The book "Open Skies" and the film "Eye in the Sky"

The introduction to the book "Open Sky" [1997], by Paul Virilio, begins routinely. He calls the sky "the primary beach." The sky separates the fullness of the earth from the emptiness of outer space. With the invention of the artistic perspective in the Renaissance period, focusing on a horizontal vanishing point, man moved away from the natural connection to the initial vertical contrast of sky-earth, embodied in gravity. Nowadays, when the sky is populated by countless afying objects, it is worthwhile to go back and focus on the vertical horizon.

From then on Virilio turns to an original theory: outer space does not exist as the scientists explained to us. The essence that controls the universe is time, which is matter in itself. Time is the dark matter of the universe. From the initial cosmic darkness derive our cognition of time as matter. This time-material creates the space familiar to us. We should call the regular time "continuity". Continuity exists in itself as matter, from the continuity that exists between atomic particles, to the continuity measured in the ranges of the creation of the universe. It is a substance whose intensity is measured by its speed, which is in relation to the speed of light.

Despite the lack of a scientific basis for the theory, the continuity of time as a material in itself is well tangible to anyone involved in filmmaking. The film editor connects footage of filmed raw material. Between each of two sections is a section of a black screen. Each passage create in the editor a sense of tangibility. His challenge is to cut off the darkness, the void, just as he cuts a piece of something . The black screen segments between the pieces of footage are a physical entity. This entity is un identified, yet it exist. Its feeling is as of the photographed material. It therefore treated, without choice, like a substance in itself. Nature despises emptiness for its own sake.

Virilio abandoned his keen interest in cinema in favor of interest in the dimensions of time, which allowed him to explore the mega cities of the world as a critical space, enslaved to accelerated technology.

Emptiness in which ordinary time becomes substance characterizes the opening scene of the film "Eye in the Sky" [2015]. The protagonist of the film is a colonel, responsible from London for an operation using unmanned aerial vehicles, which takes place in Africa.

The motto at the beginning of the film is: "In war, truth is the first victim." The motto is the essence of Virilio's thought, which deals mostly with observation technologies and decision making in the field of military aviation, and their impact on visual thinking today, where immediacy plays a central role, due to the congestion of images.

The opening scene of the film shows, in half-body camera views, a girl in Africa in the yard on a sunny morning, watching her mother bake bread, and at the same time playing with a hula hoop, next to her father fixing a bicycle. The ring is symbolic. It points out, according to Virilio's worldview, inspired by the renowned physicist Stephen Hawking, the usual time and space, embodied in the growing by the diameter latitudes  of the Earth. Virilio describes this in his book "Polar Inertia" [1990].

Using a drone, the camera gradually moves away from the yard toward the street, where a military jeep with armed men is moving. The jeep is seen through the target sight of a UAV that follows it. The camera continues to move away, and the distance causes the viewer's point of view to focus on the vertical axis, which according to Virilio and Hawking indicates the abstract time and space, according to the earth longitudes,  which are arbitrary and uniform in diameter. The aiming lines of the drone become the letter E in the name of the movie, which  appears on the screen.

The picture shift to the Colonel, who is seen in a second long opening scene, in the close-up of her face in complete darkness, as she wakes up in her bed in her country house, ahead of a work day. It's still night time. The lighting is foggy and warm, using night lamps indoors and outdoors. In contrast to the clear sense of reality in Africa, the sense here is of an undefined, mystical reality. As if time is matter and the central dimension.

The camera follows her in half-body shots: while still drowsy she puts on a robe, takes the dog out into the yard, and opens the computer with a fingerprint. On the wall are pictures of the faces of the terrorists she focuses on. The picture sharpens. The photographs finally awakening her, along with an urgent mail.

