Flight of the Phoenix

Flight of the Phoenix

By

  • Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
  • Release Date: 2004-12-17
  • Runtime: 113 minutes
  • : 5.992
  • Production Company: Optional Pictures
  • Production Country: United States of America
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5.992/10
5.992
From 912 Ratings

Description

When an oil rig in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia proves unproductive, an aircraft crew are sent to shut the operation down and fly them out. On the flight out over the desert on the way to Beijing, Capt. Frank Towns and co-pilot A.J. are unable to keep their cargo plane, a C-119 Flying Boxcar, in the air when a violent sandstorm strikes. Crash-landing in a remote uncharted part of the desert, the two pilots and their passengers -- a crew of oil workers and a drifter -- must work together to survive by rebuilding the aircraft. Soon, low supplies and a band of merciless smugglers add even greater urgency to their task.

Trailer

Reviews

  • drystyx

    N/A
    By drystyx
    A true classic. 14 men on a small low budget plane working for an oil company that cares as much about their employees as one might expect. So, the plane goes down in the middle of the desert, and the twelve survivors just wait to die. James Stewart is the pilot who feels responsible, but so does his navigator played by Richard Attenborough. Meanwhile, we wonder about the other characters. We expect Ernest Borgnine, Dan Duryea, and George Kennedy to be the key players, but they relax into the backdrop, except for Borgnine, who soon fades into the backdrop. Instead, it's Ronald Frasier as a career soldier, and Hardy Kruger as an engineer, who become the key players. The engineer claims he can build an aeroplane. Little by little, Townes (Stewart) and Lou (Attenborough) begin to believe the engineer. They see his designs. They get hope. They begin to build the plane. Then, a bit of dark comedy unfolds as they find out more about the engineer. I dare not spoil it. The characters are awesome, even those who seem to be just extras, but they aren't extras. In fact, these extras (Kennedy and Duryea) give life to the film. It's probably because they were big name players that they were chosen to be the most minor players, to give the viewer the sense that minor players are real people. Even "Rat Bags", who appears to be the most brutal of the characters, displays humanity and sorrow when his friend decides to walk out with Peter Finch to seek help. There's a lot of theatrics and drama, and the setting is the exotic desert, but still the setting doesn't change, yet there is never a dull moment. Much like "12 Angry Men", there is always some animation of emotion and theater that keeps even the most attention deficit disorder person infatuated with the story. I know, because I am as "attention deficit" as they come.

  • CinemaSerf

    7
    By CinemaSerf
    Jimmy Stewart is "Towns" who flies his dilapidated aircraft around the North African oilfields. When once such trip ends in a crash, they find themselves stuck in the desert short of water, and of ideas as to how to get themselves home. Until that is, the rather superior "Dorfmann" (Hardy Krüger) concocts a plan to perform industrial surgery on the wreckage and maybe get them airborne again. What now ensues is a tautly directed series of escapades as the personalities of crew and passengers clash; the desert takes it's toll on the sanity of some, the Bedouin on the lives of others - but can they get out? Richard Attenborough is superb, as is the usually reliable Peter Finch and his sergeant Ronald Fraser - but it is the psychological duel between "Towns" and "Dorfmann" that stands out. Both actors really draw the audience into their predicament, and their characterisations work well to raise the palpable tension before an ending that ties together the surreal with the enjoyable in an innovative and exciting fashion. This is certainly one of Stewart's better performances, and is certainly well worth a watch.

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