Flight (2012 film)
| Flight | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Written by | John Gatins |
| Produced by | Laurie MacDonald Walter F. Parkes Jack Rapke Steve Starkey Robert Zemeckis |
| Starring | Denzel Washington Don Cheadle Kelly Reilly John Goodman Bruce Greenwood Melissa Leo |
| Cinematography | Don Burgess |
| Edited by | Jeremiah O'Driscoll |
| Music by | Alan Silvestri |
Production companies | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures (USA/Worldwide/UK) StudioCanal (Germany) |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 139 minutes[1] |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $31 million[2] |
| Box office | $161,772,375 [3] |
Flight is a 2012 American drama film. Starring Denzel Washington, it is director Robert Zemeckis' first live-action film since Cast Away and What Lies Beneath, which were both released in 2000, and the first R-rated film directed by him since Used Cars back in 1980, as well as the first ImageMovers release to date to have an R-rating. Flight was nominated for two Academy Awards at the 85th Academy Awards: Best Actor (for Washington) and Best Original Screenplay (for John Gatins).
Plot
On October 14, 2011, airline captain and cocaine-addicted alcoholic Whip Whitaker (Washington) awakens in his Orlando hotel room with flight attendant Katerina Márquez (Nadine Velazquez) after a night of sex, alcohol, and little sleep. After using cocaine to wake up, he boards SouthJet Flight 227 as pilot to Atlanta. After Whip threads the plane through severe turbulence at takeoff, copilot Ken Evans (Geraghty) pilots while Whitaker discreetly mixes vodka in his orange juice and takes a nap. He is jolted awake by a mechanical failure triggered when the copilot initiates normal descent. The aircraft's elevator jams and throws the aircraft into a steep dive. Unable to correct the situation by normal means, Whip rolls the plane upside down to arrest the dive. With the engines failing due to the abnormal flying attitude and realizing they will not make it to a runway, he then maneuvers the plane right-side up just before executing a forced landing in a field. He loses consciousness on impact and is dragged out of the aircraft by a passenger.
Whip awakens in an Atlanta hospital with minor injuries. He is greeted by his old friend Charlie Anderson (Greenwood), who represents the airline's pilots union. He tells Whip that he saved 96 out of 102 people on board. A National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) official informs him Katerina was among those killed.
Whip meets Nicole Maggen (Reilly) who is recovering from an overdose, and promises to visit her when they leave the hospital. In the morning, his friend and drug dealer, Harling Mays (Goodman), picks him up and sneaks him away from the hospital. Whip drives to his late father's farm and dumps out all his alcohol. When he meets Charlie and attorney Hugh Lang (Cheadle), they explain that the NTSB performed a hospital toxicology screen while he was unconscious, showing that Whip was intoxicated. The test had the potential to send him to prison on alcohol, drug, and manslaughter charges. Hugh promises to get the toxicology report voided on technical grounds, but Whip angrily leaves and seeks Nicole. He finds her bailing on her lease, offers to pay for it, and lets her stay at the farm.
The night before the NTSB hearing, Whip is moved into a guarded hotel room to ensure he does not get intoxicated. His minibar has only nonalcoholic beverages, but upon opening a mistakenly unlocked door to the adjoining room, Whip discovers it has a full minibar. Charlie and Hugh find him the next morning, passed out drunk. They call Harling, who revives him with cocaine for the hearing.
At the hearing, Ellen Block (Leo), the lead NTSB investigator, explains that a damaged elevator assembly jackscrew was the primary cause of the crash. She commends Whip on his valor and skill, and asks a series of questions about his sobriety to which Whip lies. Block then asks a final question about the empty vodka bottles found in the trash of the plane. Since Márquez's toxicology report showed evidence of alcohol, Block asks Whip if it is his opinion that she drank it. Rather than lie and permanently taint her good name, Whip admits to drinking the vodka, flying intoxicated, and also that he is intoxicated at the hearing.
