Customer Reviews

Flight of the Phoenix [VHS]

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

It seems so long since I've reviewed what I consider to be a 5 star film...maybe too long, so I decided to review one of my favorites in The Flight of the Phoenix (1965), a tense and wonderfully entertaining, character driven film about a small, yet diverse, group of men struggling to not only overcome the adversity of a harsh and deadly environment, but also having to come to terms with each other, the strengths and flaws inherent within themselves, to complete a nearly impossible task, one that will determine their very survival.

Based on a popular novel by Elleston Trevor, the film is incredibly well directed by Robert Aldrich (whom I'm a big fan of), who also did Hush... Hush, Sweet Charlotte (1965), The Dirty Dozen (1967), and The Longest Yard (1974), to name a few. The film boasts an impressive cast, including James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, and Peter `I'm as mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore!' Finch. Also appearing are Ernest Borgnine, Hardy Krüger, George Kennedy, and Ian Bannen.

As the film begins, we see a small group of men, some military men, but mostly crewmembers who work on an oil field located somewhere in the Sahara Desert, preparing to leave by plane, one piloted by Captain Frank Towns (Stewart), a world weary airman who's found himself in the position of shuttling men and equipment between outposts in rickety contraptions that resemble airplanes, along with his navigator (who has a penchant for the booze), Lew Morgan (Attenborough). The flight begins well enough, but soon a sandstorm disables the engines, and the plane is forced to crash land in the desert, miles away from any type of civilization, including that precious commodity many of us take for granted being water. After a few days, and hopes of a rescue dwindle away, a German engineer named Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Krüger), returning from visiting his brother at the oil field, proposes a completely fantastic and equally outlandish plan of building another plane from the wreckage of the first. The idea is not well received, especially by Captain Towns, due to its' seeming absurdity, but soon it becomes obvious that this one in a thousand chance is the only one they have, as the alternative is to do nothing and allow the desert to consume them slowly, as they suffer from heat and water deprivation. Now it's a race to complete the insurmountable task of constructing a workable aircraft before their limited water reserves run dry, fighting not only the elements within the desert, the burning heat during the day, the freezing cold at night, murderous nomadic tribes, and the ever present sand (don't you hate it when sand gets in your clothes? I do...), but they must also face their own weaknesses, those now magnified as the ever present threat of death looms so very close.

While this film is listed as an action/adventure/drama, the main element that holds it together is the character driven aspects of the plot featuring those played by Stewart, Attenborough, and Krüger. Stewart's character seems locked in a tense battle of wills against Krüger's, as the realistic captain, concerned with the welfare of his charges, feeling the weight of responsibility, fights for control against Dorfmann, the pragmatic, analytical, and logical engineer with Attenborough's character squarely in the middle, trying maintain the peace and keep hope, along with themselves, alive. The rest of the cast does am extremely fine job in their supporting roles, and I especially enjoyed that of Ian Bannen, as the jovial pessimist, who could nearly always be counted on to provide a bit of harsh levity no matter the situation. The one thing I really enjoyed within this film, and reminded me a little of the Humphrey Bogart film The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1946) in that as the story progresses, we see the characters stripped of all the superficial aspects they possess, as their true natures are revealed, for better of worse. Aldrich's direction is impeccable, giving the right amount of attention to all the various aspects of the story, and just generally really putting the viewer within the story, feeling not only the disparity of the situation as the characters do, but the hope and faith the men manage to maintain, qualities I believe to be brought forth from our own instincts of survival and self preservation. One thing I noticed is that the film has no qualms about killing off various characters, regardless of the actor's prestige. So often I've seen films populated with seemingly pointless characters, only to watch them predictably perish, but that's not the case here. There are a number of deaths, and not all of them anticipated. Not only that, but also a few characters who normally would have been marked for death in other, more traditional stories, made it through to the end. The film runs nearly 2 ½ hours, and some would consider that too long, but I really didn't notice as the time was used well developing the characters and creating a sense of empathy for their plight, and ultimately a genuine concern for their well being and a desire to see them succeed in their impossible task.

Presented here is a beautiful widescreen anamorphic picture, with the choice of either Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo, Dolby Digital 1.0 audio tracks, both of which sound clear and crisp. There's little in the way of special features, as all that's included are three versions of theatrical trailers for the film, one in English, another in Spanish, and a third in Portuguese. I've noticed there's a remake scheduled for release later this year, starring Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Hugh Laurie, and someone named Sticky Fingaz (I'm serious...that's his name...I later found out he was a member of the hip hop group Oynx, and has since appeared in quite a few films). All I can say is they've got their work cut out for them...

