Such a frustrating disappointment

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

Funny, strange, confrontational and subversive, this is one of the most interesting experiences you'll have at the cinema this year.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

As suspense films go this may be lacking, but the star power of John Wayne as dan Roman, the over the hill co-pilot and third in command allows the film audience to believe that this plane is in great jeopardy. Dan Roman is in the latter stage of his career and the younger pilots know it, but they show him little respect until their airplane loses an engine and is running low on gas. The pilot of this Titanic in the air is John Sullivan played superbly by Robert Stack.There is a multitude of great characters on the flight all of whom realize that whatever problems they had before they boarded their Titanic plane are now far in the past, and their will to live is put to the test.I enjoyed the film and although the first half of the film concentrated on each of the passengers personal stories, and the disparity amongst the three (3) pilots, the latter half of the film provided great suspense with a warm and fuzzy feeling ending expected from a catastrophic action/suspense film.I give the film a 6 out of 10 rating.

. . . though Doe Avedon ("Miss Spalding") does not mention this fact when she's interviewed for a nine-minute "extra" on the first DVD release for THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY called STORIES FROM THE SET. In Real Life, Dorcas Marie Nowell's dad was a butler for some New York Rich People. Since Pops Nowell died when she was 12, the Rich People raised her and helped her to get a position where the famous photographer Richard Avedon spotted and married her (changing her first name to "Doe," because her eyes reminded him of BAMBI's). When Dick tried to make Doe into a Super Model, she found this was too strenuous (and humiliating, when one of Dick's friends wrote the play FUNNY FACE about her), so she dumped him (but kept his pet name and surname), took up stage acting until she married a co-star, had a couple movie roles, retired, but had to return to the Big Screen when her husband rolled their car and killed himself as they drove back from Hollywood to the East Coast. Doe only acted in FIVE films, none of which were as notable as THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY. She does not even say in her interview here whether she ever "stewed" in Real Life to make ends meet, but at least she was able to raise four kids with her third husband.

I watched it because it purported to be a John Wayne action film about piloting a crippled plane across the Pacific. It had 3.5 stars out of 4. Man, what a disappointment.For starters, it's not a John Wayne movie. He's the co-pilot, so Robert Stack the pilot has more lines than the Duke. It's an ensemble cast of stereotypes: the faded beauty, the young couple, the Asian immigrant, the bloviated Englishman, the unflappable stewardess, the shrewish wife, etc. To fill time (I guess), we get waaaay to many details into all their private lives. Phil Harris reliving his ruined Hawaiian vacation of a lifetime is particularly worthless. Others have rightly pointed out how one passenger fires his pistol at another - and nothing is done about it! (Another passenger takes the gun, then later gives it back??) But this flying soap opera is only part of the problem. Potemkin hammers overly dramatic melodies at every opportunity. The angle of a sailor on a ship relaying message is totally unnecessary. It seems like the whole West Coast scrambles when the plane issues a mayday - accompanied by more dramatic tunes.Perhaps the worst part is the handling of the emergency itself. The passengers remain totally calm and cooperative. There's little actual drama to it. Endless shots of the plane flying through stormy skies - and yet none while flying over San Francisco?? 1950s aviation may have been different, but I cannot believe it was solely the pilot's discretion to keep flying right over a major city with a crippled aircraft that by their own calculation was already out of fuel! There's hardly any communication with the tower on this. But they'll make it because, well, because John Wayne knows they will. His "If we can just make it for 30 more seconds." utterance tells you how poorly the sense of suspense was handled.The epilogue sums it up how bad this film was. The plane taxis right up to the terminal like nothing happened. Each passenger dramatically exits one-by-one as the score blares away, breezing through the press and marching off to a better and brighter future. Even the little boy who slept through it all. (How about waking him up to handle the expected crash landing?) The one (?!) airline official stoically puffs his stogie. The crew finally exits, spiffed up like it'd been a normal flight. No reports? No debrief? No nothing? Nope, just an "I'll call you." The best that can be said about this film is that it was the original airplane disaster film. Fans of "Airplane!" should definitely watch, as it borrowed heavily from this particularly the overly-dramatic utterances of Stack (aka Rex Kramer).I want these 2.5 hours of my life back.

This is by no means a bad film. It's just not terribly original. The area of film-making where the plane gets into trouble and everyone's story on-board the plane gets told and why they're there was started with "Phonecall from a Stranger". A very fine film with Bette Davis in a minor role.This was a good watch but right off you already know the ending so what your in for is the stories from each passenger. What put them there and they tell their story and what not. All good actors in here but as I mention, not original.If you wanna get an idea of a good film with an airplane scenario...try a better film before this was made..."Island in the Sky". It's miles above this one in terms of enjoyment and edge of your seat thrills. You won't waste your time with this one and it has a lot of good points but go and find "Phonecall from a Stranger" and see what I mean.