The High and the Mighty, written by Ernest K. Gann, based on his novel - Nine out of 10

The High and the Mighty, written by Ernest K. Gann, based on his novel

Nine out of 10

Alert, though there are no spoilers…I guess…the following is a note on the film based on the novel, which should be evident from the title of this scribbling…however, given previous comments, here is a clarification for those who feel they need it…

This may be the perfect time to watch this rather inspirational motion picture, given that so many of us have self –isolated, to prevent getting the covid 19 virus or to transmit it to others, and we could get some important messages from a feature that has brave men and woman look at calamity, show resilience – though not all of them – learning and teaching the audience how to cope with trauma and adversity, manifest kindness, spirit of self-sacrifice, tenacity, compassion, grit, unselfishness – with the occasional self- absorbed character thrown in to compare and make the role models ever more radiant and resplendent.

Thus, The High and the Mighty is well placed among The New York Times’ Best 1,000 Movies ever Made - https://www.listchallenges.com/new-york-times-best-1000-movies-ever-made/list/10 - though for this cinephile there is also a less transcendent, ebullient, overwhelming side to this movie, which feels at times somewhat tacky, superficial and hard to believe…though we have to consider the age of the film, winner of an Academy Award and nominated for a few others, in 1954, when there appears that airplanes were not pressurized…in one scene, they need to alleviate the plane and thus they throw away luggage, contrary to what we know from the flying machines of this age, where once you have a puncture, things and people get absorbed and ejected into the air in a second or less.

The introduction is elaborate and the film is quite long at almost two hours and a half, it could have been shorter, but on the other hand, the characters are well defined – in the case of the negative one, maybe we wish we could have seen less of him, but then again, how could we see that the majestic Dan Roman aka legendary, if rather right wing John Wayne aka The Duke is so stupendous – and we learn of so much – come to think of it, way more than necessary – about their kids, troubles, past, accidents and so much more…

There are always two sides to a story and the above criticism can be turned on its head, because we can learn so much from those who have experienced adversity, trauma, loss of family members – the valiant, impressive, heroic when he saves the lives of many Dan Roman had lost both wife and child in an airplane accident, something we learn in the opening scenes and we would come back to, when the role model is overcome with emotion and memories of the tragedy.

As we contemplate more deaths from the Corona virus that is circling the world at this time, closing down countries like Italy and, from what the experts say others are to come for we all follow the same patterns, only delayed by a couple of weeks, we have to have role models and examples of heroes and heroines that have been through hard times and showed courage, resilience, patience, kindness, altruistic instincts and human values, as is the case in this motion picture, where calamity may be ahead…

One passenger does ask of the captain – who would lose his head and cool, but would get support from his wing man, Dan Roman, the latter showing exceptional self-control in crucial moments, when the fate of all on board is on balance and one moment of hesitation would make the difference from catastrophe and narrow escape – at the beginning, about dangers and being scared and the pilot is right in saying that the plane is safer than a car…statistics show that there is a much higher chance for one to be killed – especially in countries with wild traffic behavior, such as my land and I think Egypt, India and other countries – in a car than in the air.

It becomes evident quite early – well, in a quite long movie, early could mean the first part, which is after about one long hour – that something is about to happen and for some reason, this viewer was thinking they would all land somewhere and the plot would get tense, the climax will bring a confrontation between the men in the center stage and though not something on the scale of the infamous plane crushed in the Andes, where the survivors had had to live for many weeks in the freezing cold and then to resort to cannibalism, there would be something to watch in a major conflict…

It was not as anticipated, but the feature is impressive in that we see quite a few characters being brave, humane, strong, determined, socially intelligent, which is more important than the traditional, well-known IQ…