An eye in the sky - the full movie on YouTube

The pilot as a superhero in Israeli cinema

The Israeli fighter pilot as a superhero

The slogan "the best for pilots" still has significance in the State of Israel. Most of the public attach great prestige and importance to the pilot. World War II immortalized the pilot as a mythological figure. The stories of the "Battle of Britain" heroically described him. Winston Churchill said: "Never before have so many owed so few''. Ezer Weizmann, who served as a pilot in the British Air Force during World War II and served for about 8 years as commander of the Israeli Air Force, has become the most significant symbol of the Israeli pilot. He created the local slogan. It attests to excellence and implies that whoever flies is good.

The main historical factor in the development of this myth in Israel are the many wars that have been decided by its air power. Operation Kadesh in 1956 was relatively successful for the Air Force, but did not significantly dispel the myth. During the Six Day War, the Air Force's achievements were set and the documentaries about it highlighted the Israeli pilot myth. After that, when the Air Force was automatically associated with successes and abortions, there was a huge increase in the number of volunteers for a pilot course. Self-confidence was high and the pilots were wrapped in a lot of love.

The image of the almighty hero pilot remained in the minds of civilians even during the Yom Kippur War. Despite the low morale it brought with it, the Air Force was portrayed in this war as the main defensive wall. The pilot stereotype was perpetuated in it as the perfect hero, who is also a "sacrifing savior'', willing to risk his life and sacrifice his life for the State of Israel.

After the Yom Kippur War the pilots boasted less of the wings. This happened mostly to the young. But even if there was a slight respite in public admiration for pilots, they were able to regain the aura, thanks to successful operations such as "Entebbe" and "Attack of the Reactor in Iraq." These operations had a style that gave the Israeli pilot a Hollywood touch.

Today, the army is no longer a top value in Israeli society and it is permissible to criticize it, including the Air Force. Still, the image of the fighter pilot in public is better than that of other military personnel. Today the society is individual and the pilot expresses exactly that value. If you add to this elements like quick reaction, decisiveness, courage, challenge, self-control and accuracy, you come to the conclusion that this is the character of the popular hero.

An interesting question is in what direction will the pilot figure develop in the future, where the war will be largely waged using unmanned aerial vehicles, which require different characteristics and population segments.

In this context it is worth mentioning that the film industry was, from the beginning, an important source of employment for Air Force personnel around the world, after being discharged from military service. They have been integrated into this industry in all fields and levels. It was these people who shaped the character of the "Knightty Fighter Pilot" in popular culture.

The myth of aviation in the visual media in the State of Israel

Central to the approach that explores aviation as a comprehensive phenomenon is the practice of the terms "aerial awareness" and "aerial consciousness". The difference between them is, in short, is like the difference between the terms "artist" and "artisan".

The term "aerial awareness" explains the enthusiasm of individuals for the flying machine, which accumulates for independent creation and voluntary activity of creating traditions and symbols on the subject.

In Western powers, such as the United States, England, and France, aerial awareness puts the independent individual interested in aviation at the center. It is dominant and accordingly the character of the pilot is shaped as a lone hero, with a sensitive mind. He operates a highly complex machine while constantly physically moving in three-dimensional reality. He experiences and makes decisions that are not the property of the common man, who lives in a two-dimensional environment. The fighter pilot is therefore an "artist".

The term "air consciousness" means the intelligent use of aviation to create a comprehensive national and social identity and accordingly the pilot is part of the social system and does not question it. In World War II, there were four countries that controlled the "air consciousness", in what can be called the "air dictatorship". These countries are: Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, Imperial Japan and the Communist Soviet Union. Because in these countries the emphasis in training was on quantity versus quality, the title appropriate for the pilot in them is "artisan".

In the middle are the countries that do not clearly belong to one of the two blocs, including Israel, which has created a unique aviation culture. Apart from being part of the myth and saga of the "best air force in the world", the images of the Israeli fighter pilot as a superhero also feed on Israel's ties with the United States, including American popular culture, with its superhero culture. Contrary to the image of the "wild west man", defense needs also contributed to the design of an Israeli fighter pilot with political views and social criticism, in films and in reality, as in the case of Yiftach Spector, who became one of the critics of Israeli defense policy.

