By S. Mark Rhodes

Leonard Maltin’s Movie Guides have been a great resource for filmgoers to discover new favorites and re-visit old chestnuts.  His most recent addition (Leonard Maltin’s 2012 Movie Guide from Signet) is nearly 1,700 pages and weighs in at nearly two pounds (it can crush the Kindle!).

Embedded within this guide are insightful, capsule interviews of some of the most noteworthy aviation films that Hollywood turned out in its golden age.  Mr. Maltin was nice enough to speak to In Flight USA’s Mark Rhodes about some of his favorite aviation films and how the aviation film genre might make a comeback.

In Flight USA: Once upon a time the aviation film was as much a part of Hollywood genre films as the Detective film, the Western, the Science Fiction film and so on.  What do you think are the reasons that the genre declined?

Leonard Maltin: (Long Pause) “I am just guessing mind you, but I think a lot of it has to do with gaming (video games) which maybe has taken the place of the excitement audiences used to get with aviation movies. When Top Gun (1986) came out in the 80s there was a lot of comment then about how some of the combat flying sequences resembled video games. And in those intervening years, those games have become really vivid and even realistic. This (the rise of gaming) might have replaced some of the thrill that films like Top Gun used to provide movie audiences.”