Thursday, November 24, 2005
TEMPLATE
It is hard to remember when there weren't any 'disaster films'.
That would be a star vehicle with anthology plot (or plots); diverse people stuck in their powerlessness; and more or less heroic pilots or captains or whatever, who deliver the goods through difficult or 'impossible' situations. Lives are altered by the experience, not always for the good.
is one of the first of its kind; a grand-daddy of all disaster films that have followed.
I guess that is why it rates as a NYTimes 1176 Best Films film.
Its present triteness, arises from the fact that all others have flowed from this first one.
Shot in Cinemascope, we see a bunch of passengers start and end a journey with great danger in the middle.
It is a bit corny and a bit contrived and a bit slow; but, in parts, it works very well and surprisingly, the whole is greater than the sum.
What is quite surprising is that, in these relatively high-tech times, these people would be dead.
We have a four engine prop plane flying at low altitude. Baggage can be jettisoned. The plane flies low and slow enough that rescue is a real possibility.
Ernest K. Gann who wrote the original book and the screenplay, was a favorite author of mine. This was not one of his best books. I liked the books where there was a lot of flying info and a minimum of plot; where the reality quotient was very high.
I liked this film a lot because it was of my time and it starred John Wayne in one of his own template roles; the regular guy who finds himself in a difficult situation and who comes through. Low drama. Here he is a forty year flying vet with all the cool that can afford.
He gets to slap a psyched down Robert Stack which is nice to see.
Claire Trevor steals all her scenes and Jan Sterling is very affecting. Phil Harris, the band leader, plays Phil Harris. Many of the other passengers are well established B players that inhabited many, many films at that time.
I liked this movie more than it merits. I even sniffed at the end which was very low key. I guess that I appreciated it as much for the time and place and the memories as for the film itself.
I will give it a 4 out of Netflix 5. It should be a 3, but for old times' sake..................