Real American aviation events in the last half century have influenced Israeli society through television, which covered them as prominent and fascinating media events. For example, the "first Gulf War" that took place in the years 1990-1991. During it, American precision bombing videos were given extended screen time each evening. Feature aviation films, including "top Gun" (1986), illustrate the close connection between the American Air Force and the Israeli Air Force, thanks to the social background and similar ideals, the use of identical aircraft and the training and common goals.

The most important aviation-television event to date is the first landing on the moon, in July 1969. As in the rest of the world, Israel too watched with anxiety and excitement the miraculous journey of three Apollo 11 pilots: Reporters were sent to NASA space center,  TV and radio coverage of the event was from every possible angle and commentators and scholars have debated the question of the historical, scientific and spiritual significance of the landing. The Apollo 11 astronauts have gained the status of cultural heroes in the local media and entiresupplements have been devoted to their experiences.

The popular culture in the United States greatly reinforces the myth of aviation, but at the same time the image of the pilot as an individual with personal needs. ''Star Wars'' movie series, in which the figure of the pilot stands out as a superhero, can be analyzed as a biblical text about the cosmic battle between the forces of good and evil and the desire to survive with the help of God - "the force". There are Jewish scholars who challenge the ideological separation between popular culture and religious life and link episodes in the saga to Jewish religion and history. The saga allows for a local critical discussion of various issues, such as feminism and gender, government and minorities, psyche and personality, quality of life and environment and more. "Star Wars" also has practical importance for Israel militarily, as synonymous with space warfare and as a source for learning military strategies.

Feature films about the fighter pilot in the State of Israel

Compared to the extensive place that the Air Force has in Israeli society and the many books written about it, few feature films have been made in the country about the subject of the fighter pilot. In the few films made in the State of Israel, the icon gradually became from national to personal, and in the meantime he is also exposed to social criticism.

The film "Sinaia" (1961) is a unique feature film in Israeli cinema, the plot of which takes place during Kadesh operation. It star is an Israeli fighter pilot, Yiftach Spector, who was loaned to a film from the Air Force and later became one of its top pilots and commanders. The film was made while he was still a young pilot. It is generally based on a real event. Spector plays himself as an Israeli pilot, whose Mister jet crashed near a Bedouin encampment in Sinai. He manages to take control of an Egyptian Piper plane, fixes it in a tent and takes off with the wounded Bedouin baby Sinaia and her mother. The plane crashes and the pilot dies. Sinia survives and is picked up by another Israeli officer, who was left to wait for rescue. Spector's character adds a mythological dimension to the film, as he plays the character of the legendary Sabre.

Early feature films, such as "Sinaia" and "Eight after One" (1964), perpetuate the fighter pilot myth as a local superhero. The later films are more critical. There are Israeli aviation films that use this myth to present criticism of national policy, or self-criticism of the character of the personal pilot as a superhero. In feature films such as "Way of the Eagle" (1990) and "Armand's Kites" (2011), the protagonist pilot character is subject to self-criticism and external criticism.

An example from the recent period is the film "Adventure in the Sky" (2019), which combines computerized visual content scenes. An aviation-loving boy and girl find scraps of an antique Air Force "Messerschmidt" plane. They decide to renovate the plane and fly it in the Independence Day demonstration. Throughout the film one can find a close affinity with the First Air Force Fighter Squadron, but comedic antagonistic sub-characters, who display the arrogance sometimes identified with the pilot profession, manage to maintain the critical character.

Between the character of the pilot as a national hero and the criticism of him lies the private personality. The Israeli fighter pilot walks on a taut rope, which is intertwined with both his profession and his conscience. The result, for the most part, sharpens self-criticism, which is also a key tool in his ability to improve performance, as part of the "best air force in the world."

