The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)

The Flight of the Phoenix is one of a handful of quasi-action films under the survival-against-the-odds sub-category. Other offerings include Ron Howard's "Apollo 13" and "Cast Away", both starring Tom Hanks. Even the highly controversial "Deliverance" starring Burt Reynolds and directed by John Boorman falls into the category. "Flight of the Phoenix" rises to the top of the heap particularly because of the first-rate cast, an absolutely believable script, and superb actor-directing which can't be beat. (The later remake of 2004 is not bad but can't compete with the original.) The essential plot of the Phoenix is deceptively simple. A group of diverse and not particularly likable passengers are aboard a cargo plane bound for Benghazi. Their pilot, Frank Towns (Jimmie Stewart in one of his finest roles) is a washed-up pilot who can only get bottom-of-the-barrel jobs as a freighter pilot. His co-pilot, Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough in an equally-compelling performance) is also a frustrated aviator. Their large bulky airship hits an unexpected sand storm, forcing them to wreck in the middle of the Sarah Desert. They have only a limited supply of food and water, no communication, and the remains of about 2/3rds of their original airplane which is beyond repair. Their first plan is to send signals, assuming some kind of rescue mission from their company will be searching for them in the desert. After only a few days, they realize, no search party is coming. They're stuck in the desert. Although only about 100 miles from the nearest settlement, it's impossible on foot, because they have no way of tracking where they would go, and they would lose more water from their bodies than they would be able to replenish in the desert.One of the passengers, Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Krüger in a perfectly cast role) informs the survivors of the crash they can build a new airplane from the wreckage which can take them out of the desert. He is an airplane designer-engineer and has figured out how they can create a working plane from one of the original engines which was undamaged. (The other had been destroyed during the crash.) At first Towns is skeptical that building a working plane is even feasible, and he worries it will take too much out of the men who are already suffering from lack of water. Then Moran and Dr. Renaud in turn offer their opinions: even if their chance is one in a thousand, they would rather take it than just wait around to die. Towns gives in, and they begin the project of creating a new plane from the one surviving engine. Then, late in the film, Towns and Moran learn that Dorfman has never built a large plane before. They ask him what he's done in terms of "the real thing", to be informed that Dorfman designs "model airplanes", but he's never built a large-scale passenger plane before.This film works as well as it does because of the acting and the script. The script never falls into cliché hyperbole which is often how these kinds of films are written. There are no "we must try to survive" speeches, resplendent in material of this type. One of the more interesting aspects is that the story is taking place not long after World War II, and some of the passenger-survivors are skeptical of Dorfman who is obviously either German or Austrian. Also, animosity between Towns and Dorfman evolves as the project gets under way, in which both begin to war with words regarding who is in charge of the project and ultimately the men. Two other characters, a captain and sergeant from Britain, seem at first to play their expected roles of officer and subordinate, but as the events play out, the Captain begins losing his authority over the subordinate sergeant.The Flight of the Phoenix may be my favorite survival film. Each character is fairly well-developed. Towns is the hot-headed frustrated pilot who can't quite decide on his course of action, a reluctant leader. Moran is the pitiable co-pilot who, at one point, feels guilty about their dilemma and becomes depressed. Dorfman is the self-absorbed engineer who, although brilliant, seems less concerned about the plight of their situation than achieving the largest airplane project of his career. Not to be missed if you want a film in which you'll be riveted from beginning to end.

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?

. . . who is NOT one of Hitler's best buddies, for a change. In fact, the main antagonist of Stewart's WWII veteran pilot character Frank Towns in THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX just happens to be a German, who misrepresents himself. Sniffing trouble, Towns fights this pesky Kraut every step of the way, since EVERYONE WOULD DIE if this was based on a TRUE story. However, greatly detracting from the effect of this tale is Hollywood's insistence that the Nazis, the Confederates, and the Commies are all simply misunderstood peoples with hearts of gold who can out-think true American heroes any day of the week. It is somewhat puzzling that Brig. Gen. James Stewart, a red-blooded Yankee war great in real life, would have consented to play the brow-beaten Frank Towns character here, let alone the Benedict Arnold of the Skies in his earlier pilot flick, THE SPIRIT OF ST. LOUIS. Obviously, Mr. Stewart was a better fighter than a script reader. Either that, or the military's cheap pay scale forced him to take roles beyond his true character just for the sake of getting a paycheck.

How would you react if your plane crashed in the desert, you had a meager amount of water and a few dates to try to survive on, and no one gave a damn about trying to rescue you?Such is the plight of the fine ensemble of actors in this film. It's not easy to watch these tortured souls blister, needle each other, and waste away as the plane's guilt-ridden pilot, played ably by Jimmy Stewart, vies for the position of alpha male with a possibly crazy German who delays in revealing it's toy planes he designs and not real flying machines.It remained unclear to me why Stewart's character claimed pilot error when a blinding sandstorm had clearly mucked up the works. And way too much time is given to the German's ministrations over the damaged guts of the plane. In addition, it seemed quite lame not to demonstrate how the patched-together aircraft managed to land safely after finally regaining flight. (A written epilogue to the film notes that a stuntman died in its production -- could this be why?)For most of the rest of the film, the plot hangs together well, and dangers and pitfalls are rife along the way. When a band of nomads appears, at first we feel the survivors' jubilation at enjoying proximity to other human beings. Then we quickly absorb their paranoia as they ponder exactly if and how they should approach these mysterious strangers without having their throats cut.This exceedingly grim film ends almost miraculously. With so much realism earlier in the movie, I'm not sure I really cared for that. It's possible this production was inspired by the far-less-happily ending tale of "Lady Be Good," a US bomber lost in the Libyan desert during WWII. One topical surprise here is that in the movie, the plane had been headed to Benghazi, made infamous just weeks ago by the terrorism killings of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.