Where to watch Operation Dumbo Drop
2 Stars
During the Vietnam War, a village that American forces are using to spy on the Ho Chi Minh Trail has its sacred elephant killed by the North Vietnamese Army because they were cooperating with the Americans. The villagers need an elephant for a ceremony that will occur within the week. Captain Sam Cahill, an easygoing man who is heading home, and his hotheaded replacement Captain TC Doyle scrounge up another elephant with the help of sneaky supply chief warrant officer David Poole, luckless farmboy Lawrence Farley, and short-timer Harvey Ashford, and transport it across South Vietnam to get it to the village on time, running into all sorts of transport problems, personality conflicts, and an NVA squad that wants the Americans out of the village.
Walt Disney Pictures is well-known for producing family-friendly movies, but giving a complex topic like the Vietnam conflict the ‘Disney’ treatment was a bad idea. Operation Dumbo Drop focuses on a trivial piece of history during the struggle between American forces and the Vietnamese. This film’s story and portrayal of war and the mission attempts to lead the audience to believe it’s a worthy cause for risking lives.
The director, Simon Wincer, does an adequate job, and the soundtrack tries to make the family comedy seem fun. However, the screenplay’s shortcomings are hard to mask. Ray Liotta, Danny Glover, and Dennis Leary perform admirably, but it would have been better to see them in a different movie.
Operation Dumbo Drop provides some moments for the mind to wander, but only a few of the film’s misadventures stand out. Some scenes, like a duplicitous tugboat captain and the actual Dumbo dropping, are noteworthy, but it seems unnecessary to go to such lengths to produce this half-cooked idea.
Directed by: Simon Wincer
Written by: James Morris, Gene Quintano, Jim Kouf
Starring: Danny Glover, Ray Liotta, Denis Leary