OOF.just so far as it plays into my personal fears, this was about as harrowing as it gets. i was trembling by the time i reached the opening title card. sorry UNITED 93, you had a good run, but you are no longer the worst possible film to screen on an airplane. having said that, as strong as the performances are, i'm not sure if the normalized approach accomplishes enough to compensate for the lack of particulars supplied to each crash. using the same small, easily recognizable cast returns the viewer to a stable place where they can be pulverized anew, but the human element is certainly lost, as is any clear commentary on how national culture affected these incidents. and it gets complicated by how things are colored in that weren't on the audio transcripts... the pilots checking out the ass of a flight attendant, silent cues invented for this piece. it's thorny stuff and it doesn't sit easy, which mirrors how i feel every time i step on a plane in the first place.
a showcase for the economy of anxiety, just a black room with actors reading transcripts (in 3D, no less) yet has the ability to get under your skin in ways that few, more traditional (and expensive), manage; reaffirming in my fear of flying
I booked our spring trip to Italy this week. What better time to watch a movie that recreates the moments inside an airplane's cockpit prior to it crashing with various degrees of success and survival!I'm not someone who flies a whole lot. Yet I very rarely have a non-eventful experience. Minor compared to the events depicted here of course, but definitely memorable.My last flight was around six years ago. We went to Washington D.C. when my daughter was selected to display her art on Capitol Hill for Rare Disease Week. It was a great trip. But on the day we were set to depart, it was a very blustery day. The sustained winds were around 40 mph. I remember I had to run across the street from the hotel to Trader Joe's to pick up some water or something, and it almost blew me over. It was impressive, and I've survived about 100 hurricanes at this point. I kept checking the flights--ours was not cancelled. So we packed up and headed to the airport in Baltimore to fly out, with the wind knocking us around on the interstate. The airport was a ghost town. So many flights were cancelled, seemingly every flight except ours. I was placing my trust in these professionals, hoping they knew what they were doing. That's the bittersweet side for me for flying--I like to be in control. I'm always the one to drive anywhere. And in a plane, I'm giving up all control, which part of me likes, but most of me despises. When we board the plane, we hear someone asking one of the stewardesses about the wind situation. She tells them that the landing they just did coming in was the roughest landing she had ever experienced in who knows how many years of flying. But not to worry! The pilot says it is easier to take off in wind than to land. And the takeoff was not bad, although you could feel the extra lift.My wife had a much closer call on a flight back from Orlando where she went to a conference with a bunch of ladies from church (which sounds like a terrible time, and it was for her). It was on my birthday. All the guys are at the airport with all their kids to pick up their wives. My daughter made a sign and everything. I'm watching the tracking of the plane on the monitor. It's almost back home when I see it turn around and head back to Houston. We have no idea what is going on, but the context clues are not looking good.Turns out that the landing gear on her plane would not engage. The pilot announced to the cabin the situation, and that they were headed back to Houston because they would be better prepared to handle a crash landing than the airport in Alexandria, Louisiana. My wife said women were holding pictures of their children and crying. Lots of praying. They made it of course without a crash landing. The landing gear finally came down. They ended up on another plane to another city (everyone had to drive 2 hours to Monroe to pick up their loved ones), and the pilot ended up as a passenger on the plane with them, so they got the whole story of what was happening in the cockpit.Watching Charlie Victor Romeo, the largest takeaway I had was the calmness and clarity of the flight crew in the most dire of circumstances. The closest comparison I have is working in a hospital as a pharmacist during a Code Blue situation. Someone's life is on the line (not mine, unlike a pilot during an emergency), but everyone remains calm and knows what they are supposed to do and does their job. Here, with even higher stakes, these flight crews and air traffic controllers remained calm in the face of likely catastrophe. A remarkable feat.And a remarkable film to showcase these professions that we might take for granted more than we should. This film is not an easy watch, and I imagine some people just will not be able to watch it at all. It is a very anxiety inducing experience for a constant 80 minutes that I would definitely watch again. A great release from Dekanalog, one of the Vinegar Syndrome partner labels, and it is even presented with a 3D option (which I did watch with the red and blue 3D glasses. Not sure it added much to the experience, but it didn't distract for sure).
