The Skyjacker's Tale

The true story of a confessed murderer turned successful skyjacker and now a happy family man (albeit longtime fugitive), The Skyjacker's Tale centers on Ishmael Muslim Ali, who—under his original name of Ishmael LaBeet—is one of five black men who were charged with killing seven white employees and tourists (plus one non-white victim) at a golf resort in St. Croix, Virgin Islands, in 1972. These murders preceded Ali's commandeering of an American Airline flight. Whether the grisly crime was racially motivated or just a botched robbery has never been adequately resolved. But unsetting background details about simmering racial strife on an island playground for white visitors served by black residents is certainly a part of filmmaker Jamie Kastner's scattershot film. The story bounces around both chronologically and geographically, presenting a cheerful, modern Ali in today's Havana awkwardly interspersed with his history as a U.S. Army soldier who was released with a dishonorable discharge; his time as a late-1960s black militant; distracting recreations of the murders and skyjacking (Ali took a gun aboard a flight that was returning him from a Virgin Islands court to prison in St. Croix); and interviews with surviving passengers and one of the cops who allegedly tortured confessions out of Ali and the other gunmen. While it's not impossible to piece all of these elements into a coherent narrative, Kastner doesn't make it easy with his fractured approach. Still, this is a remarkable story, making this film a strong optional purchase. (T. Keogh)