Customer Reviews

The Arrow

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This movie was largely shot in Winnipeg; with the Canadian cast returning from the USA to make this picture at basically donated salaries. I know that when Dan Ackroyd was very active at Canada Day celebrations and was really good to the people (did not hid away). A good deal of the buildings are still around, and they allowed people to see the plywood version of the airplane they made up for the film (it looked like metal to me). Almost a documentary told with literary license. Even this summer the Military set a boat out to try to find more of the proto-type models at the bottom of ... one of the Great Lakes (don't recall which).

The total distruction of the program is tough to take or understand. Almost overnight, they film hints at political hate as a motivator, the planes were totally dismantled and distroyed; all blueprints and engineering documents "distroyed". It was not enough to order the the planes distroyed, but the were immediately torn to pieces; so it would be as if they never existed, or could be revived in the future. Ironic considering England, I believe the film said, had offered to pay for the plans as they wanted to take over the project; or add it to their own program.

Very appropriate today; as the "brain drain" to the USA continues, and as the program points out, the Canadian Engineers largely ended up going to the States to make what would become NASA their new employer.

Every Canadian should be made aware of this historic episode from the 50s.

If I could give this movie 10 stars I would, it's that good! I've watched this movie several times, and it keeps getting better with each viewing. This is without a doubt, Dan Ackroyd's best dramatic work. I won't give away the story, but this movie goes into detail, of how and why this jet fighter plane came into existence, and why the government cancelled the program, only days from it's completion. It also gives enough little "angles" that the conspiracy theorists will love to pick apart after viewing. The DVD extras was well done as well. This movie made me proud to be a Canadian!

This movie documents the complete story of the Avro Arrow, from the "impossible" requirements of the RCAF to the design, development and test-flights of an amazing jet fighter.

After several months of unproven performance and and millions of dollars over budget, it is quite understandable that the government would not hesitate to pull the plug on the complete project. But does it make sense? When you see the aircraft in the air, and you knw the end is near, does it make more sense canning the whole program or just biting the bullet, bringing it to completion and increasing the marketing strategy to attempt to offset the cost? Apparently it's just best to scrap the program, according to Diefenbaker's government.

The movie attempts to explain why the 6 completed aircraft, as well as all the blueprints, documents and videos were completely destroyed, and the explanation is quite plausible. As hard as it is to understand why suck a thing took place, we musn't forget that we're watching this movie with a year-2000+ perspective, yet the story unfolds in the late 50's and early 60's.

The Arrow is an excellent documentary well worth the purchase.

This isn't a review but rather a comment to put things in perspective. With the Iroquois engines in the Arrow, her top speed was estimated at just over Mach 2.5. That's still a half mach faster than the brand new F-22 Raptor's estimated top speed.. and that's still in the late 1950's.

I was not aware of the Arrow Interceptor under developement by Avro Canada, until I saw this excellent movie! Inspired to find out more, I searched for written references, ...and naturally, the story is even more fascinating than what the short span of a film can portay!

A sad realizatrion of WHAT COULD HAVE BEEN, this is a narrative of the considerable efforts of a brilliant team of Canadian aerospace engineers, scientists, and all the highly-skilled technicians that assembled this aircraft. They were betrayed by the rash and irrational whim of a very foolish politician. He SCRAPPED not only the program, ...but ALL the aircraft! ...Even when the U.S. Air Force expressed interest in purchasing ALL the completed aircraft, and the remaining components, it was all destroyed!

In the early years of the Cold War, Avro Canada broke new ground in aviation technology. Much of the common technology of modern jet-fighter aircraft and spacecraft, which we take for granted today, can trace its origin to the Arrow project. With this one aircraft, the potential for Canada dominating the field of advanced aviation was almost certainly guaranteed. Think of all the possibilities for not only the technological benefit, but the economic advantages, on all levels! This could very well have been a major "kicking-in of the door", so to speak, for the industrial advancemnet of Canada.

This story gives us yet another example of the very significant contributions of Canada, in all its unsung glory!

Imagine if the Cold War had gone "hot":
From an American perspective, Canada was holding a significant shield for the United States. A Soviet missile strike would be intercepted by the combined efforts of the U.S. and Canadian Air-Forces, guarding the entire Arctic Sea coast. Radar, rockets, and missiles would have played their part, as well as fighter-pilots shooting down incoming missiles that the anti-missile artillery had missed.

Imagine a massive counter-offensive by Avro Arrow Interceptors, the FASTEST fighter-plane in the world, knocking down the in-coming missiles! Oh, what could have been...

There is a legend, that the last Arrow was saved from the scrapyard, and is in secret storage somewhere. I hope that is true.

.."Phar Lap" and "Seabiscuit", then you'll like this movie too. I ran across this movie one day while surfing channels for something different to watch. It's a very well done mini-series movie from Canada Broadcasting. It's nearly three hours and forty-five long plus a fifty-three minute interview with comments and opinions from the actual persons involved with making of and the demise of this aircraft. Some original film footage and stills included. Lots of behind the scenes footage, comments and interviews with those involved in the movie production.

Pitty. What an absolute waste the Avro Arrow Project was. The loss of Canada's ability to defend her own interests demonstrated in this film just makes me want to spit nails - not just on a corporate level but the level of which various governments have and will continue to dictate corporate policies in this country.

This should not have been allowed to happen. This jet fighter was 25 years ahead of it's time. And judging by the way our Canadian Government spends our tax money to update our Armed Forces, we would still be using this last Great Canadian Made Jet Fighter if the project had not been cancelled.

Congratulations to those who took the time and energy to research and to bring this travesty to film.

A must watch...

This is a awesome movie, was really excited to be able to get it. I've been looking for a copy for a longtime.

A very accurate and excellent production of the behind the scene story of an aircraft that was years head of its time in 1958. The AVRO Arrow story is of passion, mystery and mostly political betrayal. The film hints that in someway the American Government had a hand in its failure, but to the contrary, the USAF was more than willing to help the RCAF to get the fighter-interceptor off the ground, as the weapon system would have been American, and even offered to purchase some of the aircraft and to give it back to the RCAF, these facts are mostly unknown, however they are mentioned with clear evidence in the extensive special features of the DVD. Furthermore the British wanted a couple of the aircraft to under go further testing in England, but by this time the idiotic Diefenbaker led Canadian Government had the all the flying examples chopped into pieces. Thus no one ever fund out the true potential of this superb aircraft!

While this DVD is no longer made if you can find a copy at a good price, like I did for $5.00 at my local Walmart, it is a worthwhile investment if you enjoy history aviation history.

The Arrow is great movie based upon historical fact regarding Jet Plane designed in Canada in the late 50's, which was more advanced than anything else available at the time. Good example of how poor actions and bad decisions by multiple parties can ruin great potentials, in this case with Canada that was developing the jet plane called the Arrow that had the capabilities that we have not met even to this day. Even the extra features included on the DVD were great, which help complete the whole story around The Arrow.