The Worst Film Ever

Lack of good storyline.

Best movie ever!

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

An interesting variation on the 'Hollywood Bomber Crew' plot line with strong casting which is puzzling at times; for example by 1965 Ernest Borgnine had built on his breakout role of Fatso Judson in From Here To Eternity and his Oacar-winning Marty and had been prominent in several memorable titles like Bad Day At Black Rock, The Poseidon Adventure etc but here he is killed off in the first half hour, similarly Peter Finch is given little to do whilst people like Dan Duryea and George Kennedy seem to be there only to make up the numbers. The bulk of screen time is shared between James Stewart, Hardy Kruger and Dickie Attenborough who was competent in a part that any Hollywood supporting actor could have played just as well. It's a good example of the Boy's Own Paper School of plotting and holds up reasonably well.

Good survival movie. Has all you would expect from the genre: good set up(ie crash and lead-up to it), taking stock, survival and then a plan to get back to civilisation. Character development is good: you learn much about the main characters, their backgrounds and motivations. Enough to understand the relationships and conflicts between the characters. However, not a flawless movie. The ultimate plan and its execution are quite far-fetched. There is quite a bit of dumb sentimentality, when practicality was required, especially from James Stewart's character. This did make Hardy Kruger's character more likable, as he was a total pragmatist. Good performances from Hardy Kruger and Richard Attenborough. As mentioned, James Stewart lays on the sentimentality a bit thick. Ernest Borgnine is a tad irritating.

Jimmy Stewart plays a pilot of a cargo plane which flies into trouble when a sand storm hits, and it crashes in the middle of the Sahara desert, stranding the passengers in a life and death struggle for survival as they must deal with a limited water supply(though they have plenty of food...pressed dates!) as some of them succumb to madness or cowardice, all the while trying to make a desperate plan work: to use the one undamaged wing to make a new aircraft.A fine cast that also includes Richard Attenborough, Ian Bannen, Ernest Borgnine, Peter Finch, and Hardy Kruger. Exciting and interesting film is a bit long, but also quite entertaining, and creates a believable atmosphere of desperation that makes the ending all the more satisfying.

How would you react if your plane crashed in the desert, you had a meager amount of water and a few dates to try to survive on, and no one gave a damn about trying to rescue you?Such is the plight of the fine ensemble of actors in this film. It's not easy to watch these tortured souls blister, needle each other, and waste away as the plane's guilt-ridden pilot, played ably by Jimmy Stewart, vies for the position of alpha male with a possibly crazy German who delays in revealing it's toy planes he designs and not real flying machines.It remained unclear to me why Stewart's character claimed pilot error when a blinding sandstorm had clearly mucked up the works. And way too much time is given to the German's ministrations over the damaged guts of the plane. In addition, it seemed quite lame not to demonstrate how the patched-together aircraft managed to land safely after finally regaining flight. (A written epilogue to the film notes that a stuntman died in its production -- could this be why?)For most of the rest of the film, the plot hangs together well, and dangers and pitfalls are rife along the way. When a band of nomads appears, at first we feel the survivors' jubilation at enjoying proximity to other human beings. Then we quickly absorb their paranoia as they ponder exactly if and how they should approach these mysterious strangers without having their throats cut.This exceedingly grim film ends almost miraculously. With so much realism earlier in the movie, I'm not sure I really cared for that. It's possible this production was inspired by the far-less-happily ending tale of "Lady Be Good," a US bomber lost in the Libyan desert during WWII. One topical surprise here is that in the movie, the plane had been headed to Benghazi, made infamous just weeks ago by the terrorism killings of US Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.