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The Flight of the Phoenix

The Flight of the Phoenix

List Price: $14.98
Your Price: $11.24
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Alright Mr Dorfam....Start Pullin
Review: A wonderful film. Dorfman and Towns...always at odds with each other make this film suspensful...yet your pulling for the both of them. Ernest borgnine did a wonderful job playing the lunatic E. Cobb. Hardy Kruger turns in an excellent performance as well as Jimmy Stewart. I have watched this film many times. My favorite line?...." Ahhhh.....is that yards or meters( a lesson NASA could have benefited from with the mars lander just a few short months ago.) To bad Herve Villachez wasn't around when the survivors finally flew over the oasis at the end of the film......he could have been hollering...De Plane! ...De Plane!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: One of Jimmy's best
Review: Jimmy Stewart turns in an amazing performance and makes what would otherwise be a forgetable movie an unforgetable movie. Stewart is my all-time favorite actor, but part-way into this movie I was wondering why the other characters don't just leave him in the desert (of course, they can't, that's the story). When he triumphs, I was thinking: yeah, Jimmy probably really could have done that.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fine portrait of the survival of the human spirit
Review: 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.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Techniquement : le parfait équilibre
Review: Encore aujourd'hui, difficile de faire mieux. Une méga production des annèes '60 qui fait réchéchir sur l'homme et son adaptation aux changements quand sa survie en dépend. Un film techniquement équilibré sur tous plans qui ne demande qu'à être "resavouré" au grand écran.

Un super travail d'équipe. Bravo

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Some comments about the aircraft used.
Review: In my opinion it's a very good film. I just want to point out the fact that the plane the actors "build" from the C-119-wreck is not the same plane (constructed especially for the film), that is seen flying over the sanddunes, and in which Paul Mantz was killed. Furthermore, in two brief scenes near the movies end the "Phoenix" is seen flying overhead. Those scenes were filmed after Mantz's chrash and this plane is a very rare North American O-47A, rebuilt to resemble the "Phoenix".

(The plane that the actors put together was just a "movie-prop" and never flew).

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Fantastic Movie
Review: My favorite kind of story is about a group of brave, intelligent, resourceful men facing a crisis and working together to get out of it. This film is a classic of this genre. Jimmy Stewart, who plays the pilot, was a real bomber pilot in World War II who flew missions over Nazi Germany in which there was a high risk of being shot down so no one is better qualified to perform in a role like this. If you like films like Apollo 13, The Great Escape or Memphis Belle then you can't miss this one!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One great film!
Review: A tense and gripping film..long too. You won't want to get up. You WILL need to drink plenty of water when it's over. The scene with Richard Attenborough laughing maniacally in the doorway when he learns that the German (on whom they've placed all of their hopes for survival) is actually a model aeroplane designer is downright spooky. You'll watch it to the end.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: truely great classic survival film
Review: A talented international cast heads this stylish film about survivors of a plane crash stranded in the Sahara desert. Mildly moving, and sometimes shocking, Flight of the Phoenix is a refreshing stray from the usual cliches. All in all, this is an excellent film and cannot be missed.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A gripping story of survival (and Jimmy stewart in the lead)
Review: Any film with Jimmy Stewart in a leading role is sure to be a hit and Flight of the Phoenix doesn't disappoint.
A plane crash in the desert follows into a gripping two hour film of survival and hope. Led by Jimmy Stewart, the crew which include great acting talents like Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch and Ernest Borgnine courageously try to survive the desert heat, lack of water, and high tempers between crew members.
When all hope of a rescue is gone, an idea by a German model plane maker, to rebuild the crashed craft, initially not taken seriously by Jimmy Stewart, is eventually seen as the only option of survival and the movie climaxes into a gripping story of team effort and a race against time to get the plane flying. This is a highly recommended film that will have you on the edge of your seat right to the end. The film got 4stars because the UK DVD lacked even the simplest extra, like a trailer.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I loved it; my family loved it.
Review: Its been years since I saw Flight of the Phoenix on TV, but when I heard of the less then rave reviews for the 2004 remake, I was surprised to find a DVD version of the original movie on Amazon and bought it for a great price. We watched the movie last night. Neither my wife or kids (14-22) had seen it before. After hearing that the movie was from the "60's", the kids wondered out loud if it was in black and white. however, once it started, they were riveted by the drama. It was even better than I remembered. I liked the realistic interpersonal interaction between the different personalities of the characters. Since it isn't shown in either the original movie or the remake, I still wonder how they managed to land the Phoenix with all passengers able to walk away.


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