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13 out of 15 people found the following review useful:
Enjoyable time capsule., 20 March 2007

Author: phillindholm

"Skyjacked," one of many "air disaster" films from "The High and the Mighty" to "Airport", is one of the best in the genre. Featuring a star-studded cast headed by Charlton Heston (as the pilot, of course) and Yvette Mimieux (head stewardess), it's a fast-paced, efficient study in suspense. Basically a story involving the attempted hijacking of a commercial airplane, it focuses on a small group of first class passengers who provide both the drama and occasional (intended) humor. Among them are a middle-aged couple (Ross Elliot and Jeanne Crain) worried about yet another job transfer, a senator and his son (Walter Pidgeon and Nicholas Hammond) a "hippie girl" (Susan Dey, on leave from "The Partridge Family" in her screen debut), a jazz musician (former football great Rosey Grier) and of course, a pregnant woman (Mariette Hartley), who is due any minute (apparently, the nun missed this flight). Also aboard is a young sergeant (James Brolin, who fit this in between seasons of "Marcus Welby MD). Last, but not least is Leslie Uggams making her film debut, as an assistant stewardess.

Despite the occasionally unintentionally funny dialogue and predictable situations which, let's face it, go with the territory, the film has enough action and melodrama to be consistently entertaining. The cast give it their all. Far more interesting than the love triangle between Heston, Mimeux and co-pilot Mike Henry (which is established in a few ludicrous, but mercifully short flashbacks) are the performances of those who play the passengers. Crain, as lovely as ever, (in her first film in five years) gets to assist in the delivery of Hartley's baby, as well as a chance to attack the villain. Pidgeon doesn't have to say much to give his character authority, Hartley is charming, and Susan Dey is both natural and appealing. As for Grier, he displays a genial screen presence while Brolin even evokes a bit of viewer sympathy.

"Skyjacked" was a big hit when it was first released and got a big audience rating when it was shown on television as "Sky Terror". The photography is excellent, the music by Perry Botkin, Jr. ("Nadia's Theme") is unobtrusively effective, and the main theme is beautiful. Although "Airport 1975" was waiting in the wings, so to speak, "Skyjacked" holds it's own. It will be released this June on DVD in it's original panavision aspect ratio. I for one, can't wait!

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7 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
Exciting and amusing but full clichés and stereotypes with a strong performance by Heston, 17 June 2007

Author: ma-cortes from Santander Spain

The movie is another jetliner epic with tough hero Charlton Heston . A commercial airline , Boeing 707 , is hijacked . Commandant Charlton Heston along with crew and flight attendant ( Ivette Mimieux ) taking on a dangerous bomber . The film is detailing hectic flighty hijacked by a dangerous terrorist and passengers' relationship . All clichéd and stock characters with regurgitation of all usual stereotypical situations from disaster films as the musician , the pregnant girl ( Mariette Hartley ), a nervous, crazed vet Vietnam ( James Brolin ), the senator ( Walter Pidgeon ) and his son( Nicholas Hammond ). Taking place on fateful storm and freeze skies and the airplane heading to Russia . If you've seen the original ¨ Airport ¨( George Seaton ) 'the daddy of them all , you've seen them all , in fact , the terrorist character is likeness to Airport's Van Heflin.

The picture contains thriller , suspense , drama , moderated tension and is quite entertaining although with some flaws and gaps . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of a strong acting by Charlton Heston , bringing conviction to character , he also starred a similar role at ¨ Airport 1975 ¨ ( Jack Smight ) . Look quickly to Claude Akins, John Hillerman, Jeanne Crain , among others , though doesn't appear the classic character Patroni(George Kennedy ). The motion picture is professionally directed by John Guillermin, habitual of disaster films ( Towering inferno, King Kong, Kong lives ) and airplane movies ( Blue Max ) .The film is classified ¨ parents guide¨ for a certain violence . It's an inoffensive diversion but is sometimes tediously unspooled . The film will appeal to Charlton Heston fans and disaster genre enthusiastic.

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8 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
Well worth watching, 16 October 1998

Author: LUVJET from Chicago

I first saw this film when it was released at the theatre in 1972, (I was 12yrs old), under the title "Sky Terror". Being an aviation buff, I was in my glory- This film had everything! Some of the best shots of a Boeing 707 in flight, (Most flight scenes today are computer generated and are extremely phony) and Yvette Mimieux, who has never looked more glamourous, as the first Stewardess. What more could an airline buff want. Charlton Heston reprises "Moses" in the cabin, as only he could. James Brolin is the resident bomb-carrying, psycopathic war vet, who's released on a 4F and wants to hijack everyone to Russia so he can be decorated. Mariette Hartley, is a believable "expectant-mother", who boards the flight as she's about to give birth. (How'd she slip past the gate agent?) Then there's Susan Dey, who was suspect immediately, as a Hippie traveling first class! There's a fairly good story here with the usual soap opera flair. (Mimieux's character has had an affair with the Captain and currently dating the 1st Officer). Geat interior and exterior scenes combined with above average acting and good dialogue, makes this all-star film, worth watching.

