{"id":4480,"date":"2015-06-03T07:01:51","date_gmt":"2015-06-03T11:01:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4480"},"modified":"2015-06-29T07:00:32","modified_gmt":"2015-06-29T11:00:32","slug":"flight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4480","title":{"rendered":"Flight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-4481\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/vweisfeld.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Flight_film_poster_converted.jpg?resize=288%2C420\" alt=\"Flight_film_poster_converted\" width=\"288\" height=\"420\" \/>Netflixed this 2012 movie (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.paramount.com\/flight\/\">trailer<\/a>) on the recommendation of a friend, and she was right that Denzel Washington gives a strong, persuasive performance as the alcohol- and drug-addicted airline pilot, Whip Whitaker. The first half-hour of the film, when his airliner gets in trouble, is \u201cthe finest and most terrifying plane crash sequence ever committed to film,\u201d says <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/entertainment\/archive\/2012\/11\/the-big-lie-of-flight-miracles-land-planes\/264381\/\"><em>The Atlantic<\/em><\/a> (you can see the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=_nhxm5QEbYI\">crash scene<\/a> here).<\/p>\n<p>John Goodman, as Whitaker\u2019s dealer, is congenially over-the-top as only Goodman can do it. Just a bit obvious when he sashays in with the Stones&#8217;s &#8220;Sympathy for the Devil&#8221; in the background. Excellent performances also by Kelly Reilly, as Whitaker\u2019s drug-addict girlfriend, Bruce Greenwood as the airline pilots\u2019 union rep, and Don Cheadle as the lawyer the union hires.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, director Robert Zemeckis and writer John Gatins chose not to include a lengthy and harrowing detox segment, which movies about addiction so often include (<em>Ray<\/em>, for example). I especially liked the solid contributions from the supporting cast\u2014Melissa Leo, Tamara Tunie, and Brian Geraghty, in particular.<\/p>\n<p>Real pilots, of course, find much to quarrel with\u2014or laugh at\u2014in the flying sequences, but they are not the point of the movie, anyway. They\u2019re there to get your attention. If you\u2019ve seen the movie, you might find <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thedailybeast.com\/articles\/2012\/11\/18\/real-pilots-laugh-at-flight.html\">this pilot\u2019s assessment<\/a> amusing (contains spoilers). <em>The Atlantic<\/em> piece objects to the theme that \u201ca miracle\u201d landed the plane, but I understood that it was Whitaker\u2019s creativity, skill and nerve, even when impaired, that accomplished it. What other characters thought was what they thought. And, yes, some people do talk about miracles and \u201cGod\u2019s hand,\u201d because that\u2019s the way they see the world.<\/p>\n<p>If you missed this movie the first time around, for fine acting and an engaging plot, it\u2019s worth seeing.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/flight_2012\/\">Rotten Tomatoes<\/a> critics rating 77%; audience ratings 75%.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Netflixed this 2012 movie (trailer) on the recommendation of a friend, and she was right that Denzel Washington gives a strong, persuasive performance as the alcohol- and drug-addicted airline pilot, Whip Whitaker. The first half-hour of the film, when his &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/?p=4480\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"Flight--Missed it on the big screen? Denzel Washington soars.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[269,366,57,104],"tags":[367,162],"class_list":["post-4480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-actor","category-drama","category-movies","category-the-morgue","tag-denzel-washington","tag-movie"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s2NkiT-flight","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4480"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4482,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions\/4482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vweisfeld.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}