Bringing an Israeli 'Top Gun' movie to life

• Published date: 21 April 2024
• Author: HANNAH BROWN
• Publication title: Jerusalem Post, The: Web Edition Articles (Israel)

But that has changed with the recent release throughout Israel of Air War, a movie by Roy Hornshtein, which tells an upbeat story of an IAF base on the eve of the Six Day War, featuring handsome stars, romance, rivalry between two hotshot pilots, and, most important, realistic-looking, thrilling aerial battles

Maor Schwitzer plays Ran Nesher, a brash, fearless daredevil who is appointed to command an IAF squadron in the days leading up to the 1967 war, while Daniel Litman plays Eitan, his rival, who feels threatened by this new commander, and this rivalry drives most of the plot.

The supporting cast includes Gily Itskovitch as a female soldier stationed at the base, while Lihi Kornowski plays the wife of another pilot.

Hornshtein, who worked for 15 years to bring this story to the screen and was interviewed by phone recently on a break from military reserve duty, said he had long wondered why no one had mined the IAF for on-screen drama: "How is it that no one made a movie about the Israeli Air Force? Every day, it's a screenwriter's dream, you can't make this stuff up."

Until now, oddly, the most famous film about that war was Rafi Barkai's 1986 movie, Avanti Popolo, about an Egyptian Shakespearean actor trapped behind Israeli lines when the ceasefire is declared, and has nothing to do with Israel's military triumph.

Knowing he wanted to tell a story about the IAF, he chose Operation Focus, "One of the greatest achievements for any air force, ever," he said.

In Operation Focus, which began on June 5, 1967, the IAF destroyed much of the Egyptian Air Force on the ground in the morning and then went on to bomb Jordanian and Syrian air bases later in the day. This did much to disable the aerial capabilities of these countries, paving the way for a swift military victory for the Israeli army.

Hornshtein is not a pilot himself, but served in artillery, so he relied on research and experts to help guide him in telling the story.

"I could have done a film about artillery, but it wouldn't have been as cool as a movie about the air force," he said.

Inspired by Top Gun

He grew up loving the Star Wars series and 1980s fighter-pilot movies such as Top Gun and Iron Eagle, which starred Louis Gossett Jr., and he dreamed of making such a film here.

But the Tel Aviv-born director and father of three, who makes commercials, didn't anticipate that it would take him 15 years to realize his vision of bringing Operation Focus to the screen.

He was surprised to learn, when he...