I give it a: * * 1/2 rating, they lose half a star for being an almost direct rip-off of "Airport".

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8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
A lot better than you might think, 29 August 2003
Author: Gordy Wright from Lisburn, Northern Ireland

I was really surprised by this film, one, I had never actually seen it, and two, it was well worth seeing.

I did, however, find it very frustrating. Not through the plot or the acting or anything like that, but it was full of actors and actresses, whose faces were familiar to me, I spent about half the film wondering who had been in what, I couldnt wait to get on here and find out.

Charlton Heston was his always accomplished self, no more and no less, and he is always very good. James Brolin played a military section 8 well indeed, or at least I assume that is a way in which a section 8 would be, not like Klinger in M*A*S*H!

All together a very good film, well worth watching, and in truth probably suffered unfairly against the films of the day, The Godfather and The French Connection to name but two.

Not necessarily one for the collection, but worth seeing all the same.

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4 out of 6 people found the following review useful:
Decent., 12 July 2002

Author: gridoon

This old-fashioned disaster film is not bad, despite a few slips into soapy silliness (the flashbacks). Charlton Heston is commanding as always (when he says "Nobody dies on my airplane!", you believe it), and there is even a little Agatha Christie-type mystery in the beginning, concerning the identity of the mad hijacker. (**1/2)

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1 out of 1 people found the following review useful:
SKYJACKED (John Guillermin, 1972) **1/2, 23 April 2008

Author: MARIO GAUCI (marrod@melita.com) from Naxxar, Malta

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Considering the popularity of the disaster-movie heyday of the 1970s, it’s surprising that I took so long to catch this one; perhaps I thought that, having already watched AIRPORT 1975 (1974), made it somewhat redundant. Truth be told, I taped it twice off TV (both local and Cable, though always in pan-and-scan) – but only managed to get to it via Warners’ bare-bones DVD (released as part of a batch of “Cult Camp Classics”, which also included the similarly airborne flick ZERO HOUR! [1957]). This was also Charlton Heston’s introduction to the genre – he would follow it with EARTHQUAKE (1974), the aforementioned AIRPORT 1975, TWO-MINUTE WARNING (1976) and GRAY LADY DOWN (1978): all of these apart from the first one, I was only familiar with via a childhood viewing on Italian TV but, since I own the lot on DVD-R, I now opted to include the last three in my ongoing Heston tribute.

Anyway, the film itself isn’t too bad as these things go (in the AIRPORT [1970] mold yet anticipating, in fact emerging as slightly superior to, any of the sequels) – but, having watched it, I can’t say that the epithet of “Camp” was too far off in its case! This has to do as much with the dated feel of it all (the look, the soundtrack, the politics) as the contrived melodramatics of the plot (married pilot Heston has had a fling with stewardess Yvette Mimieux – his kid sister from DIAMOND HEAD [1963]! – whose new beau is, of all people, the co-pilot…and, amid this soap opera stuff, he has to contend with an unbalanced soldier – an eye-rolling showcase for James Brolin – who threatens the plane with a bomb because he wants to defect to Russia!). The brief flashes to the corny Heston/Mimieux romance and Brolin’s back-story (whose deranged state-of-mind eventually transforms into a fantasy sequence depicting his reception by the Soviets!) add to the fun factor.

The solid MGM production managed a fair name cast (a given for this type of film, going back to the grand-daddy of them all – THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY [1954]): also appearing in the film are Claude Akins (in a one-scene role as a George Kennedy/Joe Patroni wannabe, guiding the plane-in-peril towards a safe landing in Alaska), Walter Pidgeon (as an elderly Senator whose destination, a fishing trip with his teenage son, is diverted by a direct call from the U.S. President!), Jeanne Crain (as a passenger whose shaky relationship with her husband is saved when he uncharacteristically decides to turn heroic and confronts Brolin) and Roosevelt “Rosey” Grier (as a cello-playing jazz musician who, sitting next to Brolin, is first alerted to his disturbed personality – ironically, it was Heston’s personal intervention that won Brolin a seat on the plane in the first place!).

Of course, it all ends badly for Brolin – as he finds the Russians aren’t as willing to obtain his services as he had anticipated; just as predictably, Heston – who has to take a lot of crap, and a good trashing, from Brolin during the flight – stays behind to fight for his plane…which he does almost at the cost of his own life. For the record, director Guillermin would go on to co-direct what turned out to be perhaps the definitive disaster epic of the age – THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974); incidentally, I’ve just acquired one of the two novels on which that film was based and, besides, I need to pick up its 2-Disc “Special Edition” re-issue – as well as the equivalent one for another touchstone of the genre, THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) – which I’ve been postponing long enough already...

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3 out of 5 people found the following review useful:
Gripping!, 12 September 2002

Author: (roman11@aol.com) from Palo Alto, CA

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

More than just "another airliner in trouble" film. James Brolin's character of Weber the psychopathic sky jacker is truly memorable.The film holds from the onset right to the very end when they land in the Soviet Union. Heston,Yvette and all are highly convincing. A true "Gripper."

