High Road to China (1983)

[arrowmaker]

High Road to China (1983) is a movie that I have long had a soft spot for. For a straight forward, rollicking, adventure movie I think this one easily rivals the Indiana Jones stories. For one reason or another it has never seen a decent home cinema release. It has never been available on dvd, here in the UK, and has never appeared anywhere in widescreen.

Looks like this is all about to change with a blu ray version of the movie set to be released in April. Certainly looking forward to this one.

http://www.amazon.com/High-Road-China-Blu-ray-Selleck/dp/B00744WZ0I/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1333252444&sr=1-2 (http://www.amazon.com/High-Road-China-Blu-ray-Selleck/dp/B00744WZ0I/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1333252444&sr=1-2)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=s7A7OUE6rFQ

[Willy]

I've never seen it although I've wanted to. Coming out in DVD too.

[Jagdflieger]

I saw it when it was released in 83. I thought that it was a great movie and it provided fun plot, lots of action and some nice aerial scenes in pre-WWII China. As it was released at the height of Tom Sellic's popularity, I was surprised that it did not gain more of a following.

It is available here in the States on DVD.

[Naismith]

Avsim textures
stampe_hrtchina_2txtrs.zip

I should point out the a/c flies OK in FSX, I have a version 3 filename StampeV3.zip but Avsim and FS.com don't seem to have the same file as me, they have an older one. There is a little of the FS9 prop uinfortunately but it is not too bad on this occasion. I cannot remember where I got the V3 file from.

[Cirrus N210MS]

Thats a GReat Movie!! me and my dad were just Talking about it just the other day
:salute:

[wombat666]

It was a reasonable film but as usual, the original story it was adapted from was even better.
However, the film did feature the delicious Bess Armstrong .................................................. ..:applause:

"High Road to China is a 1977 novel by Australian author Jon Cleary. The plot concerns a female heiress who looks for her father in the 1920s with the help of two pilots, one of them a former German fighting ace.
Film rights were bought almost immediately and plans were announced to star Roger Moore and Jacqueline Bisset under the direction of John Huston. Cleary turned down the chance to do the adaptation as he did not want to work with John Huston in Ireland for several months. Huston dropped out and was replaced by Sidney Furie then eventually Brian G. Hutton. The novel was eventually filmed in 1983, with a large number of changes made, notably the removal of the German character. Cleary regarded the adaptation as one of the greatest disappointments in his career because he thought the book could have made "one of the great adventure films"

John Cleary wrote many Australian themed novels of a high standard, later setting much of his work outside the country.
Always a good read.

[Dangerousdave26]

It will be good to finally be able to get it again. It was released here (US) on DVD a few years ago but they did not make very many so supplies are short and cost is high. Anyone who has it for sale thinks it is worth the mint to get it or at least that is how it was a last year when we contemplated doing it as an race event here.

The Stamp they used was never mounted with a gun so the Lewis gun they had on the top was at an odd angle. I always thought that was strange but only found out recently it was because the plane was not built to be a WWI fighter.

Historically inaccurate but still a really cool movie.

[Wittpilot]

Interestingly enough, they originally want Tom Selleck to play Indiana Jones, but because of Magnum PI, he was unable to commit...

[joe bob]

I have not seen it but I would imagine that like many movies and tv programs it was ignored by the public at the time of release because it was seen as cashing in on the theme of another popular hit of that time, which no doubt it was.

Tales of the Gold Monkey is one example, even though it was an idea being pushed before Indiana Jones was a hit, it only got greenlit because of the success of that movie.
The public saw it as such and largely ignored it,which is a shame because it would be interesting to see it judged on its own merits.

[Daveroo]

this is one of my all time favorite movies,bess armstrong is great in it i think,and ive been looking for it for along time,its allways "out of stock" when id try to buy it...only movie i enjoy more is "the legend of 1900" with tim roth...just a good movie...no sex,no violence,no guns blasting bad guys..just a good story,with good acting and a.....well i wont mess with the ending

[Willy]

Like DD26 said we were looking at doing a FS event based on it. We needed to find out the route taken in the movie, but at over $100 a pop for the DVD back then, we decided to do something else.

[Dain Arns]

Release date of April 17th, 2012 and looks like it will be reasonable in price for DVD and BluRay.
Might have to reconsider doing that event now, Willy. ;)

I had completely forgotten about this one.
Definitely will have to get it this month.

[wombat666]

Like DD26 said we were looking at doing a FS event based on it. We needed to find out the route taken in the movie, but at over $100 a pop for the DVD back then, we decided to do something else.

Willy, how about I check the local library and see if the book is available????
IIRC the copy I read had a route map in the introduction, and FWIW, the aircraft were Bristol Fighters.
:kilroy:

[Jagdflieger]

A good plan that Combat Wombat.