Flight
Why would you do this to my heart, Bob Zemeckis? I thought you loved us!!
And for those that know me personally, no my hatred/fear of flying actually had ZERO to do with this 140 minute commercial for Jesus or AA or both.
Look closely at the above poster. Notice how it focuses on Denzel Washington's PERFORMANCE. It says nothing about the film being good because it isn't. Even with a supporting cast of winners like Tamara Tunie (nice to see her out of her scrubs), Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood and John Goodman (who was the only relief in the whole film, though he was only used for five minutes of it).
I love Zemeckis. I truly do. Any man that makes "I Wanna Hold Your Hand", The "Back to the Future" trilogy, "Forest Gump", AND "Contact" can't be bad. But all this film made me feel was a desire to drink when I don't, a desire to do drugs, which I don't anymore either, and I had to stop for a fag every ten damn minutes.
And what do I get for my troubles?!? A two hour commercial for fucking Alcoholics Anonymous. WHAT THE FUCK. First off, "AA" and "NA" -is- an EXCLUSIVE club even if they say 'all are welcome' because they MAKE you call on or admit to a higher power. Well, I am a damn proud atheist so where could I have gone in my early twenties when I was drinking too much?!?? I sure as shit wasn't going to lie and say "God give me the strength....." because NOBODY, POWER, THING or ONE 'gave' me ANYTHING. I found the power in MYSELF and I pat myself on the back every time someone offers me a drink and I say no. Not because I had a problem but because I just really don't have the urge anymore. No rehab, hospital, or person helped me fight my demons but MYSELF and MY OWN will-power.
So any "Whatever Anonymous" is LYING TO YOU when they say everybody is welcome because ATHEISTS and AGNOSTICS ARE NOT unless they LIE. And I am not willing to lie to anyone, especially myself.
This movie bothered me for that reason and the religion undertones throughout. Come on, Bob, you made CONTACT, for fuck's sake. I thought you had the where with all to have a SCIENTIFIC BRAIN. Yet this film made me fucking pissed off that I stayed up to see it instead of having a nice dream where I was on LCD and listening to Floyd or the Beatles or was on X and dancing to Depeche' Mode, The Smiths or Cure. Yet I thought "It's Robert Zemekis, he doesn't make duds...and everyone raved (no pun intended) about this film..there are literally 200 holds for it at the library. It has to be at least a C plus, right." Um, F, no.
Nutshell: Brilliant Pilot drinks too much the night before a flight. Has a hair of the dog to steady him and a line of Coke to keep him Alert. The plane has mechanical failures, later proved, and the plane started to crash. Even in his slightly inebriated condition, he is better than 1000 pilots at their best so when the hydraulics go, he knows the only way to save any of them was to do a few really crazy things in a specific order, including 'rolling' the plane and flying her inverted for a minute to slow her down, dumping all the gas, and gliding over a residential area and landing in a field. Everything would have been fine but right before impact, a wing clipped a church steeple, the jolt caused a few deaths.
Over all, the black box shows that he SAVED 96 of the 102 people on board. Two crew and four civilians perished. They put ten of their best pilots in a simulation booth with the same conditions and had them do it over and over and over again. In each, all 102 souls on board dies in a firey dive resulting in a bomb like explosion. ONLY THIS CAPTAIN was good enough, instinctual enough, smart enough and experienced enough to save 96 lives.
What a HERO, right?!
Wrong. They took his blood and found cannabis, coke, and that he was legally drunk at the time of the crash. EVEN THOUGH *all* the evidence show the PLANE malfunctioned on many levels and EVEN THOUGH NO OTHER PILOT would have saved those 96 lives, they want him to answer for the 6, because he had a drink, a line of coke that morning, and had gotten stoned at some point in the weeks or days prior.
Here is where it becomes stupid, preachy, and makes me wonder is Mr. Zemekis got a check from Alcanon or was a drinker/druggie himself and wanted to give them props...or what the hell was he thinking??. I can't figure it out. If you love church and feel good crap and stories of redemption and a 'higher power', be my f-ing guest.
Personally, if I wanted to go to a meeting or had a problem, I'd seek help from someplace other than a movie. And if I wanted to 'find god', I would hit the books and churches and study about 14 of the "big" religions and choose for myself. Oh wait. I already took that inner journey in my teens when I read the Torah, the Koran, the Bible, the Dead Sea Scrolls, meditated, looked for Krishna, chanted and studied the history of all religions and seriously dabbled in half a dozen others, trying to find 'the truth'. WHICH IS WHY I CHOOSE SCIENCE, MR. ZEMECKIS. You, Denzel, John Goodman, and Don Cheadle could have made one hell of a good movie together. But you didn't and the ONE INTERESTING character you had (played by Goodman) you gave 4 or 5 minutes of screen time to.
Because this is Zemeckis and he has brought us so much pleasure, I will see his next picture I am sure. They can't ALL be 'Contact' or 'Back to the Future'. Yet if this continues, I am going to have to say his best work is behind him. It's just too soon to tell if this was a misstep or his 'new direction'.
Zu