"Wild in the Sky" (a.k.a. "Black Jack") is a film that really, really wants to be "Dr. Strangelove" or "Catch-22," but doesn't quite get there. The plot: Three anti-war activists escape police custody, only to find themselves stowaways on a B52 bomber with a nuclear device, which they proceed to hijack. The plot is almost beside the point, except as a vehicle for a series of character-driven comic moments that are diverting enough, but never add up to much.
The film is most noteworthy for comic performances from a slew of faces familiar from 1970s television: Georg Stanford Brown (The Rookies), Larry Hovis ("Hogan's Heroes"), Tim O'Connor ("Buck Rogers"), Bernie Kopell ("Love Boat"), Dick Gautier ("When Things Were Rotten") and Jack Riley ("The Bob Newhart Show"). Barbara Bosson ("Hill Street Blues") is credited, but I didn't spot her. Keenan Wynn is on hand for his usual fuss and bluster. Robert Lansing gives the film's best performance as the spit-and-polish bomber pilot; it is a better than average Charlton Heston impersonation.
Perhaps the film was funnier in its original cultural context, with its send-up of corrupt, perverted, uptight, fundamentally dishonest politicians and military personnel, and its implicit anti-war message. But it offers more silliness than satire, so its bark is without any bite--which is what keeps it from being truly memorable.
