The Flight of the Phoenix

"The Flight of the Phoenix" is Robert Aldrich's classic survival story about a group of men who crash land a plane in the desert and must find a way out or die. James Stewart is the pilot and de facto leader of the group; they look to him initially as the most experienced and authoritative. But he eventually butts heads with a young German (Hardy Kruger) who claims to be a designer of airplanes and decides that the only way to survive is to construct a new plane from the undamaged parts of the old one and fly to safety. In Aldrich's hands, this plot becomes a study in generational conflict, with a younger, fresher attitude about things proving to be more valuable than the traditional. The film itself is very traditional in many respects, but it's this attitude about the younger generation that exposes its roots in the counter culture that was only just beginning to make its presence felt in the films of the time. If it had been made a decade earlier, Stewart would have been our hero, no questions asked, just because he was Jimmy Stewart. In the film as it plays out, Stewart's stubborn adherence to an old way of doing things would have resulted in everyone dying if they had followed his advice.

Out of a terrific ensemble of male actors, Ian Bannen was inexplicably singled out with an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. He's by no means bad, but if I was going to single out anyone, it would certainly be either Kruger or Richard Attenborough as Stewart's long-time friend and confidante.

The film also received an Oscar nomination for Michael Luciano's editing. Luciano was a frequent Aldrich collaborator and received nominations for three other Aldrich films: "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte," "The Dirty Dozen" and "The Longest Yard."

This is a fun, exciting movie.

Grade: A

Returning from an oil field with a plane full of crew etc going on leave, Frank Towns' plane enters a sandstorm over the Sahara desert and crashes. As various attempts at rescue or escape fail one passenger, Dorfmann suggests his plan to rebuild the plane as a smaller version and attempt to fly out, leaving the bulk of the damage craft behind. However tensions mount as personalities conflict as all the men face death.

I had only ever heard of this film before I finally got round to watching it last night on television. I was aware of the basic plot and had assumed it was more recent that it actually was. I watched it assuming that it was made in the early seventies when the disaster movie genre was just starting to take off (sorry – accidental pun). However this was made prior to this and is probably a much better film for it – in the seventies the film would have required more spectacle, so the crash would have been much more dramatic and horrifying. As it is now, the film is more about the men under stress than it is about anything else.

This is brought out well and the majority of the drama and tension within the film is as much from these conflicts as it is from the pressure to escape the desert. The film is longer than I expected it to be but it pretty much sustains itself for that length. The main reason for the film working so well is the cast, which has it's fair share of famous faces but also has more than it's fair share of good performances.

Stewart is really strong in the lead (although, in fairness, there is no one main character) and becomes increasingly grizzled as the film goes on. His character is not without flaws even if he does come out of this well. Attenborough is also good but is less evident in the film than some of the others. Krüger has the least pleasant of the roles given that he plays a tough German. He manages to make the character likeable while still going about his task with a strict organised German air to him. Finch is good and is well supported by Fraser. The support cast includes strong performances from Borgnine, Bannen, Kennedy, Marquand and the director's own son is thrown in for colour!

Overall this is much better than the disaster-type movie I had expected as it is a film where the plane crash isn't a blaze of spectacle and the death scenes aren't played out for full effect. Instead it is a tension adventure story that is driven by some great performances by a cast full of well known actors.

Where as many films with star casts have failed, this one does not.

This film oozes quality by the bucket load. It centres round the story of the survivors of a plane crash who attempt to build a plane out of the wreckage. The tension is apparent from the start with the heat of the desert alone almost driving the characters to madness.

The combination of brilliant script and excellent acting brings to the fore a brilliant film. Ian Bannen, in particular, gives gives both grit and relish in his possibily his greatest screen performance.

THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX is a classic tale of derring-do and adventure, a sort of DIRTY DOZEN style movie in which a group of stranded survivors find themselves trapped in a hostile desert and must use their wits in order to survive. It's a tale of bravery, heroism and cowardice in equal measure, as each man must come to terms with what he can do in order to survive, and it's a perfect lesson of how working as a group can always outdo individual effort.

The film is well-shot by Robert Aldrich, who brings the sandy locales to life, even if the studio-shot bits are fairly obvious in comparison to the genuine location shooting. The cast is full of solid, tough guy talent: Ernest Borgnine, Ian Bannen, Ronald Fraser, Peter Finch, George Kennedy and Richard Attenborough are fine, but it's Jimmy Stewart who headlines and holds things together as the old hand. Hardy Kruger bags the most interesting role as the engineer, and how many films about engineering are this gripping? I can't think of any others if I'm honest.

A word of warning: avoid the horrid remake, which just slavishly copies the plot of this film but does everything wrong. I think the most annoying thing about it was the casting director's choice to put the inferior Dennis Quaid into the Jimmy Stewart role. I mean, what were they thinking?

Edwin Aldrin the second man to walk on the moon was asked once if he was in his spacecraft and his engine quit running and he was going to die in an hour how would he spend that last hour? He replied `I'd work on the engine.' This film essentially is about that same type situation. A cargo plane with passengers aboard goes down in the Arabian Desert and the survivors quickly come to the realization that they eventually will be found but probably by that time they will be dead. One of the passengers says he can build a flyable plane out the existing wreckage and they can save themselves. However he's never taken on a project quite this large before.

There are a number of little subplots with the characters to include a hard-nosed pilot, his booze guzzling co-pilot, a British Army sergeant who has a dislike for officers, A by the book British Army officer, A doctor, A mental patient, A cynical oil field worker, an accountant, and so forth. It's somewhat of an all star cast so it helps the picture. Although a little long the film is intriguing. The only damper on this movie is that Paul Mantz a superb pilot was killed in the making of it.