The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

computer nerd vs. grizzled old veteran

"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. August 17, 2008

Aldrich's 2nd best All Male Action Classic

This film released in 1965 did less than sensational business at the box office even with a great all male cast which includes James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Hardy Kruger, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Christian Marquand & Dan Duryea and tight suspenseful plot. The story is one of survival when a plane has to crash land in the Sahara due to technical difficulties and each of the men have to depend upon one another to survive. Stewart is excellent as usual as the crusty WWII vet who is forced to rely on the German plane specialist (Hardy Kruger at his best here) at the urging of his alcoholic co-pilot (Richard Attenborough) who is at fault partially for the crash landing, to re-build the plane. The action is character-driven versus the sorry remake and when the finale does come, we are so totally invested in the characters that it is exhilarating to witness the conclusion!! In a way, Aldrich was warming up for his other classic, "The Dirty Dozen", with this film. Do see this one before you check out the remake!! August 13, 2008

Flight Of The Pheonix ( original)

Interesting film better than the re make i give this a 8 out of ten for entertainment
Service was excellent July 24, 2008

The Flight of the Phoenix - an important analogy

This movie was on TV recently and even though I bought the DVD last year,I still watched it. It is one of my all time favorites. I saw this at the same time I was studying and writing an essay on our energy situation when it occurred to me there was an interesting analogy, an analogy that I felt could be used in the essay. So here is a brief part of that essay.

The sub-title for this essay is from the movie, The Flight of the Phoenix. For those who have not seen this it featured a crash landing of a C-82 in the Sahara Desert, brought down by a severe dust storm, sometime in the 1950s. The predicament of the 12 survivors may serve as an analogy to our energy situation today - rather desperate. After coming to the conclusion that they were not going to be found by an air search, three options emerged that were equally unattractive, widely disparate, dangerous and with low odds of success. The options were: walk out; ride out in a camel caravan, if one should ever pass, and the Arabs were friendly; or fly out, in a salvaged and rebuilt plane.
The C-82 configuration, sometimes referred to as the Sky Truck, consisted of two long booms, each with a large engine, bracketing a large central hull. This plane was owned by an oil company, and its hull was full of equipment - welders, cutting torches, winches, cable and so forth. So the opportunity to rebuild a plane was there, by salvaging the undamaged boom.
However, one of the survivors died from his wounds. Two of the survivors died in an attempt to walk out, and two were killed by members of a small caravan. But much like the legend, The Phoenix did "rise from the dead" and fly again, and seven lives were saved. One can only hope our country will have similar ingenuity and success in solving our energy crisis.
Today, our country is in the most serious energy situation it has ever faced. One can't help wonder if a crash landing is not imminent. Three main pathways out of such a situation might be described as equally unattractive, widely disparate, dangerous and with low odds of success. The pathways, are: alternative energies, fleet electrification, and fossil fuels. July 6, 2008

THE movie for model airplane hobbyists!

As my title says, this movie is in great measure a vindication of model airplane afficianados like myself (disclaimer showing my bias) as well as the many thousands of men, women, and kids who are involved in this wonderful hobby, art, and sport all rolled into one.

We take a lot of guff for 'playing with toy airplanes,' but anyone with a grain of sense knows that there is virtually no difference between a model and a full size aircraft. These days, the line is even less clear, given the huge growth of ultralight aircraft as well as UAVs...they're big model airplanes!

This is a fine movie, with terrific use of the skills of legendary actors like Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine and others, not to mention the aerial photography and flying of the fabulous Paul Mantz (who, as the end credits remind us, gave his life during the filming of this picture), and can comfortably stand on its own as a great action/suspense flick.

Sure, it moves at a slower pace than many of today's hyperactive, overcaffeinated viewers can handle, but that's their problem.

For me, the film's crowning moment comes in the scene in which Hardy Kruger as the aeronautical engineer Kurt Dorfmann is confronted by Stewart and Attenborough about his lack of experience with the 'real stuff;' his sneering reply to Stewart is my favorite line in the whole movie:

"...Mr. Towns... a toy plane is something you wind up and it rolls along the floor. A model airplane is something totally different..."

Wow, couldn't have said it better myself.

I get misty, too, when the completed Phoenix finally takes to the air...the work Tallmantz Aviation did in cobbling that machine together was quite an accomplishment, but knowing that Paul Mantz perished in its filming gets me every time. Let's not forget, too, that director Robert Aldrich lost both his son, William, and his son-in-law, Peter Bravos, earlier in this movie's production as a result of an accident with falling cargo during the initial crash scene.

See this movie, and I hope you remember the very real sacrifices made by the people who brought it to you.

Finally, a big salute from me to to Heinrich Dorfmann, who as far as I'm concerned is the patron saint of model airplane buffs everywhere!
June 17, 2008

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