Of course, we have one of the finest American actors in the lead, but Mr. Stewart is ably supported by a blue-chip international cast, including Richard Attenborough, Peter Finch, Hardy Kruger, Ernest Borgnine and Ian Bannen. As the sun gets hotter and with no rescue party in sight, this unfortunate group displays all of the human qualities that arise in desperate situations--resentment, fear, arrogance, assignment of blame, madness, cowardice and courage.

Richard Attenborough is the sensible voice of reason and compromise, which makes the scene where he finally "loses it", even more compelling. Peter Finch is the typical British "stiff upper lip " officer--stubborn and brave-- though I doubt that this role was much of a challenge to such a talented actor. Ernest Borgnine gets to chew up a little scenery as a guy who is pretty unhinged even before the plane crash--that blazing sun doesn't do him any good at all ! Well--it's 1965 and you need someone to play a brainy, cold, arrogant German--Hardy Kruger, come on down ! The other actors are excellent--Ian Bannen, in particular, is effective as a guy who would get under your skin even at the North Pole !

As another reviwer has noted, the film is perhaps longer than it needs to be, although it does give the characters plenty of time to interact with one another, and display the psychological aspects of the plot. After a while, you--the viewer--will also start to feel that oppressive heat and sand, and the tension of being trapped in this hell-on-earth. I can't really comment on the feasibility of the plan that Hardy Kruger's character comes up with to save everyone--I'm not an aeronautical engineer ! It certainly gives the film an exciting climax though.

I found the DVD picture to be beautiful--the sound typical for an almost 40-year old film.

"Phoenix" gave Jimmy Stewart another great role, later in his career, and with the supporting cast--and a liberal amount of suspense--this nice DVD could appeal to a variety of viewing tastes. Recommended.


A fine portrait of the survival of the human spirit   October 17, 1999
 18 out of 18 found this review helpful

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.


Flight got shortened   November 21, 2003
 17 out of 19 found this review helpful

I had seen this movie probably half a dozen times over the years, and had always loved it. When it finally came out on DVD this year, I had to get it, but was VERY disappointed when I watched the DVD. As I was watching it, I kept saying to myself "this doesn't seem right"....and then I realized that there were quite a few shortened and even missing scenes from the original. Some of the missing scenes are quite significant. There is a scene where the group is moving the wing with the pulleys, and Capt. Towns stops them for no good reason, just to show that he is in charge. The whole scene where Towns and Dorfman have a silent standoff is missing, leading up to Dorfman asking the whole group "who is in authority here". I can go on and on with missing or shortened scenes. Very disappointing to me.I have read 35 other reviews and no one else has mentioned the shortened scenes. I am going to purchase the old VHS, to see the original version.


An absolute classic   June 25, 2002
 15 out of 15 found this review helpful

I was 11 yrs old when I began hearing about the grueling work which was the production of this, my absolute favorite adventure film. I will always remember that hollywoods greatest stunt pilot Paul Mantz was actually killed during the production of this film. It was a stroke of pure genius to cast James stewart as the cynical pilot,Frank Townes since stewart himself was an actual WWII veteran bomber pilot. I always believed this to be his finest performance because it was so far removed from stewart's usual good guy roles. The rest of the cast was equally brillant in their performances including the great Dan Dureya The story was both believeable in its concept and extraordinary in its solution. The ending can truly bring a grown man to tears or at least to his feet to give a clap and a cheer to the survivors of a horrible ordeal. I highly recommend this film to everyone of all genders,races and, ages who enjoy a well thought out and acted story with some of the finest detail in character study and development to come out of any motion picture. I heartilly give it 5 out of 5 stars and, Im a hard person to please.