Thirteen months later, an imprisoned Whip, serving a minimum five-year sentence, tells a support group of fellow inmates that he is glad to be sober and does not regret doing the right thing, because he finally feels "free." He also tells them that he lost his piloting license, but he didn't lose his way. He has pictures of Nicole and other family and friends on the wall of his cell, along with greeting cards congratulating him on being sober for a year. He is working to rebuild his relationship with his son, who visits his father for an interview for a college application essay on "the most fascinating person I've never met."
Cast
- Denzel Washington as Whip Whitaker
- Kelly Reilly as Nicole Maggen
- Don Cheadle as Hugh Lang
- Bruce Greenwood as Charlie Anderson
- John Goodman as Harling Mays
- Melissa Leo as Ellen Block
- Tamara Tunie as Margaret Thomason
- Nadine Velazquez as Katerina Márquez
- Brian Geraghty as Ken Evans
- Peter Gerety as Avington Carr
- Garcelle Beauvais as Deana Coleman
- Justin Martin as Will Whitaker
- James Badge Dale as Gaunt Young Man
- Piers Morgan (Cameo)
Production
Robert Zemeckis entered negotiations to direct in April 2011,[4] and by early June had accepted, with Denzel Washington about to finalize his own deal.[5] It marked the first time Zemeckis and Washington worked together on a motion picture.
By mid-September 2011, Kelly Reilly was in negotiations to play the female lead,[6] with Don Cheadle,[7] Bruce Greenwood,[7] and John Goodman[8] joining later in the month, and Melissa Leo and James Badge Dale in final negotiations.[9] Screenwriter John Gatins said in early October 2011 that production would begin mid-month.[10] Flight was largely filmed on location near Atlanta, Georgia, over 45 days in November 2011.[11] The film's relatively small budget of $31 million, which Zemeckis later calculated was his smallest budget in inflation-adjusted dollars since 1980, was due to tax rebates from Georgia and from Zemeckis and Washington having waived their customary fees.[11]
Gatins explained in a 2012 interview with the Los Angeles Times that the dramatic fictional crash depicted in Flight was "loosely inspired" by the 2000 crash of Alaska Airlines Flight 261,[11] which was caused by a broken jackscrew and in which the pilots briefly attempted to recover from catastrophic loss of control by flying the aircraft upside down. That crash had no survivors. The airplane in "Flight", a two-engine T-tail jet airliner, appears to be from the same model family as Alaska Airlines 261, a variant of the MD-80.
The landing resembles that of Scandinavian Airlines Flight 751, also an MD-80 family aircraft. Like in the film, SK 751 suffered a flameout, glided and made a forced landing in a field, where it broke up but remained largely intact. Despite a few serious injuries, all survived. Also like in the film, the flight attendants of SK 751 ordered the passengers to adopt the brace position, which is credited with saving lives.
