Gypsy Moths

[akarunway 1]

Just watched a short docudrama on the making of the movie. Good stuff. Is it worth buying to watch or did I see all the good stuff in the trailer/clips? And I was wondering if Burt Lancaster actually did jump. Just showed him parasailing behind a car.

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[Guest]

No, it's not worth buying, so see if you can rent it on DVD.

.

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[riddler 0]

Quote

No, it's not worth buying, so see if you can rent it on DVD.

Agreed. It's worth renting, though. Watch once and say you saw it. The cool thing is, despite how old it is, many parts are still relevant to skydiving today. You have the daredevils, extra-marital affairs, wingsuits (or something like), people burning in, difficulty with local authorities, et al.

Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

[jimmytavino 16]

NO square canopies yet.... Most all the jumps were made with round"cheapo" mains,,, or else 'high performance' P C s.... ( I think it was filmed in the late 60's.)..there is lots of footage which shows the old gear... 4 pin main containers,,, with ripcords and spring loaded pilot chutes,,, chest mount reserves
Bell Motorcycle Helmets......"instrument panels" on the reserve container,, with altimeters AND stopwatches..... and (for its time) fairly decent skydiving footage......
The story centers around these 3 "barnstorming skydivers"...played by Burt Lancaster ( ya' ever see him in the flick Atlantic City?? ,,,, he was also"moonlight Graham". and the birdman of alcatraz...among many many other roles,,, (Elmer Gantry)...Gene Hackman is also in it.. and some "young lovely" who along with some "older lovely" become the romantic interests... so it's sort of
like a "soap opera meets wide world of sports"...
but some of the skydiving stuff is pretty good.....all except for the part where the Lancaster character,,,,, should have been wearing a cypres ... stilll,,,,see it if you can...
.............then you may realize where some of the sports reputation for wild and crazy,,,, came from....

[flyhi 24]

The thing that struck me about the flick was how much fear everyone showed toward the sport. It was as if someone had a gun to their head to get into the plane. It never really conveyed the fun or joie de vrie associated with skydiving. Too bad. But fun to watch.

Shit happens. And it usually happens because of physics.

[Tink1717 2]

The Gypsy Moths was the film that got me interested in skydiving. I was 8 years old and saw it on TV. (minus the bar scene) The banner jump in the opening scene just blew me away. I knew at that moment I was going to do that one day. Years later, when it came out on DVD, I bought a copy and watched it again. There is everything about skydiving in that film. The DZ culture, the fear of whuffos, the distrust of the local government and the pushing the envelope. Yeah, there are a lot of goofy things in it, but it still stands out as the only pop film to be about jumping rather than about something else with jumping as part of the story. Maybe its time we remedied that. Are you listening Guy Manos?

Skydivers don't knock on Death's door. They ring the bell and runaway... It really pisses him off.
-The World Famous Tink. (I never heard of you either!!)
AA #2069 ASA#33 POPS#8808 Swooo 1717

[jimmytavino 16]

Quote

The thing that struck me about the flick was how much fear everyone showed toward the sport. It was as if someone had a gun to their head to get into the plane. It never really conveyed the fun or joie de vrie associated with skydiving. Too bad. But fun to watch.

.....

very good point, flyhi..was scarey back then hahaha just look at the gear etc.. just having the door off the plane,,, seemed unacceptable ,especially to the 'ground bound' of the world..
As for 'joie de vrie ' .... excellent point !
the movie is flat because that IS missing.....
The fact is,, It was only just beginning then or maybe had not yet even begun.....,,,The sport was in it's infancy and the spirit of fun and harmony was only just getting started.
How nice to be at the point today where we can appreciate that aspect of the sport and enjoy the benefits which come along with it.... thanks for pointing that out
.
.
. aside. This movie The Gypsy Moths was a hollywood production that probably played well at many a drive-in theater.. and would have made a pretty good "adventure" movie in it's time...
But.... there's no freeflyin'...
there's no swoopin',, there's no CReW... or even a big airplane. hahahaha...
.... there's an old vehicle, towing an old trailer, along some old roads,,, carrying some old jumpers, (Burt and Gene) and a young jumper as well....They are gypsies and barnstormers and travel the airshow "circuit" during the summer..visiting rural countryside airports,,,, ( can you say " No Rules!!! ? ) hahahaha..so that's the basics of it..
( some pretty good buzz jobs and flying footage here...)
Keep your fast forward control at the ready
but all in all there are many jump related scenes and stunt jumpers being fiilmed by the best in the business at that time...(Others , please help here with names and places...)
I don't think we see any of the actors actually jumping. But they do alot of closeups where it IS the actor,,,( supposedly in freefall ) and so those scenes look sort of look faked..and it looked like they hung in a harness for the footage, "under canopy"
as was the custom for movie stars making parachute jumps
..... but there are alot of air to air shots taken by chase planes etc and we get to see a fair amount of climb out footage, exit footage, freefall, cutaway, landing,,, and Yes!!!!! Wingsuit flying!!!!!... so chase down a copy of it and put some popcorn in the microwave.....skydive softly skydive often skydive with friends

[chuteless 1]

The first time I saw that movie, I didnt like it.

