The Arrow (1997)

Awesome Movie

This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

I don't know any of the actual history, so can't comment on that but I was completely hooked after the first few minutes of this movie. This is one of the few movies I've seen that made me interested enough in the subject matter to want to learn more about the real Arrow. This is a very serious movie with lots of technical information but is fascinating. It is also interesting because the development of the Arrow is completely unknown to most people, even people interested in planes and aerospace. Even though it focuses on technology, the movie is a character study in how the individuals developing the plane are affected by political and management decisions they have no part of. Note to Ackroyd comedy fans, this is not a comedy and although this may be some of the best acting Ackroyd has done this is definitely not his most sympathetic character.

For those that don't know the history, the Avro Arrow project was a Canadian interceptor project from the late 1950s. It was cancelled due to excessive cost, and to a perception that interceptor aircraft were obsolete in the wake of Sputnik and the development of ICBMs. Subsequently, the Arrow program has become the basis of a Canadian cottage industry of book publishing and conspiracy theory about why the cancellation occurred, the involvement of the *dastardly Americans*, the downfall of the Canadian aircraft industry, etc.This program is interesting in many respects -- most particularly the use of CGI to show what a flying Arrow would have looked like, and the use of a near-full scale mock up of an Arrow as set dressing in many scenes. (The Arrow was a *very* large aircraft, and building a mock up was a major proposition). Genuine archive footage of the original Arrow is also used. The set design does a good job of setting the scene for the story.Where the program falls down is in the story itself. Some posters here have suggested that history needs to be mythologized a bit to make it palatable/interesting. I don't agree with this as a general rule, and certainly not in this case, as the story is every bit as interesting just as it occurred. I understand the need to compress characters and keep a story simple enough to fit in a reasonable duration, but there's no need to generate a whole pile of total fiction to fill out the story. The important issue is that many people who watch this program will think that it's 100% historically accurate -- An impression that the program doesn't try very hard to correct. The story is very heavily fictionalized, and diverges significantly from the established history.The one good part of all this is that one of the extras on the DVD release of "The Arrow" is the one hour CBC documentary "Dateline -- There Never was an Arrow" from 1980. This is probably the most informative and balanced examination of the Arrow program, and was unavailable for many years. If you want some light entertainment, watch "The Arrow" -- It's not bad, just don't take the story seriously. If you want to know the true history, see the "Dateline" documentary, or the Avro Arrow book by Ron Page et. al. from Boston Mills Press.

I saw this film one sat. afternoon on a Orlando TV station Its too bad that more films are made that show people building something that others say its impossable! Good job CBC!

Many people will disagree with the vision of the filmmakers of "The Arrow" and how they portray the political figures involved, including Diefenbaker and Eisenhower. This movie makes it sound like Diefenbaker was a heavy responsible for this aviation fiasco, while many will agree that is not totally true. Remember that "true story" movies are not always 100% true.Leaving that behind, I think this was a nice movie, and the real historical sequences inserted were neat. It is visually brilliant and shows it had quite a big budget. And it really makes you feel sorry for the Arrow, wishing it would have really been put in service.