The Flight of the Phoenix
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- For the 2004 remake, see Flight of the Phoenix.
- For the Battlestar Galactica episode, see Flight of the Phoenix (Battlestar Galactica).
| The Flight of the Phoenix | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Robert Aldrich |
| Produced by | Robert Aldrich |
| Written by | Novel: Elleston Trevor Screenplay: Lukas Heller |
| Starring | James Stewart Richard Attenborough Peter Finch Hardy Kruger and Ernest Borgnine |
| Music by | DeVol |
| Cinematography | Joseph Biroc |
| Editing by | Michael Luciano |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | 15 December 1965 |
| Running time | 142 min. |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
The Flight of the Phoenix is the title of a 1964 novel by Elleston Trevor and of a 1965 film adaptation. The plot involves the crash of a plane in the middle of a desert, due to a sandstorm, and the survivors attempting to escape by making a flyable plane out of the wreckage.
The film stars James Stewart, Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Ernest Borgnine, Hardy Krüger, George Kennedy, Dan Duryea, Ronald Fraser and Ian Bannen (nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar) and was directed by Robert Aldrich.
The 2004 remake stars Dennis Quaid, Giovanni Ribisi, Tyrese Darnell Gibson, Tony Curran, Miranda Otto and Hugh Laurie and was directed by John Moore.
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[edit] Plot
Pilot Frank Towns (James Stewart) and navigator Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) are ferrying a mixed bag of passengers out of the Sahara desert, among them oil workers, a couple of British soldiers and a German who was visiting his brother. An unexpected sandstorm forces the plane down, damaging it and killing a few of the men.
The survivors wait for rescue, but begin to worry, as the storm had blown them far off course, away from where searchers would look for them. When they spot a party of Arabs, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) goes to ask them for help, but Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser) refuses to accompany him. Instead, one of the others goes with him. The next day, Towns finds their looted bodies, and the Arabs gone.
As the water begins to run out, Heinrich Dorfman (Hardy Kruger), a precise, arrogant German aeronautical engineer, proposes a radical solution. He claims they can rebuild a plane from the wreckage, using the only working engine and adding skids to take off. They set to work.
Later, Towns finds out that Dorfman's job is designing model planes, not real, full-scale ones. Afraid of the effect on morale, he and Moran keep their discovery secret, though they now believe Dorfman's plan is doomed. However, they turn out to be wrong. The plane is reborn, like the mythical phoenix, does fly, with the passengers lying on the wings, and carries them to safety.
[edit] Aircraft trivia
In 2005, historian Simon Beck identified the aircraft used in the film:
- Fairchild C-82A Packet, N6887C - flying shots.
- Fairchild C-82A Packet, N4833V - outdoor location wreck.
- Fairchild C-82A Packet, N53228 - indoor studio wreck.
- Fairchild R4Q-1 Packet, BuNo. 126580 - non-flying Phoenix prop.
- Tallmantz Phoenix P-1, N93082 - flying Phoenix aircraft.
- North American O-47B, N4725V - 2nd flying Phoenix.
Stunt pilot Paul Mantz was killed during filming while flying the Phoenix P-1.[1]
The C-82A's were from Steward-Davies Inc. at Long Beach, CA, with the O-47B from Planes Of Fame in California. Camera-plane was B-25J Mitchell, N1042B, also used in the 1970 film Catch-22.
