Fresh and Exciting

best movie i've ever seen.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

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.

I saw this upon first release at least twice, and so am not unbiased due to the appeal of nostalgia. That said, if you are looking for Stewart to show his mean streak (and he had a whopper, just look at Rear Window when he talks to his fiancée!) you have come to the right movie. He's stuck with his past becoming more appealing than his present and future, and what middle-aged person has not had that feeling? The plot moves along with a satisfying pace; the work that is being accomplished to make a derelict flyable is actually shown. The characters work, and argue, and have understandable power struggles. The stakes are life and death, after all. Be prepared for one shocking reveal, shocking deaths, and a reasonable look back by at least one of the survivors, as he sees from his rescue plane just what hell he has been living in for miserable days on end.

A plane crashes in the desert, and the only obvious possibilities of survival are to wait for rescue or to walk to civilization. The survivors know that neither option is likely to succeed, but their ability to agree with one another ends there. Whether you like the movie may depend partly on whether you agree with its "Lord of the Flies"-like premise that, outside of the constraints and comforts of polite society, humans are more likely to conflict with one another than to cooperate. In this film the cooperators, chiefly Richard Attenborough's alcoholic co-pilot and Christian Marquand's worldly doctor, are sympathetic characters whom I wished to see survive the ordeal. I hoped other characters would survive only on the condition that they first became more relatable. Perhaps being stranded in the desert is indeed a more soluble dilemma than the problem of being surrounded by detestable, combative people.

I guess I'm on the short end of the stick here. I'm not at all a fan of this movie. I remember watching it on one of the network movie nights at least 30 years ago, and I thought it to be very boring. Now in 2013 I watched it again, and while I may appreciate it slightly more, I still think it's boring. And why? One simple reason -- virtually the entire film takes place on just one set -- the crashed airplane. And, that one-scene locked in feeling makes almost any film boring...at least to me.And it's too bad. The film had a lot going for it, particularly in terms of its cast. The key star here is Jimmy Stewart, who was aging very well in movies, and his acting here is superb. Hardy Kruger, an extremely handsome German actor, is just wonderful as the aviation designer who wants to rebuild the crashed plane and fly out of the desert. Richard Attenborough is fine as the co-pilot. Peter Finch is appropriately annoying as the British officer. Ernest Borgnine is good as the oil worker who had a nervous breakdown. It's nice seeing Dan Duryea in a role where he's not the bad guy! And George Kennedy plays the same role he always plays...George Kennedy. It's a great cast.The plot, overall, is okay. But unlike what you might think -- a plane crashes and they rebuild it and fly out of the desert -- it's not an action film. The action is restricted to about5 minutes in the beginning and 10 minutes in the end. It really comes down to who will survive and who will die, and make no mistake -- it's not a happy ending since many die. Who dies first is a bit of a surprise. This movie is a character study.