YMMV / The Starfighters

• Awesome Music: For such a bad movie, the music is surprisingly catchy.
• Broken Aesop: If the intent was to play up the awesomeness of the US Air Force/F-104 Starfighter, the Air Force/Lockheed made a really poor choice of film crew. Their complete failure to include any interesting plot developments means that what little drama there was in the movie was provided entirely by the infamous operational/maintenance dangers of the Starfighter itself, and by extension, the US Air Force doesn't seem inviting either. The movie includes three Starfighter accidents, two caused by inclement weather—which was such a danger to the F-104 that NATO pilots in West Germany and Italy called it "the Flying Coffin." Of course, the film might have been trying to head off those complaints by depicting a US Senator concerned about the plane's accident record, and showing how cool the plane was anyway. The film tries to promote the idea that all of the accidents are operator error, and not hardware.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Aircraft serial number 57-923, seen in some of the refueling stock footage, was involved in a formation-flying collision in 1961 (three years before the film was released). Its pilot was killed in the crash. 57-927, also seen in some of the stock footage, lost engine power during an airshow in 1964. Its pilot ejected safely.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: John Witkowski Sr., who previously flew in bombers in the military, wants John Witkowski Jr. to switch to bombers rather than fighters such as the F-104 Starfighter. Junior was played by Bob Dornan, who in Congress was nicknamed "B-1 Bob" for his support for the bomber. Dornan, a USAF veteran, also flew fighters. Finally, his character's father was a congressman, while Dornan himself was a congressman from 1977-1983 and 1985-1997.
• Narm: The "poopie suit." The major even looks embarrassed and reluctant to say it.
  "Now, don't ask me why they call it that."
  • Truth in Television: The military is rather cagey about why a poopie suit is called a poopie suit, but it seems to have something to do with the scent of pilots marinating in their own sweat for eight hours.
• Padding: This movie has many, many shots of jets refueling and taking off from the runway.

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