Cookieman108

I'm sure that many movie buffs will remember this fine, suspenseful thriller from the 60s. Jimmy Stewart is flying a cargo plane with an interesting assortment of male passengers across the Sahara desert, and he decides to battle through an oncoming sandstorm. The sandstorm wins ! The plane crash-lands in an ocean of sand--not without casualty--and our heroes are stranded, with limited supplies, under a brutal sun. The men waste several precious days on the assumption that help is on the way. They eventually realise that survival will depend on their own resilience and ingenuity.

Of course, we have one of the finest American actors in the lead, but Mr. Stewart is ably supported by a blue-chip international cast, including Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine and Ian Bannen. As the sun gets hotter and with no rescue party in sight, this unfortunate group displays all of the human qualities that arise in desperate situations--resentment, fear, arrogance, assignment of blame, madness, cowardice and courage.

Richard Attenborough is the sensible voice of reason and compromise, which makes the scene where he finally "loses it", even more compelling. Peter Finch is the typical British "stiff upper lip " officer--stubborn and brave-- though I doubt that this role was much of a challenge to such a talented actor. Ernest Borgnine gets to chew up a little scenery as a guy who is pretty unhinged even before the plane crash--that blazing sun doesn't do him any good at all ! Well--it's 1965 and you need someone to play a brainy, cold, arrogant German--Hardy Kruger, come on down ! The other actors are excellent--Ian Bannen, in particular, is effective as a guy who would get under your skin even at the North Pole !

As another reviwer has noted, the film is perhaps longer than it needs to be, although it does give the characters plenty of time to interact with one another, and display the psychological aspects of the plot. After a while, you--the viewer--will also start to feel that oppressive heat and sand, and the tension of being trapped in this hell-on-earth. I can't really comment on the feasibility of the plan that Hardy Kruger's character comes up with to save everyone--I'm not an aeronautical engineer ! It certainly gives the film an exciting climax though.

I found the DVD picture to be beautiful--the sound typical for an almost 40-year old film.

"Phoenix" gave Jimmy Stewart another great role, later in his career, and with the supporting cast--and a liberal amount of suspense--this nice DVD could appeal to a variety of viewing tastes. Recommended.

A fine film that ranks right up there with the best adventure classics ever made, "Flight..." is a gritty, realistically rendered tale of survival in the Sahara. With the famous California sand dune field ("Return of the Jedi" and many others have been shot there through the years) on the border near Yuma, Arizona convincingly substituting for a vast, nameless Saharan erg, "Flight.." portrays the various reactions of a mixed group of down-and-out oil camp workers as they struggle to survive against all odds.

The rebuilding of the wrecked C-82 Packet transport aircraft (forerunner of the more famous C-119 Flying Boxcar) is rendered in believable detail and is fascinating to watch. Hardy Kruger does a fine turn as the frustrated "engineer" who convinces the group to attempt to rebuild the aircraft while unconciously hiding a terrible secret that is not revealed until late in the movie. The rest of the cast is uniformly excellent. All are convincing characters with realistic motivations that make them very believable.

For trivia buffs (and as partly mentioned in previous posts), the "Phoenix" aircraft is initially shown as a real aircraft built from C-82 components, but a crash of this airplane during filming forced the producers to replace it with a slightly modified O-47, an extremely rare observation aircraft that is currently being restored at the Planes of Fame museum in Chino, CA. The change can be seen on-screen for those watching closely, but the two aircraft profiles are close enough to one another that the change is not jarring.

A fine film in every respect: realistic, suspenseful, well acted and directed, "Flight of the Phoenix" is commercial Hollywood craftsmanship at its best.

I was 11 yrs old when I began hearing about the grueling work which was the production of this, my absolute favorite adventure film. I will always remember that hollywoods greatest stunt pilot Paul Mantz was actually killed during the production of this film. It was a stroke of pure genius to cast James stewart as the cynical pilot,Frank Townes since stewart himself was an actual WWII veteran bomber pilot. I always believed this to be his finest performance because it was so far removed from stewart's usual good guy roles. The rest of the cast was equally brillant in their performances including the great Dan Dureya The story was both believeable in its concept and extraordinary in its solution. The ending can truly bring a grown man to tears or at least to his feet to give a clap and a cheer to the survivors of a horrible ordeal. I highly recommend this film to everyone of all genders,races and, ages who enjoy a well thought out and acted story with some of the finest detail in character study and development to come out of any motion picture. I heartilly give it 5 out of 5 stars and, Im a hard person to please.

This has got to be one of the first of the, so-called, "Group Jeopardy" films, that morphed into a seemingly endless cycle of "Disaster Movies" in the 70's and early 80's... but that is certainly NO criticism of this wonderful film! "Phoenix" boast's a superbly straightforward and claustrophobic plot line, and a clutch of excellent actors, some of whom give career best performances.

