By RANDY & JEAN-MARC LOFFICIER

See Blue Thunder and you will believe Roy Scheider can fly . . . at least if he uses a helicopter. "I was in the Air Force for three years," Says the actor. "I had soloed, but I finally left the program because I'm a lousy navigator, and real dangerous to myself and everyone else in the air. So, they quite wisely washed me out."

In Blue Thunder, Scheider is also a "washout." As Frank Murphy, a Vietnam veteran who needs to keep constant control over his sanity by monitoring his time-sense, he portrays a Los Angeles Police Department (L.A.P.D.) helicopter pilot who single-handedly takes on the military establishment on the ground and in the skies.

His character is reminiscent of a certain police chief of a Long Island Beach resort besieged by a relentless giant shark in 1975 and 1978. In both cases, in Jaws and in Blue Thunder, Scheider plays a cop with a conscience fighting against other government powers to protect what he knows to be right.

This moral stand is one reason why the actor accepted the part of Murphy... "I took into consideration that, although I was doing another action-adventure, this one had such a strong political underbelly that it was worth it. I feel very strongly about that fact."

Roy Scheider was virtually typecast throughout the 1970s as a leading action-character actor. Born in 1935 in New Jersey, Scheider's first love, however, is the theatre. As a college student, he won a Theatre Guild Theresa Hilburn Award. Noticed by New York producer/director Joseph Papp, Scheider made his professional debut in the 1961 New York Shakespeare Festival production of Romeo and Juliet.

Although he spent most of the '60s playing classic roles on stage, Scheider made his first screen appearance in a 1964 low-budget horror flick, Curse of the Living Corpse. It's a film he would probably rather forget, since it's not normally included in his credits.

Fortunately for Scheider's cinematic career, better roles followed, including parts in Klute, The French Connection (for which he notched an Academy Award nomination in 1971), a French thriller, L'Attentat, The Seven-Ups, Marathon Man and of course, the Jaws movies. Finally, in 1979, aided by Bob Fosse's talent and imagination, Scheider broke out of the action mold in All That Jazz, his showstopping performance capturing a second Oscar nomination.

Scheider also earned an Obie award, for an off-Broadway play, Stephen D.

More recently, he won the Drama League of New York Award for Most Distinguished Performance on the Stage, in Harold Pinter's Betrayal. He also starred opposite Meryl Streep in 1982's Still of the Night.

Into the Skies

Always the consummate professional, Scheider appreciates the talents which went into Blue Thunder. What he liked most about lensing the chopper adventure, Scheider says, was "the fact that we made the kind of film we set out to make, and the experience of working with John Badham (STARLOG #70). He was just great and he did a terrific job. Blue Thunder was a very difficult movie to make, and he was a pleasure to work with throughout. It's always nice to have a healthy experience with a director, and to come out of a film liking him just as much as you did when you began."

The difficulties of filming Blue Thunder didn't bother Scheider. The actor had previously spent many hours in helicopters while shooting William Friedkin's remade of The Wages of Fear, Sorcerer, in 1977. At the time, he felt that he had his fill of the flying machines. "When I read the first five pages of Blue Thunder, I thought, 'Oh no! Not again!'" explains Scheider. "But because it was a hell of a good story, and a movie that I would like to see myself, I decided that I wanted to be in it.

"Flying a helicopter is like being at the top of a gyroscope. Through the process of making Blue Thunder, I became fairly proficient at it, so, although the guys were always with me, they would allow me to take off, set the copter down, and play around with it. It was kind of fun!"

Scheider confesses, however, to occasional bouts of nervousness during his elaborate stunt-flying stints. "We went through all the action shots with Jim Gavin (Second Unit Director of the film's aerial sequences) and then he asked if I was ready to do the take. I said, 'Sure.' But when we did it, he flew on the side and all over the place so quickly, I swore at him, saying 'You never told me we were going to it like this!'"

At another point during production, a helicopter had a slight mechanical problem and fell out of the sky . . . straight down. "That accident was rather reassuring," comments Scheider, "because it showed me that, even with malfunctions, they can still be set down safely. The only time I was very nervous was when the camera ship flew a little close to our copter. I didn't want one blade hitting another!"

He quickly adds that the stunt pilots were all extremely capable and professional. "I felt pretty safe making Blue Thunder," he says. "I estimated what my chances were, and I always felt they were pretty good."

Shooting with Scheider (and to a lesser extent, co-stars Daniel Stern and Malcolm McDowell) actually in the helicopter during flight was necessary to avoid unrealistic looking rear-projection in daytime scenes. Due to the two very real risks involved, all of the flying scenes involving Scheider were grouped towards the end of production, just in case. The actor has only one comment about the scheduling: "It made sense."

His contributions to Blue Thunder are not limited to acting. "In the first draft, Murphy's character was incredibly stoic; he didn't have too many laughs," Scheider says. "I pleaded with John to let Danny (Stern) and me have some fun, to ad-lib, improvise and make the film as light as possible. He encouraged us, which made me very happy. I think that helps the characters to be human, and certainly more sympathetic. And I don't get to look like I have lockjaw. (See STARLOG #71 for screenwriter Dan O'Bannon's views on script changes.)"

There are some elements of Blue thunder that Scheider would have liked altered. The actor primarily resents some of the mindless violence displayed in a motion picture whose advocated purpose is to save lives. "I would get rid of that Arco Tower scene," he notes. "It seems out of character for Murphy to draw missile fire to it. To my way of thinking, they should have picked a place which was obviously abandoned, where innocent people wouldn't be endangered.

"I would also get rid of the scene where the helicopter comes down on the cars. That seemed like overkill. When I saw the first rough cut, I asked if all of this violence was really necessary. But the studio seemed to feel that it was. They wanted to give the folks their full five dollars' worth. They did take some out, because there was much more, but personally, I would have eased up on all that gratuitous violence."

Although police choppers are presented in a negative light in this screen fiction, Scheider still feels that, in reality, they serve an extremely useful purpose. "They're terrific at reporting traffic and weather, coordinating drug operations, and locating prowlers" he says. "The pilots themselves are not too crazy about the 'peeping tom' aspects, just as Murphy is not in the film. He goes through all that stuff for the new guy, because he hasn't seen it yet. But it's old stuff to Murphy, he wouldn't be spending his time doing that.

"Now, when I hear a helicopter overhead, I think immediately of Blue Thunder and wonder who is up there, and what they are doing," Roy Scheider explains.