The Flight of the Phoenix (1965)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Lukas Heller, based on the novel by Adam Hall
Directed by Robert Aldrich
Starring Jimmy Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine, and George Kennedy

Features:

• Theatrical Trailers
  

My Advice: Own it, but be ready to pick up the special edition, if it comes out

Captain Frank Towns (Stewart) is a pilot for Arabco, an oil company. When his plane goes down in the Sahara Desert because of a sandstorm, it is up to him and the men he's stranded with to survive with enough water to last them all eleven days. It just so happens that a man named Heinrich Dorfman (Kruger) was on board when the plane went down. He's an airplane designer. He looks at the wreckage of the plane and decides that it's possible for them to rebuild the plane out of the existing parts and fly away from the crash site. Question is: can they accomplish all this before their supplies run out?

Why don't they make movies like this anymore? This is equal parts character study and survival story. Every member of the cast is outstanding. Stewart plays what is perhaps the strongest character that he's ever inhabited. He's the pilot of the plane that went down--and because of this, blames himself for the crash. Attenborough is equally up to the challenge. His character is almost the polar opposite of his Mr. X in The Great Escape. All of the characters have a very clear journey that they take and they all grow because of their dilemma; which is something that we rarely see these days in film. The story is well told and it moves along at a very good pace. It would have been very easy for this movie to have gotten bogged down and but they avoided that ditch and kept right on going. They allowed enough time for character development, but kept the plot moving as well--something else that's a rarity in today's cinema.

The DVD is a bit of a disappointment. I know that there are very few of the cast members left with us, but it would have been nice to have had something in the way of special features other than three trailers for the film. Even if no one from the cast could do a commentary track, a film historian or the like would have been sufficient. Perhaps a retrospective look at the movie after all these years? Something would have been better than nothing. After checking the IMDB, I found that the stunt pilot was killed during the filming of the takeoff of the "Phoenix" at the end of the movie. Not to sound ghoulish or anything, but this and other stories like it would have made for a fascinating featurette.

Even considering the DVD's weaknesses, it's worth owning. The film is one of the classics of the American cinema and it should not be missed. However, as I said up top, be ready to shunt this one for a special edition, should it ever be made available.