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Heston takes wing in minor disaster flick, 4 September 2011

Author: Pipesofpeace from Phoenix, AZ

Had this been made by Universal Studios instead of MGM, they might well have called it AIRPORT '72, so closely does it follow the template of that popular disaster movie series; it even casts Charlton Heston as a pilot two years prior to his playing a similar role in AIRPORT 1975. The film introduces us to the personal lives of several passengers, including a U.S. Senator (Walter Pidgeon), a jazz cellist (football legend Roosevelt Grier), a smart-mouthed teenage girl (Susan Dey from The Partridge Family), and a very pregnant lady (Mariette Hartley, who used to do those cute Polaroid commercials with James Garner)who probably shouldn't be flying to begin with at this late stage. There's also an unusually twitchy Vietnam vet on board (hammily played by James Brolin) which should remove all doubt as to who is leaving scary notes on the bathroom mirror and threatening to blow up the plane if his demand to be flown to Moscow isn't met. Yvette Mimieux and Leslie Uggams appear as two of the best-looking flight attendants in aviation history (they were called stewardesses back then, but then again that was a time when you could also smoke openly on a commercial airplane.) TV's Claude Akins shows up in the control tower, essentially playing George Kennedy. This sounds pretty ridiculous, and in some ways it is, but director John Guillermin (The Blue Max, The Towering Inferno) keeps up a brisk pace and makes this quite watchable, for what it is.

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Jet Screams In The Jet Stream, 9 June 2011

Author: ferbs54 from United States

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

A tough day on the job for Global Air pilot Hank O'Hara: First, he learns that his ex-mistress will be playing head stewardess on his Flight 502 to Minneapolis. Then, en route, he discovers a lipstick-scrawled warning that there is a bomber on board and that he must divert to Anchorage, Alaska. And later, after making a landing there during a zero-visibility thunderstorm, he is compelled to continue the mad bomber's odyssey by flying into the restricted airspace of Mother Russia! Anyway, that is the setup of 1972's "Skyjacked," an entertaining affair released during the early '70s craze for airport/disaster flicks. A handsome-looking picture with a roster of great actors playing essentially one-dimensional, underdeveloped types, it nevertheless moves along nicely and is more than competently directed by John Guillermin.

Now, as to the identity of that mad bomber, which isn't revealed until the film's midpoint, we have the following list of first-class suspects: There's the increasingly rabid and pie-eyed Vietnam vet, played by James Brolin; a jazz cellist, played by former L.A. Rams defensive lineman Rosey (here, "Roosevelt") Grier; an older couple relocating to Minneapolis (Ross Elliott and, in her final screen role, the still-beautiful Jeanne Crain, who sadly doesn't get more than six lines of dialogue in the entire film!); a pretty young girl (Susan Dey, in her first film, herself flying high on the success of her wildly popular TV program "The Partridge Family"); a U.S. senator (Walter Pidgeon) on a mysterious mission for the president; and the seemingly inevitable woman going into labor while in flight (Mariette Hartley, whose delivery strikes the viewer as the easiest one ever filmed; I swear that I've had more difficult bowel movements!). Rounding out this cast, by the way, are Yvette Mimieux as the head stewardess (that WAS the correct term back then!), Leslie Uggams as another stewardess (her "Screw you!" may be the picture's single best line), Claude Akins and John Fiedler as air traffic controllers, and, oh, as Capt. O'Hara, Charlton Heston, an old hand at bringing his people safely to the promised land. All are just fine, especially Chuck and Brolin, whose characters are the only ones here with anything resembling depth.

As might be expected, "Skyjacked" begins with a light tone but eventually turns surprisingly grim, especially when the Boeing 707 enters Soviet airspace. To the film's credit, the Russians here are shown in a very positive light, and the sight of one of their fighter jets waggling its wings in farewell before it zooms off may be the picture's most touching moment. Modern-day viewers may marvel at the ease with which our whackadoodle bomber brings guns and hand grenades aboard an airplane, not to mention the in-flight smoking (even by the captain!) and the ordering of a Bloody Mary by a very pregnant woman, but let's remember, after all, that these WERE the good ol' days of 1972. In all, "Skyjacked" is nothing demanding and nothing artful, but it sure is fun. I originally watched this film on a brain-dead Friday night after a long, hard week of work, and found that it fit the bill perfectly....

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Under-rated airline movie, 28 May 2011

Author: pwalkerfm from United States

I just revisited this after not seeing it since I was 12 in a theater. I must say, this movie holds up quite well. Yes, it is dated in places, but a 40-year old film naturally will be. Good suspense, a little soap opera fluff here and there, but never gets in the way of the story. Much more serious in overall tone than "Airport" from just a couple years earlier. Brolin is excellent as the crazed ex-soldier, and Heston is very good, in probably one of his last good roles. I would recommend this for both disaster-movie buffs, and aviation buffs, as it delivers for both. Also, gotta love Partridge Susan Dey in probably her first motion picture after her TV success.

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