Operation Dumbo Drop

Leave it to Disney to make a feel-good movie set during the Vietnam War (Steve Winwood and Aretha Franklin on the soundtrack instead of Hendrix and the Doors). Incredibly, this is based on a true story about American soldiers who actually did droplift an elephant into a strategic South Vietnamese village. It escaped media attention, according to the press notes, because the operation was carried out the tragic day on which Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. Danny Glover, as the officer "gone native," Ray Liotta as his by-the-book replacement, and Denis Leary as the wise-cracking requisitions officer, help put this over. An optional purchase. (D. Liebenson)