Rating: NR
Genre:
Action
Release Date: 05/20/2003
SubTitles: English/Espanol
Dubbed: English/French/Espanol
Sound: DD1/DD2
Run Time: 149 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Questionable for Children
Distributor/Studio: 20th Century Fox
Based on
Elleston Trevor's novel,
The Flight of the Phoenix opens with a well-staged plane crash in the middle of the Sahara desert. The pilot (
James Stewart) and the navigator (
Richard Attenborough) do their best to maintain order among the survivors, a group of oil men not well-suited for survival in the desert wastes. Some of those who appear to be the most resourceful reveal themselves to be inept or cowardly, while other less prepossessing types -- notably bespectacled
Standish (
Dan Duryea) -- demonstrate surprising inner reserves of strength. The ultimate fate of the survivors rests in the hands of
Heinrich Dorfmann (
Hardy Kruger), who uses the wreckage of the old plane to design a new one.
The Flight of the Phoenix was dedicated to the memory of veteran stunt pilot
Paul Mantz, who was killed while filming the take-off scene of the new plane.
~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
