''Steal the Sky'' is a 1988

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

movie directed by

John D. Hancock John D. Hancock (born February 12, 1939) is an American stage and film director, producer and writer. He is perhaps best known for his work on ''Bang the Drum Slowly''. Hancock's theatrical work includes direction of both classic and contempor ...

and starring

Mariel Hemingway Mariel Hadley Hemingway (born November 22, 1961) is an American actress. She began acting at age 14 with a Golden Globe-nominated breakout role in ''Lipstick'' (1976), and she received Academy and BAFTA Award nominations for her performance in ...

and

Ben Cross Harry Bernard Cross (16 December 1947 – 18 August 2020) was an English stage and film actor. He was best known for playing Billy Flynn in the original West End production of the musical ''Chicago'', and his portrayal of the British Ol ...

. The film is based on the true story of Iraqi fighter pilot

Munir Redfa Captain Munir Redfa ( ar, منير ردفا, syr, ܡܘܢܝܪ ܪܕܦܐ), born Munir Habib Jamil Rufa ( ar, منير حبيب جميل روفا, syr, ܡܘܢܝܪ ܚܒܝܒ ܓܡܝܠ ܪܘܦܐ‎) (1934 – 1998) was an Iraqi fighter pilot. After Q ...

, who

defected In politics, a defector is a person who gives up allegiance to one state in exchange for allegiance to another, changing sides in a way which is considered illegitimate by the first state. More broadly, defection involves abandoning a person, ca ...

by flying a

MiG-21 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-21 (russian: Микоян и Гуревич МиГ-21; NATO reporting name: Fishbed) is a supersonic jet fighter and interceptor aircraft, designed by the Mikoyan-Gurevich Design Bureau in the Soviet Union. Its nickna ...

fighter jet to Israel in 1966. ''Steal the Sky'' was the first production under the HBO-Paramount co-financing agreement launched in 1987. The 1986 story of a female agent of the Israeli

Mossad Mossad ( , ), ; ar, الموساد, al-Mōsād, ; , short for ( he, המוסד למודיעין ולתפקידים מיוחדים, links=no), meaning 'Institute for Intelligence and Special Operations'. is the national intelligence agency ...

involved in the defection of an Iraqi Israeli nuclear scientist may have also been instrumental in gaining attention for the film. The

soundtrack A soundtrack is recorded music accompanying and synchronised to the images of a motion picture, drama, book, television program, radio program, or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack o ...

was composed and performed by New age artist

Yanni Yiannis Chryssomallis ( el, Γιάννης Χρυσομάλλης; born November 14, 1954), known professionally as Yanni ( ), is a Greek-American composer, keyboardist, pianist, and music producer. Yanni continues to use the musical shorthand ...

Plot

American-born Israeli spy Helen Mason (Mariel Hemingway) is sent to Iraq to coerce an Iraqi pilot into hijacking a Soviet-made fighter jet for Israeli defense research. She seduces Munir Redfa (Ben Cross) in order to blackmail him. There are unexpected results when Helen finds herself falling in love with him, endangering the mission, while he is torn between his love for her and his loyalty to Iraq.

Cast

Production

''Steal the Sky'' was filmed on location in Israel,

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

and

Reno Reno ( ) is a city in the northwest section of the U.S. state of Nevada, along the Nevada-California border, about north from Lake Tahoe, known as "The Biggest Little City in the World". Known for its casino and tourism industry, Reno is the c ...

, Nevada. The story of Captain Munir Redfa inspired the film, but some aspects of his exploit were not revealed. In one of the

's most significant operations, it was able to smuggle Redfa's entire extended family safely out of Iraq to Israel. Mossad did not have any involvement with Redfa's initial defection. His MiG-21F-13 fighter was evaluated by the

Israeli Air Force The Israeli Air Force (IAF; he, זְרוֹעַ הָאֲוִיר וְהֶחָלָל, Zroa HaAvir VeHahalal, tl, "Air and Space Arm", commonly known as , ''Kheil HaAvir'', "Air Corps") operates as the aerial warfare branch of the Israel Defense ...

and was later loaned to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

for testing and intelligence analysis. Knowledge obtained from analysis of the aircraft was instrumental to the successes achieved by the Israeli Air Force in its future encounters with Arab MiG-21s.Weiss, Reuven
Blue Bird."
''YNet News'', May 29, 2007. Retrieved: November 25, 2015. The aircraft used in the film were three

MiG-15 The Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15 (russian: Микоя́н и Гуре́вич МиГ-15; USAF/DoD designation: Type 14; NATO reporting name: Fagot) is a jet fighter aircraft developed by Mikoyan-Gurevich for the Soviet Union. The MiG-15 was one of ...

/15UTIs (actually ex-Polish SBLim-2s), three

T-33 The Lockheed T-33 Shooting Star (or T-Bird) is an American subsonic jet trainer. It was produced by Lockheed and made its first flight in 1948. The T-33 was developed from the Lockheed P-80/F-80 starting as TP-80C/TF-80C in development, then d ...

s and a

Bell Jet Ranger The Bell 206 is a family of two-bladed, single- and twin-engined helicopters, manufactured by Bell Helicopter at its Mirabel, Quebec, plant. Originally developed as the Bell YOH-4 for the United States Army's Light Observation Helicopter progra ...

Reception

In a 1988 review for the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'', Howard Rosenberg wrote, "Oh, it's watchable enough. But it's a spy/adventure story that lacks suspense, a love story whose lovers lack intensity, a Middle Eastern story ... that lacks historical and political definition." He concludes, "It's love, adventure – and schmaltz – the Middle East." Film historian and critic

Leonard Maltin Leonard Michael Maltin (born December 18, 1950) is an American film critic and film historian, as well as an author of several mainstream books on cinema, focusing on nostalgic, celebratory narratives. He is perhaps best known for his book of fil ...

wrote in ''

Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide'' was a book-format collection of movie capsule reviews that began in 1969, was updated biannually after 1978, and then annually after 1986. The final edition was published in September 2014. It was originally calle ...

'' that it was a "pretentious, melodramatic misfire."Maltin 2002, p. 1052.

Honors

In the 1989

Primetime Emmy Award The Primetime Emmy Awards, or Primetime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (ATAS), the Primetime ...

s, ''Steal the Sky'' was nominated for Outstanding Sound Editing for a Miniseries or a Special. Additionally, Ben Cross was nominated as Best Actor in a Movie or Miniseries, while ''Steal the Sky'' was nominated for Editing and Direction of Photography for a Dramatic Special or Series/Theatrical Special/Movie or Miniseries in the 1989

CableACE Award The CableACE Award (earlier known as the ACE Awards; ACE was an acronym for "Award for Cable Excellence") is a defunct award that was given by what was then the National Cable Television Association from 1978 to 1997 to honor excellence in Amer ...

References

Notes

Bibliography

* Barnes, Thornton D. ''MiGs Over Nevada: MiG Exploitation Projects at Area 51''. San Bernardino, California: Createspace, 2014. . * Maltin, Leonard. ''Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide 2009''. New York: New American Library, 2009 (originally published as ''TV Movies'', then ''Leonard Maltin’s Movie & Video Guide''), First edition 1969, published annually since 1988. .

External links

* * *
Stealing a Soviet MiG, article at JewishVirtualLibrary.org
{{John D. Hancock 1988 television films 1988 films American aviation films American spy films 1980s spy films Films about the Mossad American films based on actual events Films directed by John D. Hancock Films set in 1966 Films set in Iraq Films set in Israel HBO Films films Films with screenplays by Christopher Wood (writer) 1980s American films