Garfly Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 (edited) What do you do if you crash a twin engine transport (like a Fairchild C-82 Packet) in the desert and you can't be found? Well, as survivors, you gather your wits, your know-how and on-board tools and build yourself a single from bits of wreckage and take-off to safety. The producers did, in fact, construct just such a one-off Phoenix which was flyable. However, the real-world stunt pilot was not as lucky as our fictional heroes were. Flight of the Phoenix is intelligently directed by Robert Aldrich with a great cast including (real pilot) James Stewart, Dickie Attenborough and Peter Finch. Some of the interesting back-story: The Flight of the Phoenix (1965 film) - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG Fairchild C-82 Packet - Wikipedia EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG https://www.check-six.com/Crash_Sites/Mantz-P1.htm The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) - Trivia - IMDb WWW.IMDB.COM The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) - Trivia on IMDb: Cameos, Mistakes, Spoilers and more... Edited April 10 by Garfly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spacesailor Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 That's something I never knew . spacesailor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sfGnome Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 One end of term at school, they put all of us in the hall and played a 16mm print of the movie (presumably easier than trying to teach us something on the last day). However, in an unfortunate error in timing, the school bell went before it finished, so we never got to see if they made it off safely. I assume that they did… 🙃 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny_galaga Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 One of my favourite movies of all time 😊 I bought the DVD a while ago and it turned out to be NTSC, so thanks for the heads up. Will watch this via Chromecast on my ol Samsung tellie 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Now it all will be done by Digital fakery so not as Impressive as THIS is.. View it if you can. Nev 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny_galaga Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 49 minutes ago, facthunter said: Now it all will be done by Digital fakery so not as Impressive as THIS is.. View it if you can. Nev Can't blame studios for using CGI etc. It's often cheaper, and obviously MUCH safer. But I agree, there's something special about seeing it done for real, whether it's the car chase scenes in films like The French Connection, or Christian Bale actually losing nearly 30kg for his role in The Machinist or of course this movie. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rgmwa Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 They did a remake that was pathetic compared to the original. The Great Waldo Pepper and the Blue Max are two other good old movies. George Peppard learned to fly to do most of his own flying in the Blue Max. The lozenge camouflaged plane he flew in the movie is in Peter Jackson’s museum in NZ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny_galaga Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 11 minutes ago, rgmwa said: They did a remake that was pathetic compared to the original. The Great Waldo Pepper and the Blue Max are two other good old movies. George Peppard learned to fly to do most of his own flying in the Blue Max. The lozenge camouflaged plane he flew in the movie is in Peter Jackson’s museum in NZ. I saw the remake. It wasn't TOTALLY awful. They did at least find a similar type of plane and got it to flying condition. But agree, not a patch on the original. Blue Max is on my movies to see list. Yes, isn't that museum fantastic. I didn't even know it was there. Went for the Omaka airshow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garfly Posted April 11 Author Share Posted April 11 (edited) Aviation and Cinema were, after all, sibling children of the early 20th century; they grew up together. And one of the greatest early aviation classics was William Wellman's "Wings" (1927) The producers of Wings were super determined to have the flying sequences be as authentic as possible. Despite the danger and despite the cost. Another great story behind the story. (I believe I've raved on about Wings here before - no need to rave again ;- ) Edited April 11 by Garfly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
facthunter Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 Australia was Big in early aviation. That's where we come from. Papers were full of Aviators feats.The question IS why have we fallen so far and where to from here?. Nev Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garfly Posted April 11 Author Share Posted April 11 (edited) Re-reading that review of "Unsubstantial Air" (see above) I came across this bit about WWI American flyers in Europe: " ‘Being a pilot,’ he writes of them, ‘was something like being a college athlete, something like being a fraternity man at a house party that never ended, a bit like being a young tourist in an interesting foreign country with a few of your friends. Flying was fun – it was the only kind of war making that was.’ " That's interesting since the line "Flying used to be fun" is something the ageing pilot inThe Flight of the Phoenix says to his navigator early on in the film. I guess the original novel was set in the fifties so the captain's back story could well have included time as an American WWI flyer in France. Edited April 11 by Garfly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KRviator Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 4 hours ago, danny_galaga said: Can't blame studios for using CGI etc. It's often cheaper, and obviously MUCH safer. But I agree, there's something special about seeing it done for real, whether it's the car chase scenes in films like The French Connection, or Christian Bale actually losing nearly 30kg for his role in The Machinist or of course this movie. I love CGI, especially airplane CGI... It's getting better, but still... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garfly Posted April 11 Author Share Posted April 11 Yeah, I guess Masters of the Air is state of the art. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Ys1aI9a_Y Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danny_galaga Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 12 minutes ago, Garfly said: Yeah, I guess Masters of the Air is state of the art. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98Ys1aI9a_Y It's really strange that they made that intro look like something from a Call of Duty game, they even made the actors look like CGI. Here's a sequence from in the show. I haven't seen it. The trailers sold me on it. If all I had seen was the opening title sequence, I wouldn't have even rated it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grizzly Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 The Flight of the Phoenix is a fantastic film (SAAA member’s favourite) and well worth watching if you haven’t seen it. I first saw it on TV in the 1970s, and I’ve wanted to build my own aeroplane ever since. It follows the novel fairly closely, but leaves out some of the more gruesome bits. My copy even has the plans (not what I’m building). 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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