Reception
Flight has received mostly positive reviews. The film has an approval rating of 78% based on a sample of 215 critics on Rotten Tomatoes.[12] The site's consensus states "Robert Zemeckis makes a triumphant return to live-action cinema with Flight, a thoughtful and provocative character study propelled by a compelling performance from Denzel Washington." Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 76% based on reviews from 36 critics.[13]
Denzel Washington's performance received praise fron various critics. The Hollywood Reporter's Todd McCarthy wrote that the film "provides Denzel Washington with one of his meatiest, most complex roles, and he flies with it."[1] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film four stars (out of four) writing, "Flight segues into a brave and tortured performance by Denzel Washington—one of his very best. Not often does a movie character make such a harrowing personal journey that keeps us in deep sympathy all of the way." He also noted the plane's upside-down flight scene was "one of the most terrifying flight scenes I've ever witnessed".[14] Entertainment Weekly wrote, "Denzel Washington didn't get an Oscar nod for nothing: His performance as an alcoholic airline pilot ensnared by his own heroics is crash-and-burn epic."[15]
The film received some criticism from airline pilots who questioned the film's realism, particularly the premise of a pilot being able to continue flying with a significant substance-abuse problem.[16] The Air Line Pilots' Association in an official press release dismissed the film as an inaccurate portrayal of an air crew and stated that "we all enjoy being entertained, but a thrilling tale should not be mistaken for the true story of extraordinary safety and professionalism among airline pilots."[17] An airline pilot also commented that " a real-life Whitaker wouldn’t survive two minutes at an airline, and all commercial pilots—including, if not especially, those who’ve dealt with drug or alcohol addiction—should feel slandered by his ugly caricature."[18] The pilot also criticised the portrayal of the relationship between copilot and captain, the decision of Whitaker to increase speed dangerously in a storm and the ultimate dive and crash landing of Whitaker's aircraft.[18]
Awards and nominations
Miscellaneous
At The Oscars, host Seth MacFarlane re-created Flight using sock-puppets as a parody. In his version, Whip drinks a whole bottle of whiskey before takeoff. In air, he snorts coke. While the plane dives, Whip (intoxicatedly) rolls the plane. In the hospital, Harling and Whip do drugs together.
References
- ^ a b McCarthy, Todd (October 15, 2012). "Flight: New York Film Festival Review". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 24, 2012.
- ^ Horn, John (October 20, 2012). "How the movie 'Flight' got off the ground". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved November 4, 2012.
- ^ Flight at Box Office Mojo
- ^ Kit, Borys (April 20, 2011). "Robert Zemeckis in Talks for Live-Action 'Flight' With Denzel Washington Circling". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ^ Zeitchik, Steven (June 3, 2011). "Robert Zemeckis finally looks to take 'Flight'". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ^ White, James (September 13, 2011). "Kelly Reilly Takes Flight". Deadline.com. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ^ a b Morris, Clint (September 22, 2011). "Exclusive : Cheadle, Greenwood join Zemeckis's Flight". Moviehole.com. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ^ Fleming, Mike (September 28, 2011). "John Goodman Boards Robert Zemeckis' Flight With Denzel Washington". Deadline.com. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ^ Kit, Borys (September 30, 2011). "Melissa Leo, James Badge Dale Booking 'Flight' (Exclusive)". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved October 20, 2012.
- ^ Warner, Kara (October 5, 2011). "Denzel Washington's "Flight" Is 12 Years In The Making". MTV. Retrieved November 7, 2011.
- ^ a b c Horn, John (21 October 2012). "How the movie 'Flight' became airborne". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 23 October 2012.
- ^ Flight at Rotten Tomatoes Flixster
- ^ "Flight". Metacritic. CBS.
- ^ Ebert, Roger. "Roger Ebert Flight review". Chicago Sun-Times. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
- ^ Entertainment Weekly Staff (February 8, 2013). "The Must List". Entertainment Weekly. New York: Time Inc.: 8.
- ^ Smith, Patrick (November 18, 2012). "Real Pilots Laugh at 'Flight'". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on November 26, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2012.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ http://www.alpa.org/portals/alpa/pressroom/pressreleases/2012/10-31-12_12.43.htm
- ^ a b http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/11/18/real-pilots-laugh-at-flight.html
External links
- Official website
- Flight at IMDb
- Flight at AllMovie
- Flight at Rotten Tomatoes
- Flight at Metacritic
- Flight at Box Office Mojo
- 2012 films
- 2010s drama films
- American drama films
- American aviation films
- Interracial romance films
- Films about alcoholism
- Films about drugs
- Films set on an airplane
- Films set in Florida
- Films set in Atlanta, Georgia
- Films directed by Robert Zemeckis
- ImageMovers films
- Paramount Pictures films
- StudioCanal films
- English-language films
- Films about survivors of aviation accidents or incidents
- Films shot in Georgia (U.S. state)