Helicopter Wars
opening of the 'South Georgia' episode from the four part series Helicopter Wars, made by windfall films for five / smithsonian channel. what might at first seem like a typical 'men-with-guns' series is in fact a thoughtful and engaging trip through some of the most hair raising experiences you can imagine. always focusing on the human stories contained within events, the helicopters and the wars they are part of come a distant second to the extraordinary feats performed by their crews.
in this clip, three helicopters fly to the island of south georgia to rescue a stranded military team. they encounter a violent storm and are soon down to one helicopter - amazingly, all three crews and the soldiers made it out alive...
in this clip from the 'vietnam' episode, two unarmed helicopters attempt to rescue dozens of men, pinned down by enemy fire in the jungle of Vietnam. returning many times to extract more soldiers, they beat the odds and left no man behind.
in the 'iraq' episode, a british helicopter involved in a predatory mission during the 2003 invasion of iraq unexpectedly finds itself no longer the hunter but the hunted, as an enemy tank crew takes the initiative and tries to shoot it out of the sky.
production company: windfall films
editors: mike lithgow + justin badger
directors: kenny scott + richard max
