Burning Blue (2013)
Two Navy fighter pilots find themselves in the midst of a forbidden relationship throwing their lives and careers into disarray.
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Great Film overall
It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.
The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.
At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.
Remember it takes place 1990s. The film actually holds together pretty well, and is done with a lot of care and better than average acting & directing. In the end, it would have been a little more exciting, if it were more sexual (i know many bi navy guys that were very wild at this time in navy). Rob Mayes is very good looking. But overall, better than expected. ...some kind of secret was going on with one character, John Cokely...not sure what his conflicts were, but it was obvious he had them.
That's no indication of the sexual position preferences of the main characters, because I would have no way of knowing. This movie was so muddled and vague it wasn't even clear sex had happened until it was acknowledged in the dialog.We know the characters are in love. That's accomplished with smoldering surreptitious glances. But that's about all you can tell from this bottom-of-the-barrel script. It's really impossible to tell what's going on. It came as a surprise to learn that the action covers about eight years. One of the characters says so. I wouldn't have known otherwise.The plot is navy pilots vying for some prestigious assignment. Things go wrong. Eventually NCIS suspects planes crashed because pilots had gay feelings. No, really--that's it.The last quarter of the movie is more direct, focusing on the Don't Ask, Don't Tell idiocy. But it's pretty heavy handed. I almost expected one of the accusers to twirl a mustache, like the villain in a Dudley DoRight cartoon.I wanted to like this movie, in fact I liked the characters and the setting. But it's really only watchable if you don't care about things like continuity or logic.
Thought this was going to be a gay romance about two Navy pilots, but it's just a pathetic, total waste of time. You are sucked into waiting for a romance that almost happens, but then can never because one of them is killed. After this point, it becomes a gay witch hunt by military officials. The actors are handsome, masculine and reasonably competent. But there really is no point in watching this movie. And really....the two closeted gay pilots were only "vaguely" in bed together once...and we are to believe they fell madly in love with one another after just one incidence???? And when they later kissed, right before Matt flew off to die, it didn't feel credible. This movie serves no purpose.
It may be the time of 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' but a whole lot in the Armed Services haven't got the message. They're still on a seek and eliminate mission as we see in Burning Blue.Trent Ford and Morgan Spector are a pair of Top Gun type pilots who are also married and quite secretly gay. Assigned to the same unit they fall for each other. There seems to be so many in the Navy that are gay one wonders if they all disappeared tomorrow how that might effect the security of the nation.But eliminate them is the mission of Michael Sirow of NCIS and don't kid yourself if you're a fan of the television series. NCIS in the bad old days did indeed conduct 'investigations' to find gays in the military. Sirow takes a pair of plane crashes among the pilots and turns it into a witch hunt.Ford and Spector have a lot to lose, they're both from traditional military families, their fathers are admirals. It's beyond the pale and impossible that these All American fighter jocks are queer.Burning Blue is a fine drama about days that are hopefully behind us. The mere fact that the military apparently cooperated in the making of this film indicates as much. A fine ensemble cast plays this one from the heart. Definitely try and see this one.