The film "Every Bastard is a King" (1968)

The discussion of the values ​​of the pilot character rises another step in Uri Zohar's feature film "Every Bastard is a King" (1968), for which the script was written by Eli Tavor and produced by Avraham Deshe. The film was a huge success. The film is dedicated to the IDF forces that operated during the Six Day War. It is a hybrid, as it include long documentary footage. Hybridity is also an artistic means of illustrating the main message of the film, as will be described below. It is a film that can be fully understood and analyzed as an aviation film, as the protagonist represents the character of the pilot as a superhero, even though he is a private pilot, acting for personal motives. The film tells the true story of Abie Nathan and his peace flight.

The film consists of three plots naratives: The first deals with the peace pilot Rafi Cohen (Oded Kotler) whose character is modeled after Abie Natan. The second deals with the character of his driver Yehoram (Yehoram Gaon) who becomes a brave warrior in the war. The third deals with an American journalist, Roy Hemings (William Berger), who came to cover the upcoming war with his wife Eileen (Pierre Angeli).

Abie Nathan, a restaurant owner and peace activist, took off privately on a light private plane to Egypt in February 1966, in an attempt to talk to Nasser. The film gives his flight a human and representative meaning that goes beyond its historical impact. He is crowned as an alternate superhero pilot. A key sentence at the end of the film is: "If you want to live - you must learn to fly".

The film begins with a small convoy of cars, in which Yehoram is driving the leading car, with Rafi sitting next to him. Along with them in the car is the widow Eileen. They drive to the airport in Lod. The convoy pass between the planes, parking and loading onto a large passenger plane a coffin wrapped in the United States flag, in which lie Roy Hemings' dead body. At that time, the airport and air transport were considered another expression of Israeli air superiority. The scene herald the reality of today, where flying in passenger planes has become massy and tedious.

Then begins the chronological narrative, which opens with a description recorded by Roy, of the situation in the country on the eve of the war: ''Israel is a systematic and messy collection of paradoxes, which somehow have some logic, which can not be explained. Everything you say about the Israelis is the opposite''. His words are heard against the background of a picture of a gleaming El Al plane taking off with its coffin.

The mystical-religious dimension is integrated, with Rafi leading seven demonstrators, who are marching to Jerusalem for peace. They tell Roy that if the politicians did not bring peace, maybe Rafi will succeed. Yehoram says that Rafi's courage stems from despair. He once saved Rafi's life at a rooftop party, where he walked on the railing to impress a girl and almost fell into an abyss. The story is told against the background of a flashback scene, of Yehoram the paratrooper and his friends jumping from a large military plane. Yehoram says that parachuting is the best thing in the world, but getting off the plane is scary.

Hemings reveals the aspirations of the collective war of the Arabs. You can see in the flashback the incident where Rafi walked on the roof railing, told again by Rafi himself, to Eileen with whom he develops an affair. Rafi has an instinct for self-destruction. He may be interested in being a "sacrifing savior''. Even the  mental dialectic, the culmination of which is the idea of ​​love, is incapable of solving his problems.

Hemings resents that Yehoram took a female soldier as a hitchhiker, but Yehoram says he is "free as a bird" and works to live. Hemings repeats the sentence as he records the experiences of the day. The romantic entanglement expands in Yehoram's event with Eileen.

Roy gets a phone call from Rafi, who wants to talk to him about a return flight to Egypt. Rafi tells Roy that he is flying not because of what he is, which is meaningless to him, but despite who he is.

Rafi tells Roy about the flight to Egypt. The flight scenes appears in full: preparations for takeoff, flight, spontaneous reactions in public. For a moment, Hemings and Rafi return to a disco hall. Hemings is trying to understand the incident as a "miracle''. Rafi answers him that if he wants to understand, "he must fly''. Afterwards scenes are: Landing in El Arish, Egyptian soldiers surround Rafi who says he wants to talk to Nasser about peace, a conversation with the local Egyptian governor about the rights of the people of Israel over the Land of Israel, the flight back to Tel Aviv, the welcome reception, mass and imaginary in part, to a hero carried on hands.

