The Flight of the Phoenix
1965
Action / Adventure / Drama

The Flight of the Phoenix
1965
Action / Adventure / Drama
Plot summary
A cargo aircraft crashes in a sandstorm in the Sahara with less than a dozen men on board. One of the passengers is an airplane designer who comes up with the idea of ripping off the undamaged wing and using it as the basis for a replacement aircraft they need to build before their food and water run out.
Director
Top cast
Tech specs
720p.BLU 1080p.BLUMovie Reviews
Outstanding movie with an extraordinary cast and nail-biting direction by Robert Aldrich
Robert Aldrich gave considerable force in his depiction of human moral weakness
A twin-engine propeller airplane, carrying a group of oil company people to a Saharan outpost, crashes in the African desert
On board, a handful of disparate characters: a jovial pessimist, a noble doctor, a 'frantic' fellow, a distrustful bitter pilot, determined to contradict most suggested plans; a British military officer who reacts in the only way he knows; an insubordinate sergeant who refuses to take any risk; an eccentric airplane designer proposing a seemingly impossible goal
and a nervy navigator who tries to hold the group together
The marooned survivors (with no hopes of being found or rescued) realize their best hope is the 'impossible': to accept the task of building a smaller plane, a "Phoenix," from the wreckage of the old
The depiction of the construction is fascinating as much of the true characters of the men (facing the savagely violent environment) come out under the threat of thirst, hunger, and exposure
The degree of their weakness, consternation, arrogance, selfishness, and cowardice is successfully described
Aldrich tries to build a film filled with self-sacrifice, crazed arguments, and, above all else, a slow descent into foolish acts by all
He keeps us in constant suspense, wondering if the rebuild plane will get successfully off the ground?