Directed by John Moore (Behind Enemy Lines) from a stripped-down, action-oriented script by Scott Frank (Minority Report, Out of Sight, Get Shorty) and actor/screenwriter Edward Burns, The Flight of the Phoenix departs minimally from the 1965 film of the same name directed by Robert Aldrich (The Longest Yard, The Dirty Dozen, Hush…Hush, Sweet Charlotte, What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, Kiss Me Deadly), making Flight of the Phoenix a redundant, but nonetheless fun remake. Flight of the Phoenix is plot at its purest and most straightforward: a loosely related group of characters, a major, life-threatening setback, a plan, goal or aim, followed by semi-cooperative efforts to achieve that goal, with a series of reversals, complications, and roadblocks that make escape increasingly unlikely.
The oilrig crew in Flight of the Phoenix are all stock types identified by a first name or a nickname (e.g., the creatively named “Patch” for a character who wears an eye patch), but not much else. Only Captain Frank Downs (Dennis Quaid) receives the honor of a surname. The secondary characters include A.J. (Tyrese Gibson), Downs’ co-pilot, Kelly (Miranda Otto), oil field chief and the only woman in the crew, Elliot (Giovanni Ribisi), an eccentric airplane designer, Rodney (Tony Curran), an oil worker with a Scottish accent, Sammi (Jacob Vargas), the Latino cook, Rady (Kevork Malikyan), a philosophical foreigner, and Ian (Hugh Laurie), an oil company executive. The remainder of the cast is notable primarily for their ability to blend into the background. They function to round out the cast or to serve as fodder for the natural and man-made elements that begins to take its toll over the course of the film.
After perfunctory introductions to the oilrig crew, the oilrig crew departs a newly closed oil field for home. Within minutes, a fierce sandstorm hits the cargo plane, the plane crashes spectacularly in the Gobi desert. The survivors first attempt to wait for a rescue, rationing their remaining water and food supplies. Downs prefers inaction, but Elliot’s suggestion that they rebuild the broken plane from the one remaining engine raises the other survivors’ hopes. After listening to two “we need dreams, we need hope to carry on” speeches, Downs reluctantly agrees to Elliot’s plan. The remainder of the film centers on building the new, smaller plane, with the work interrupted by fierce desert sandstorms, conflicts, and, in the last third, the introduction of nomadic smugglers, who likely pose an immediate threat to the survivors.
Flight of the Phoenix includes the impressive plane crash that sets the storyline in motion, the final scene aboard the rebuilt plane, and the rebuilding-the-airplane montage sequence Moore emphasizes editing over camera movement, focusing on the pleasures inherent in manual labor and in groups working together toward a common goal and the greater good. Moore also makes effective use of a tableaux-like image, the survivors standing in front of two makeshift crosses and graves, the last resting place for their fallen comrades; a visual shorthand for their isolation from the outside world and for the overriding need for cooperation.
As mentioned above, the screenplay places minimal emphasis on the kinds of backstories or character moments that actors thrive in. Characters and character motivations are revealed through the choices they make that drive the plot forward, but given the overarching storyline, individual performances generally give way to the larger group. Besides Dennis Quaid as the captain, only rapper-turned-actor Tyrese Gibson, makes an impression. Gibson gives a surprisingly credible performance as the co-pilot. Miranda Otto is notable mostly for being the sole female in the cast, but the fault lies in her underwritten role not her performance.
While the script gives the actors minimal time for character moments or emotional beats, Flight of the Phoenix also stumbles in another respect: little is made of the external threat posed by the nomadic smugglers. The smugglers are mostly kept offscreen, riding in at the climactic scene. Rather than attack the survivors when they had the opportunity, the smugglers wait until the rebuilt plane is ready for takeoff. Likewise with the scenes involving Kelly and Captain Downs that suggests the first stirrings of romantic attachment. Their perfunctory scenes together are missing the gradual revelations that usually accompany romantic subplots in fiction or film. For some moviegoers, any of these criticisms won't be much of a problem. Character development won't matter, only whether Flight of the Phoenix delivers action wise, and it does.
© Mel Valentin, 23rd February, 2005
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