After the conversation between Roy and Rafi, we hear from the disco hall a radio announcer, who tells about a village where a dragon threatens its inhabitants. Out of nowhere a hero arrives with the aim of killing him and succeeds using a paper sword. In a tragic turn, the villagers kill the hero, as they no longer need him. The real "hero journey" is not done by someone who aspires to be a hero, but is shaped in retrospect by the masses.

Yehoram receives a military draft order. The war begins, with lengthy documentary scenes, which perpetuate the historical events, even though they seem seemingly irrelevant to the plot. The tanks go into action, in a battle scene of occupying Rafah. A small bird standing on a branch shaking in the wind is combined between this sections. The plot soundtrack is replaced by voices from the military radio instruments. The scenes of the charging tanks are combined with the scenes of the fighting and wounded warriors and especially with the heroic story of the warrior Yossi, which is the dramatic climax of the film. Although the air force does not appear in the war scenes, this does not detract from its triumphant aura.

At the end of the film, at six after the war, Roy accidentally walks to a minefield. Despite Rafi's warnings, he steps on a mine and is killed. Before his death, Rafi's sentence resonates in his mind: '' Do you want to understand? Fly''. Then his early recording from the beginning of the film about the paradoxical situation in Israel is heard again. Is is heard against the background of the passenger plane taking off with the coffin. In the last scene, Yehoram and Rafi say goodbye to each other in the terminal.

"Every Bastard is a King" puts a mirror in front of Israeli society on the eve of the Six Day War. It present a fascinating correlation between the spirit of the period and the character of the individual pilot. The film explore aerial consciousness versus aerial awareness. The first state of consciousness is that of Rafi, who sees in aviation the appearance of everything. The second is that of Roy, who sees aviation as a non-binding awareness. Yehoram presents the critical intermediate figure.

At the same time, the film explores two types of dialectics: horizontal and vertical. The horizontal dialectic seeks, out of an existential habit for what is on the surface, the earthly. The vertical dialectic strives, from a line of ideological assumptions, upwards, to the sublime. There are scenes in the film that highlight the gap between the two types of dialectics. For example, Eileen, who has no true national identity, has relationships with the three men. The personal scenes can also be defined as "prelimimary" and show an indistinguishable duration. In contrast, the aviation and war scenes are "symbolic", as they present awareness and order.

The film create a deconstruction of the Israeli reality. It dismantles and challenges the structural structure on which the state is based. The film glorify the aviation myth, which allows each person independent spiritual clarity, regardless of the stereotype of the knighty fighter pilot.

The close connection between aviation, cinema and superheroes

The high mountains landscapes are, from the dawn of mankind, the origin of the religious, the mystical, the symbolic and the daring, embodied in the vertical dimension. Moses received the Torah on Mount Sinai and the Temple was built on Mount Moriah in Jerusalem. Cinema also dealt with the subject, for example in Steven Spielberg's film " Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (1977), about a positive encounter with intelligent aliens at the top of a lonely mountain. The Star Wars series was created in this spirit: it deals with a supernatural force, simply called the "force", which is activated in the arena of starships flying between stars in distant galaxies.

Spiritual flight is a central symbol of the human spirit and its freedom. The aerial dimension provides general and important guidelines for ascent, growth, and purification. These guidelines must be considered as basic principles in psychology that can be called the "ascension psychology." The binary pair "Daedalus and Icarus" is one of the most important myths in the canon of Western literature. Countless books for children and youth, from Peter Pan to Baron Munchausen, all use the flight experience to create the most magical works of literature we know. A best-selling book in the 1970s was the book "Jonathan Livingstone the Seagull", which described the initiation journey that a brave little seagull goes through, striving to break away from the flock that binds his spirit and fly independently to new districts.

The airplane is a means of transportation that allows physical movement of people and goods from place to place, while overcoming all physical obstacles. It created a complete change in the balance of power between the nations. There is a chronological connection between developments in this field and important historical events in the modern era: the hot air balloon, invented in 1783, was immediately and enthusiastically adopted by the public as the noble symbol of education , elevation and elation. It revolutionized many fields and the French Revolution occurred 6 years after its invention. World War I broke out in 1914, about ten years after the first flight in 1903. World War II began in 1939, following Hitler's  ''the golden age of aviation'' and his ''aviation policy''. Aviation pioneers were icons of human spirit and freedom around the world. As the military and practical importance of aviation became clear, it became the center of national interest and action.

