments and personal insights from the pilots themselves. There are also numerous commentary shots from instructors and family members of the pilots, and it is really a great way to get a personal view of what is going on.
There was a lot of great aerial footage in the trailer I watched, and I saw that great aerial footage again. The only problem was that this footage was all I saw in pretty much every flying scene. It becomes increasingly obvious with each episode that they had a small amount of aerial and cockpit footage and they had to reuse it in as many different ways possible, such as reversing the image, using high-contrast filters on some shots, etc.
There are also some staged cockpit shots in which the pilot jerks the stick and throttle around, complete with exaggerated "clanging" sound effects. It was a little cheesy, but it's understandable that the camera crew probably would not be allowed to film a ton of flying footage. However, there are a lot of great shots of the flightline at Tyndall, and it's a pretty awe-inspiring sight to see the groups of planes all taxiing together at Tyndall on a sunny day.
All this talk about the footage gets me to the complaint that I'm sure you've already read about numerous times. The editing. The show is edited in the cheesy, short-attention span MTV style. Camera angles change rapidly every few seconds and random parts of dialog are emphasized with cheesy echo sounds put on the voice and a caption of the words placed on the screen. Although it is disappointing, I can understand why this editing might be necessary on the flying scenes since they apparently didn't have a lot of footage, but it gets pretty annoying after a while. Some of it seems really unnecessary though, like the captions during simulated training missions stating whether each pilot passed or not, as if the viewer really couldn't tell by watching the show.
Although all of the episodes are abundant in this cheesy style of editing, it seems to cool down a bit after the first few episodes. There's a lot less of the "emphasis on a particular phrase" thing. The thing that disappoints me the most is just that I wish they would have spent more time in each episode on each particular part and not jump around so much, but this is understandable because most average television viewers would not be looking for a very in-depth look at what goes on.
A lot of people claim the show was canceled because of its editing style, but I disagree. A majority of the "reality" shows you see on major-networks have editing just like this and they seem to do fine. I think the show was canceled because the average viewer isn't too interested in military aviation to begin with, and because there actually isn't really a ton of drama going on throughout the program (which is what most of these average viewers want). It's a real shame, but at least those of us who do care about what happened can now purchase this DVD set.
Anyway, if you can look past the editing, there is a great program here. Although it is not the most in-depth look at it you could ever get, it does put things into perspective a bit and gives you a very good idea of what the pilots have to go through and it is very entertaining. I'd highly recommend this program to anyone who is at least moderately interested in military aviation.
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