The film starts in an economical no-nonsense fashion; we see an "Aramco" cargo plane flying over the Sahara, which is soon forced off course by an unexpected sandstorm. The plane contains a motley collection of passengers, mostly oil workers, with a doctor, and two terribly British army types, a by-the-book, spit-and-polish officer, and his work-shy weasel of a Sergeant, thrown into the mix for good measure.

Also on the plane is Hardy Kruger, as the engineer "Heinrich Dorfmann." The personification of Teutonic efficiency and cold-hearted calculation, Dorfmann spends almost the entire film butting heads with Jimmy Stewart's pilot, "Frank Towns." Frank is proudly old school, and we see an example of this in an early scene as he bemoans the passing of the old days and ways to his co-pilot "Lew Moran," "You took pride in just, GETTING there!" "Moran," is a washed-up alcoholic, played to absolute perfection by Richard Attenborough, who sports a stutter so natural and unforced that you hardly notice it at all!

Other notable characters are "`Ratbags' Crow," a cynical and abrasive Scot, played with delicious dark humor by the late, and greatly missed, Ian Bannen. Also on the flight, a fastidious Aramco accountant, "Standish," played by Dan Duryea, and a rig foreman "`Trucker' Cobb," superbly played by Ernest Borgnine, who's being sent home after suffering some kind of mental breakdown.

The plane is soon caught in the grip of the storm, loses both engines in rapid succession, and crash lands in the inhospitable environment of the Sahara, more than, as far as they can tell, 100 miles off the expected flight path. The aircraft is totaled in the crash, two passengers are killed outright, and one is severely injured, something Towns takes full responsibility for, writing in his log the cause of the crash being, "Pilot Error."

Once the dead have been buried, and the injured man made comfortable, although there's no real hope for him, they take stock of their situation. "Captain Harris," played with a rather splendid stiff upper lip by Peter Finch, informs them that water is in very short supply, they have about 1 pint per man for 10 or so days, but they do have an almost limitless supply of pressed dates, so they won't starve to death! Towns reassures them all that help will be with them shortly, although you can see that he doesn't believe it himself, they're too far off their original course.

Captain Harris decides that he and his Sergeant will march out of the desert to find help, explaining that they won't get lost, nor march in circles, the way "civilians" would, because British soldiers are trained to march with, "absolute precision!" "Sergeant Watson," once he hears that he's been volunteered, feigns a leg injury; you can tell he's not one for heroics. This is a great performance by Ronald Fraser, he makes his character completely unsympathetic, a work-shy whiner, always complaining about his superior, and his life in the army, for which he blames his own father.

With Harris and another volunteer gone, the remainder hunker down to await help, either in the shape of a search plane, as they're now seriously overdue, or from Captain Harris leading a party back to them. It's here that the central struggle of the film, between Towns, the grizzled veteran, and Dorfmann, the brash and arrogant engineering whizkid, develops. You see, Dorfmann is not only an engineer, as previously stated, he's an AIRCRAFT engineer, and has been working feverishly to create the plans to build a new aircraft - the "Phoenix," as named by Standish - from the wreckage of the old, that will allow them to fly out to safety. Towns thinks the whole thing is insane, but he also knows that there's no chance at all that a search party will find them, and very little chance that Harris will succeed.

Towns and Dorfmann can barely stand to be in each others presence, so Moran becomes the go-between, doing his best to smooth things out between them. A classic leadership struggle develops between the two men, with the rest of the survivors caught in the middle. But Dorfmann has a secret regarding his background, or to be more precise, something that he simply doesn't see as a problem as far as the success of the "project" is concerned. When this secret is revealed, in a beautifully played out scene between Stewart, Attenborough, and Kruger, it leads to one of the most extraordinary performances of Richard Attenboroughs career, as he finally breaks down and laughs hysterically at the insanity of the situation they now find themselves in.

This is a wonderful film, and at 149 minutes, it takes its time to develop the characters and the situation they find themselves in; I'm afraid to say that they really, "don't make `em like that any more!" Each actor gives his all, but especially Stewart, Attenborough, and Kruger, give finely honed character studies under the lean and spare direction of Robert Aldrich. This is an unusual and riveting film, and deserves a place in any serious film lover's collection.

This version was made from a full screen version where the left and right sides were sliced off. Then the tops and bottoms were sliced off so the image would fit a modern 16:9 monitor. What you see is a small rectangle cut out of the center of the original movie.

The first clue was that the familiar 20th Century Fox logo was cut off on all four sides. When the actors came on screen, it looked like every shot was a closeup. Lots of giant faces, like how they used to shoot TV shows. The effect is gruesome. Watching this version is most unsettling. I could not stand to watch for more than about ten minutes.

The package says "widescreen edition". Maybe it's time for legislation to define terms, because this labeling should be illegal. All copies of this version should be destroyed.

I hope they release a genuine version of this terrific movie.

