A Major Disappointment

Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

As a child 50 years ago ,watching on black and white tv ,I was wowed by this picture ,it was a good film.

When I see popular films remade and then expect them to be as good or better than the original;then you realize that the original couldn't have been improved on and the remake was forgettable.This is the case of 1965's "Flight of the Phoenix". Simple plot of diverse characters aboard an Oil Company owned airplane caught up in a sandstorm that forces them to crash in the desert.My favorite character is the arrogant German Model Plane designer DORFMANN who comes up with the plan of turning the Twin engine aircraft into a single engine plane that will fly the remaining survivors back home.His arrogance and superior feeling over the other stranded passengers made you have a Love/Hate relationship with him.Even Stewart's character who really couldn't stand the man, knew he was their only real hope of survival so he had to humble himself to the wishes of Dorfmann...The film's cinematography was spectacular despite being just desert and a wrecked airplane.The diverse passenger characters all gave good performances especially the mentally challenged BORGNINE character "Trucker Cobb"...The only disappoint of the film is the ending.Veteran Aerial Stunt Pilot Paul Mantz who had done Aerial stunt work in movies going back to the 30's;was fatally injured toward the end of shooting and crashed the remade Phoenix Airplane. The last shot you see of the plane is in the air after passing over an oil crew below.You never see the plane landing because it had been destroyed upon Mantz's Crash.The final scene is the survivors walking/running to the water spring they had passed over...Although it was never really brought out Mantz was a known Drinker and had flown stunts under the influence more than once.No one really knows if it was pilot error or aircraft malfunction or Mantz may have even had a heart attack. However he still goes down in history as one of the Greatest aviator stunt pilots in Cinema History.EXCELLENT FILM!...s.m.

This is a great movie, where plane crashes in desert, and, well, tough to say "spoiler" , since it is almost 50 yrs old and when the movie title says it all. Not to add that 90% of the movie is directed to this one, and ,as movie goes on, only possible outcome.This is like a Shakespeare play or something as sparse as "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?" Initially one would call it a 'small' movie.... a few characters and a one set stage. But after watching it, seems like a much bigger stage.It's a good story that allows an amazing ensemble of great actors to strut their stuff. Well, maybe a couple didn't get a chance to fully develop, and one or two might have been a bit 'over the top', but the three keys players were outstanding.May catch hell for this, but I think one of Jimmy's best. What I didn't know till quite a bit after watching this movie for first time, was how much a Flyboy Jimmy was. It was in his DNA. When he said in the movie: "Time was you could take real pride, in just getting there, flying used to be fun Lou, it really was..." You knew that character he was playing and he were one and the same.

I guess I'm on the short end of the stick here. I'm not at all a fan of this movie. I remember watching it on one of the network movie nights at least 30 years ago, and I thought it to be very boring. Now in 2013 I watched it again, and while I may appreciate it slightly more, I still think it's boring. And why? One simple reason -- virtually the entire film takes place on just one set -- the crashed airplane. And, that one-scene locked in feeling makes almost any film boring...at least to me.And it's too bad. The film had a lot going for it, particularly in terms of its cast. The key star here is Jimmy Stewart, who was aging very well in movies, and his acting here is superb. Hardy Kruger, an extremely handsome German actor, is just wonderful as the aviation designer who wants to rebuild the crashed plane and fly out of the desert. Richard Attenborough is fine as the co-pilot. Peter Finch is appropriately annoying as the British officer. Ernest Borgnine is good as the oil worker who had a nervous breakdown. It's nice seeing Dan Duryea in a role where he's not the bad guy! And George Kennedy plays the same role he always plays...George Kennedy. It's a great cast.The plot, overall, is okay. But unlike what you might think -- a plane crashes and they rebuild it and fly out of the desert -- it's not an action film. The action is restricted to about5 minutes in the beginning and 10 minutes in the end. It really comes down to who will survive and who will die, and make no mistake -- it's not a happy ending since many die. Who dies first is a bit of a surprise. This movie is a character study.