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.
Trailers & Videos 1
"OUT OF THE SUN" F-16 FIGHTING FALCON PROMO FIL...
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TMDB Reviews
4 months ago
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 co...