The second time I and two others parachuted into a drive in theatre in Ohio before the movie began. I didnt like the movie that time either., but we got a free jump out of it.

The jump footage was good, and it is a recorded part of the equipment used back in the 60s.

The storyline is lousy, and one cant help but laugh at the claim with his winged suit, he was travelling 200 mph when he hit the ground and became a Juicy Moth.. That was the very same time I was using a winged suit, and I might have hit 100 MPH if I swallowed lead.

Bill Cole D-41

[streaker 0]

Got to watch this during weather issues at the Mardi Gras Boogie. From my view point the film had the correct criteria, specifically, it was about skydiving, not a chick flick and had T&A. Still can't believe that Deborah Kerr got naked...way to go Deborah!

Beautiful Landings!

Streaker

Have a yippee ki ya day!

[skr 1]

>and stunt jumpers being fiilmed by the best in the business at that time...(Others , please help here with names and places...)

Carl Boenish did a lot of the filming.

Jay Gifford, Mike Milts, Garth Taggart, Jerry Rouillard
did the jumping and probably some of the filming.

I can't remember who else at the moment.

Skr

[Amazon 7]

Quote

No, it's not worth buying, so see if you can rent it on DVD.

You are SOOOOO wrong on that. It shows some of our history of skydiving.. and there is some REALLLY good photography on there. If nothing else it belongs in anyones DVD library.. at least a skydivers.

[akarunway 1]

That what I thought after I saw some of the production of the film. I was hoping that would be on the DVD. Burt getting drug around was pretty good

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

[chuteless 1]

Wasnt Lyle Cameron involved in that film?


Bill Cole D-41

[sdgregory 0]

Quote

Quote

No, it's not worth buying, so see if you can rent it on DVD.

You are SOOOOO wrong on that. It shows some of our history of skydiving.. and there is some REALLLY good photography on there. If nothing else it belongs in anyones DVD library.. at least a skydivers.

I just recently bought it from Amazon (hah, not you). I watched it and was kinda disapointed. But the skydiving footage and the mini-documentary on the DVD were cool. I agree that it should be in a skydiver's DVD library. Definitely a good history of skydiving flick.

[usedtajump 1]

Quote

>and stunt jumpers being fiilmed by the best in the business at that time...(Others , please help here with names and places...)

Carl Boenish did a lot of the filming.

Jay Gifford, Mike Milts, Garth Taggart, Jerry Rouillard
did the jumping and probably some of the filming.

I can't remember who else at the moment.

Skr

Used to be on a demo team with Jerry Rouillard. He told me he did a lot of the stunts for Burt Lancaster. Didn't think to ask him of he wore the wingsuit though.

The older I get the less I care who I piss off.

[ScubaSteve 0]

All this talk made me go out and buy the DVD. It was very hard to find in a store!! I thought it was alright. Definately worth $20. Not much skydiving but overall amusing. It was interesting to see whow much the skydiving has evolved and even more interesting to see what has not changed: Whuffos are freaked out by the thought of skydiving. Skydivers can show contempt for whuffos. Pushing the limits. Tit-E bars!! Beer and chasing women.

I liked the demo Lancaster gave to the women Aux Club.

Did the rounds really pop like that on opening??? And they seemed a little dusty... did they need to be powdered at that time?

[kansasskydiver 0]

This movie contains the greatest thing in the world, the stripper hahaha

I just saw the movie for the first time over the weekend, well we didnt watch the movie, just watched the making of and then the very talented stripper and her version of autoroation

<--- See look, pink dolphins DO exist!

[skybill 19]

That wasn't Deb Kerr are you kidding!!! That was her stand/lay in body double!!!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[skybill 19]

Ya' shoulda' been there dude! That was top of the line in '69!!! I would have given my "I" (as in incisor) teeth to have gotten a slot on the filming of the skydiving scenes! I don't think Lancaster got to jump, but I'd guess that he would have liked to!!! Look in your dad or uncles' closet and drag out his old B-4 rig with a P.C. in it and his old 26' Navy conical chest reserve!!! That's the way it was then. Those were the days when men were men and women were proud of it!!

SCR-2034, SCS-680

III%,
Deli-out

[jrouilla 0]

Nice to see the old movie still gets some notice....

Wrote an article for PARACHUTIST on the making of Gypsy Moths right after I went to work for the organization in 1969. Will probably answer a lot of the questions raised here.

Jerry Rouillard

[slug 1]

Quote

Nice to see the old movie still gets some notice....

Wrote an article for PARACHUTIST on the making of Gypsy Moths right after I went to work for the organization in 1969. Will probably answer a lot of the questions raised here.

Jerry Rouillard

Hi Jerry

Gypsy Moths is a benchmark movie for the sport of skydiving. The casting, storyline, and stunts were first rate.

BTW IMO its not a "Old Movie"it'sa classic.

R.I.P.