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The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
Rate:
8
Viewed:
5/25
5/25:
The Flight of the Phoenix started off slowly, and I thought I was in serious trouble because of the
insane running length: two hours and twenty-two minutes.
It's due to the stagy dialogue, but the show got better over time after James Stewart and Hardy Krüger took over.
Talk about a battle of wits, resulting in power struggle. The whole thing reminds me of
Alive except it takes place on the desert. When I heard the plan of how to get
out there, I immediately said, "Impossible."
The more I saw what everybody was doing, the less the unbelievability became as a factor, but it still wouldn't
work. That's why there's a lot of cheating in editing. They did try to do it for real, but a pilot was killed
during the process. For starters, no plane can take off from bumpy, weak sand. The runway has to be long, hard,
and flat. On top of the hot weather, everybody will be so tired from work because food and water have run low.
Plus, it's hard to feel fulfilled on a diet consisting of only dates. There's no protein at all. Everybody
should've eaten the monkey, the camel, and probably the dead bodies.
Nevertheless, I was entertained, especially during the second half, because of terrific performances and the
ending. What a cast: James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Krüger, Ernest Borgnine, Dan Duryea,
George Kennedy, and so on. That's five Oscar winners among them. Of course, James Stewart is believable
for a pilot because he flew missions during WWII.
Ian Bannen was Oscar-nominated for Best Supporting Actor. That has to be a total mistake as it should've gone
to Hardy Krüger. On the other hand, I've never seen James Stewart to be this angry, but I understand why his
character had to feel so. It's smart of everybody to get rid of Ernest Borgnine early because he would've been
annoying down the road. By the way, fourteen characters were involved, but seven escaped alive. Also, that's a
great make-up job to depict the sunburns.
All in all, I highly recommend The Flight of the Phoenix.