I had seen this movie probably half a dozen times over the years, and had always loved it. When it finally came out on DVD this year, I had to get it, but was VERY disappointed when I watched the DVD. As I was watching it, I kept saying to myself "this doesn't seem right"....and then I realized that there were quite a few shortened and even missing scenes from the original. Some of the missing scenes are quite significant. There is a scene where the group is moving the wing with the pulleys, and Capt. Towns stops them for no good reason, just to show that he is in charge. The whole scene where Towns and Dorfman have a silent standoff is missing, leading up to Dorfman asking the whole group "who is in authority here". I can go on and on with missing or shortened scenes. Very disappointing to me.I have read 35 other reviews and no one else has mentioned the shortened scenes. I am going to purchase the old VHS, to see the original version.

This is one of my all time favorite movies. I would love to see someone clean it up and restore it with all the extras for a DVD. How about it Hollywood? I am sure there are many other fans of this movie and the actors in it who are just waiting to see it released on DVD.

Ask folks to list five Jimmy Stewart films, and (if they can) most likely you'll get at least three of these: "It's a Wonderful Life", "Mr. Smith Goes To Washington", "Philadelphia Story", "Harvey", or the Hitchcock masterpieces "Vertigo" and "Rear Window". All great films, all worthy of attention (and purchase), and without a doubt, all deserving of the popularity they enjoy.

"The Flight of the Phoenix", though lesser known, is no less deserving of a top 10 (or even top 5) spot on any list of Stewart's all time best films. Stewart turns in one of his most brilliant performances in this movie, with his portrayal of the rough-around-the-edges pilot Frank Towns. Gritty, unpolished and real, Stewart's Towns shines in stark atypical contrast to his usual "All American Guy" roles, and cowboy heroes. Casual Stewart fans, or those who have only seen his Frank Cappra stuff, can look forward to a whole new side of Stewart in this adventure.

A tense, exciting and captivating story, as well as a fantastic supporting cast (Richard Attenborough, Ernest Borgnine, and George Kennedy co-star) make this a must-see on many different levels.

I am a HUGE Jimmy Stewart fan, I've seen over 30 of his pictures, and "The Flight of the Phoenix" easily lands in the top five on my list of favorite Stewart films. Other must see Stewart movies you may not have heard of: "Anatomy of a Murder" (brilliant!), "You Can't Take it With You", "Rope", and "Call Northside 777" - that's not the rest of my top 5, by the way - it's just a list of recommendations for your viewing pleasure!

- S.A. Smith

"Flight of the Phoenix" is truly a superior film and is one of my all time favorites. An airplane carrying a cargo of men, mostly oil field types, crashes into the North African desert because of a sudden sand storm that the pilot, Jimmy Stewart, is unable to climb over. Several men are killed in the initial crash and Stewart is a writhing mass of guilt.

The ordeal, however, is by no means over. The crash site is hundreds of miles away from the nearest help and, worse, because the plane tried to detour around the storm, they aren't in any known flight path. The survivors have a cargo of dates and a limited amount of water to live on. Seemingly, there are only two choices...walk out or die.

The dispassionate and calculating Hardy Kruger, who plays a German slide rule nerd [make that a present day computer nerd] has been quietly examining the wreck of the twin engine plane and announces to the incredulous Stewart that he has a plan to fly the enormously damaged plane to safety. Stewart thinks the German has gone off his head but when he learns Kruger is an aircraft designer he reluctantly starts to listen.

Kruger thinks they can disengage the one wing, winch it over the fuselage and attach it to the one good engine, producing a one engined plane without a fuselage. The men will have to ride on the top of the wings. Now Stewart thinks Kruger is really crazy but is convinced to go along with it if, for no other reason, than to give the men hope.

The rest of the story is one of building and unbearable tension. Stewart despises the fact that he is playing second fiddle to a juvenile German who is likely out of his head. Water is stolen, which Hardy admits to because he, unlike the others...all so cold and logical...has been working day and night and requires the extra moisture. Kruger is absolutely right but Stewart hates him for it.

Men are lost to the desert and two others are tortured to death by marauding Arab bandits. Almost worse, Stewart learns that Kruger is, in fact, a model airplane designer, who announces that his greatest design is the "Adler", with a two meter wingspan. Now Stewart really thinks that the German is crazy. Nevertheless, they labor on and ultimately Stewart, who is after all an excellent pilot, flies the German's contrapation to safety.

This is a simply brilliant psychological thriller pitting two opposite views of life against each other. Despite their mutual animosities, the "Old Salt", Stewart, can't survive without the computer nerd and the computer nerd, Kruger, can't survive without the "Old Salt". They have to work together for the survival of everyone. By the way, the Phoenix theme is haunting.

Ron Braithwaite author of novels--"Skull Rack" and "Hummingbird God"--on the Spanish Conquest of Mexico.