The importance of aviation in popular culture is great. The philosopical book "Air and Dreams" describes the alchemical synthesis between practical aviation and the mental flight experience, inspired by books such of St. Exupery. The book "The Passion for the Wings: Aviation and Imagination in Western Culture" shows that the invention of the airplane was the fulfillment of an ancient human fantasy, which captured the imagination of intellectuals and helped shape a new image of the world. According to the book "Dictatorship of Air: Aviation Culture and the Fate of Modern Russia", the original experience created among the citizens of Russia at the beginning of this era was a national-religious experience and the airplane became a symbol of progress that covered failures in other areas. The flight pioneers became the superheroes of their time in popular culture. At the end of the 19th century, gliding pioneer Otto Lilienthal became a cultural hero, through his many flight photographs flying gliders, which appeared in the print press. The airship, invented by Count Zeppelin at the time, became one of the most well-known icons in popular culture, and contributed greatly to the development of aerial photography.

Aviation and cinema grew together during the twentieth century, from infancy, through rapid growth, to maturity. While Hollywood studio actors and executives learned the art of filmmaking, the aircraft industry and pilots learned how to conquer the sky. In peace and war, prosperity and depression, aviation and cinema became big part of the popular culture. The relationship was symbiotic. While aviation movies helped sell box office tickets, the movies helped promote aviation. Movie fans and aviation enthusiasts have found a common ground in a fascinating cinematic genre. The films told the story of the flight, from the first piston engines planes, through the jets, to the spacecraft.

The ''golden age of aviation'' and the ''golden age of cinema'' are two identical nicknames, created separately, for the same period, between the two world wars in the twentieth century. Cinema has strengthened the image of aviation, and filmmakers have mobilized public opinion in favor of aviation. Aviation and cinema developed at the same rate and dramatically, and both quickly established themselves as the most exciting and popular form of leisure and activity, while becoming an incredibly effective channel for disseminating ideas, attitudes and qualities that society deserves to preserve.

Aviation and cinema were developed in close contact, technically, personally and publicly, by people of similar character. One result of this exciting connection was the many fatal plane crashes during filming of stunts pilots. The human connection contributed greatly to the design of the character of the "Knight Fighter Pilot" in cinema. In this way, of personal interpretation, the essay also contributed to shaping public opinion about significant events, and in particular about World War I, which was commemorated from the point of view of former fighter pilots who moved into the film industry.

The first feature film, "Flight to the Moon" (1902), was an aviation fiction, and its protagonists can be defined as imaginary "superheroes''. The first flight of the Wright Brothers plane took place one year later, in 1903, and the brothers became cultural heroes. Cinematic news diaries contributed to this. Through them the aviation pioneers recieved the aura of superheroes, after performing epic flights. This was also widely expressed in feature cinema, which was developed rapidly after the First World War. The first Oscar-winning film for Best Picture was the silent aviation film "Wings" (1927), with its dramatic musical soundtrack.

The cultural, personal, national and international identity has been greatly strengthened, through the combined development of aviation and cinema, in the United States, Britain, Germany and in fact all the modern countries in the world. The article "Fast Couples: Technology, Gender and Modernity in Britain and Germany During the 1930s" reviews this phenomenon. Cinema films and diaries between the two world wars were very popular. The connection between the aerial spectacle and the cinematic spectacle excited the masses and led to the creation of the celebrity phenomenon, led by Charles Lindbergh, who ignited the imagination of the masses in his time. He was crowned "All-American Hero", a pioneer and groundbreaker. Despite his desire to present the flight as a technical achievement, created by many factors, the crowd celebrated the combination of the individual and the machine, without paying attention to the conflict that might arise between them.

The ''Star Wars'' series and the character of the pilot as a superhero

Aviation was identified from its earliest days with spiritual flight and similarly became an archetypal symbol of human spirit and freedom. At the same time, due to its military and practical importance, it is at the center of national interest and action. It has become a top-notch public attention center. That is why there is a close connection between it and cinema.

Between the two world wars of the twentieth century, the golden age of aviation coincided with the golden age of cinema. Cinema has evolved just as rapidly and dramatically as flight. Both soon established themselves as the most exciting and popular form of leisure and activity and in the process became an incredibly effective channel for disseminating ideas.

The focal point of the film viewer's identification is not the plot or the actors, but the point of view of the camera and its movement. When this movement is combined with aviation scenes, the dichotomy that separates in consciousness between the pre-stage and the symbolic stage in the process of identification can be overcome. Gravity is eliminated in the imagination and the viewer is allowed to recreate the pleasure of forming the initial identity.

The social agenda, which has been the focus of attention in fascist regimes, is clarified through the narrative of aviation heroes combined with the vision of the supreme man that fascism has tried to realize through an anthropological revolution. The protagonists were models and prototypes, whom the citizens were required to use in order to shape their lives.

Aviation films in Germany immortalized, for propaganda purposes, the figure of the pilot as a national hero even during the First World War. During the Weimar Republic, the genre of "mountain films" was common. It was exclusive to Germany and in them the alpine climbing activity was presented as a forging, with the character of a cult, which over the years became more symbolic and nationalistic. In the later films of the series, the fascist context is created through the combination of the famous stunt pilot Ernest Udet as a daring pilot rescuing trapped climbers in the snow. Fghter pilot Karl Ritter, of Udet's generation, became a senior filmmaker in Nazi Germany, specializing in making feature-length feature films that showcased the photogenicity of the aircraft, the heroism of the popular pilot and the social complex of aviation.

Hans Bertram was also a fighter pilot and filmmaker in the Nazi regime, following his predecessors, especially during World War II. Before becoming a Nazi, Bertram made a journey, which became a best-selling book he wrote. The journey took place after his plane, trying to circumnavigate the globe, accidentally landed in a remote part of northern Australia and its survival story made headlines in the world press. The campaign took place during the year the Nazis came to power and Hitler turned Germany into a dictatorship, with Hermann Goering as his deputy.

In Nazi Germany, the character of the pilot in cinema was fixed in the national context. In the United States, the pilot aura developed as an individual hero, in the spirit of the Western man. One of the manifestations of the youth protests in the United States in the 1960s was independent cinema, which was created outside the framework of Hollywood studios, which at the time were producing content-poor commercial films. A new generation of creators aspired to create films that would express their world. Their skills brought them to the studios. Young artists, including George Lucas, were given relative freedom of action to create their original works, which became popular and profitable.

George Lucas was greatly inspired by the air battles films of World War II. For years he watched these films and collected the air battles in them. After his first successes in Hollywood he turned to fulfilling his dream and creating an aviation fiction film based on these excerpts. The film became the ''Star Wars'' film series, which is the most successful in the history of cinema and has a great influence on popular culture. An analysis of the ''Star Wars'' films shows that they are aviation films, both in terms of the multiplicity of aviation scenes and in terms of their importance to the plot.

There are three main factors, in addition to the aviation component, that contributed to the initial success of the "Star Wars" series:

A. The structure of the narrative. George Lucas and his co-creators of the series have been influenced by many sources of inspiration. Prominent among them was Joseph Campbell and his book on the theory of monomyth - the unity of myths in different cultures.

B. The order of magnitude of the epic. Today we are inundated with similar, high-budget science fiction films and blockbusters. At the time of the production of the first trilogy in the "Star Wars" series, no similar productions had yet been made.

third. "Star Wars" was a product of its time, in the mid-1970s, and it resonated with the spirit of the time. It touched on the anxieties and tensions of the public consciousness at that time and in particular on the issues of the Cold War and the Vietnam War.

The ''Star Wars'' series is based on the pattern of superheroes in mythology stories. Adventure heroes have over the generations provided frameworks for coping and embracing change, reinforced by the concepts of heroism. As reality became more complex, the need for mythical archetypes became more important. In the development process, the popular American protagonist went from the traditional Western protagonist to the cheap press adventurer, to the superhero of comic books and to the cinematic superhero.

As part of this film series, nine sequels have been released, which constitute the canon of the series as a film epic. The first film in the series, "New Hope", was released in 1977. The last film, "The Rise of Skywalker", was released in late 2019. The series gained unprecedented popularity. The importance of the series was so great at the time that the National Museum of Aviation and Space in Washington dedicated a special exhibition to it, which presented the mythical message of Luke Skywalker's "Hero's Journey."

Lucas has set up a special company, ILM (Industrial Light and Magic), to deal with the issue of special visual effects. Following the success of "New Hope", ILM became one of the most successful companies in the industry. All the films of the ''Star Wars'' saga were filmed in it and in addition the special visual effects of many other successful film series were filmed in it.

In the transition from one generation to the next, there were many children who inherited the series from their parents and for them the episodes trilogy 1,2,3 was also created. But the younger generation could have also opted for films that mimicked the series, with more precise adjustments for them. The most important of these films were "Lord of the Rings", "Spider-Man", "Batman" and "The Avengers" series.

Because in the twentieth century the character of the superhero was identified with the pioneers of flying in airplanes and spaceships, a very important secondary superhero in the ''Star Wars'' series is Han Solo, the pilot who is a loyal friend of Luke Skywalker the main superhero. The pilot character was played in the series by superstar Harrison Ford.

The importance of Solo's character is great, as aviation is related in the series to the superhero skills as the best pilot and also because Ben Solo, Han's rebellious son, is the main character in the series starting with episode 7. Ben is Ray's partner, the Jedi knight who makes a female "hero journey" in the last trilogy and she brings back Ben to the good side.

In the few aviation films created in the State of Israel, the pilot icon gradually became subject to criticism. The State of Israel depends on aviation for its internaional transporation and on the Air Force for deterrence and defense from enemy threats. As a result, the "best air force in the world" saga developed in it. The Israeli Air Force gradually intensified until the Six Day War in 1967. During this war, the Israeli Air Force defeated the air forces of the Arab armies within hours and was a key factor in the victory. The myth of the fighter pilot as a superhero reached its peak after the war, thanks in part to documentaries and feature films about the war, which were integrated into the atmosphere of victory.

In 1973, during the Yom Kippur War, the Air Force managed to maintain a clean sky and air superiority, but its pilots also became a "sacrificing savior" and the erosion of their image as superheroes was great. The rehabilitation of the pilot image was done following a few lone operations such as the attack on the atomic reactor in Iraq, which were well documented in the media. Despite this, the Israeli pilot icon continued to gradually erode, as the army is no longer a top value in Israeli society and is allowed to be criticized.

Compared to the extensive place that aviation has in society and the media in Israel, there have been few feature films on the subject over the years. The first perpetuate the fighter pilot myth as a local superhero and the last criticize it. In the middle stands out the film "Every Bastard is a King", which is unique in that it de-constructs the character of the pilot as a national hero and turns him into a personal character.

Nowadays unmanned aerial vehicles take up space very quickly and the sky become as dense as the ground. Moreover, the UAVs made the ground war unnecessary in the eyes of many. Therefore, the great importance of the myth of aviation and of the character of the pilot as a superhero in popular culture, remains. This is an essential part of the dialogue between man and technology, which become more complicated as automation takes over our lives.

The ability to present, in this dialogue, human figures with stages of human development according to a psychological-mythological formula, is unique to the "Star Wars" series. The Disney company, which owns the franchise for the series, is thus fortifying its position as the leading creator in the world of aviation films and of the pilot figure in popular culture.

Drone - Official Trailer