Heads Up – Flight of the Phoenix/Memphis Belle (merged)

Pete, re stearman, I would have thought that it was possible to injure yourself more than KST just climbing into one!! there wasn’t even a speck of blood ,and she had a white dress on! I think the Pheonix was built to look flimsy but did have an FAA certificate; I certainly wouldn’t want to be in the front cockpit of one (stearman) when it was put down like that! (I half expected the pilot to spring out of the rear cockpit shouting woof! woof!, Treat your womam like yer kite etc etc. Good to hear your son’s ok Re mis diagnosis,if you want a second opinion don’t ask another doctor, and no we don’t “do” medical dramas I don’t need reminding how fragile life is , or her constant criticism ,of something I have no specialist knowledge in -actually thats almost everything really!!

Nice one, ok, I except that KST could at least have had a nose bleed, but it would have spoilt that dress.

Incidentally, it was the 5th doctor that finally worked it out, and he was Addenbrookes registrar, top man, he was the business, the lumbar puncture he performed to prove his point was not pleasant to watch, and they thought that he himself had come down with the disease the week after, fortunately for us mortals it was flu, we can’t afford to lose people like him.

JDK, if you typed with one finger and had to look up as many words as me ,you’d be in the low hundreds as well! Re sand inconsistancies I would have thought the type of sand with sharp protrusions jutting out would be about the worst (mountains I think they’re called)

Pete, re stearman, I would have thought that it was possible to injure yourself more than KST just climbing into one!! there wasn’t even a speck of blood ,and she had a white dress on! I think the Pheonix was built to look flimsy but did have an FAA certificate; I certainly wouldn’t want to be in the front cockpit of one (stearman) when it was put down like that! (I half expected the pilot to spring out of the rear cockpit shouting woof! woof!, Treat your womam like yer kite etc etc. Good to hear your son’s ok Re mis diagnosis,if you want a second opinion don’t ask another doctor, and no we don’t “do” medical dramas I don’t need reminding how fragile life is , or her constant criticism ,of something I have no specialist knowledge in -actually thats almost everything really!!

JDK, you might be repeating yourself ,but those of us that haven’t got as far as 4855 posts, probably haven’t covered this (and many other subjects); there seems to be a school of thought here that if you weren’t registered and active on this forum by a certain date ,that you cannot discuss anything previously “done to death” and must content yourselves with reading other peoples thoughts on a subject, near to your own heart. (thanks for the link)

Don’t take it seriously, it was just a passing remark. My what low numbers everyone suddenly seems to have around here… 😉

My point was only that what goes around comes around, and it’s often worth a search.

It’s nice to feel senior in numbers, I’ll try and avoid the moments though.

Oh, and regarding the differences between Flight of the Phoenix and The English Patient, there are different types of sand… Lots of them, and different kinds of aircraft crashes too.

Cheers!

Good movie – one of very few guaranteed to make me shed at tear by the end! (Where Almasy prompts Hana to euthanise him).

But surely you mean Willem Dafoe, and not Daniel Defoe? 😉

Sorry you are right, my brain wasn’t working working properly, was I thinking Gullivers Travels. My tearful moment is when Auf Wiedershen Pet shouldn’t have happened and our Geordie sargeant gets booby trapped at the statue amongst all the rejoicing, I was getting wound up waiting for that scene.

Another film that was on last night and not mentioned, ‘The English Patient’.
Unlike Pearl Harbor, this was a romantic story set AGAINST the background of a war, and in my opinion, very well done too, but then it wasn’t Hollywood was it, apart from funding, and the token American presence, Daniel Defoe, was superb.
The crash of the Stearman still makes me hide behind the settee.
All in all, I think it’s a great film, well shot, directed and acted, my sort of film really, the character of the Sikh bomb disposal officer is a gem, my favourite scene is when he lifts up the nurse on ropes, armed with a flare in order to see the frescos in the church, and then the bit where he’s trying to diffuse the bomb next to the viaduct with the Shermans attempting to cross, nice film.

Good movie – one of very few guaranteed to make me shed at tear by the end! (Where Almasy prompts Hana to euthanise him).

But surely you mean Willem Dafoe, and not Daniel Defoe? 😉

Although, you can tear any film to bits if you want,after all compare the crash of the Pheonix, it was the person sitting nearest to the engine (in both cases a radial) that died , the engine apparently crushing him , but in the EP she only gets a broken ankle/wrist and a few ribs, add that to the fact that the second biplane (tigermoth?) lands and takes off in similiar desert conditions as in the Pheonix, with no injestion of sand issues, and no skis. People on this forum are obviously in another league to me when it comes to acceptable authenticity in films; my wife is a specialist burns nurse ,she tears to shreds anything medical on tv re authenticity, its a good job she was asleep during the English Patient!.

I see where you’re coming from, but authenticity doesn’t always have to be a serious issue, and besides, reading the information on the Phoenix, it looks as if the a/c was quite flimsily built, whereas I would imagine that a Stearman is pretty robust.
Your wife sounds a brave woman, I don’t envy her that job for any money, does she like ‘House’, I bet she hates it, I can’t believe that I’m seeing Hugh Laurie in such a role, I’ve had so many real hospital dramas of my own this year, including meeting a similar character up at Addenbrookes who wanted to shoot the doctors that mis-diagnosed my sons meningitis, so I actually quite like it.
My boys fine by the way, complete recovery, and I think that the experience has made him a better person, not that he was a bad lad, he just has a better perception of life, the universe and everything, in other words, he knows he’s not immortal.

Although, you can tear any film to bits if you want,after all compare the crash of the Pheonix, it was the person sitting nearest to the engine (in both cases a radial) that died , the engine apparently crushing him , but in the EP she only gets a broken ankle/wrist and a few ribs, add that to the fact that the second biplane (tigermoth?) lands and takes off in similiar desert conditions as in the Pheonix, with no injestion of sand issues, and no skis. People on this forum are obviously in another league to me when it comes to acceptable authenticity in films; my wife is a specialist burns nurse ,she tears to shreds anything medical on tv re authenticity, its a good job she was asleep during the English Patient!.

Watched the end of The Belle.

What tosh. 🙁

The story was dramatic enough without all the Hollywood bollox of the last minute cranking of the u/c and the guy nearly falling out of the bomb bay. 😡

Moggy

So did I and I agree, I could never get my head round the Belle, watching the actual filming all those years ago was very exciting, but the end product was not very good, it was lacking in all sorts of ways.
Another film that was on last night and not mentioned, ‘The English Patient’.
Unlike Pearl Harbor, this was a romantic story set AGAINST the background of a war, and in my opinion, very well done too, but then it wasn’t Hollywood was it, apart from funding, and the token American presence, Daniel Defoe, was superb.
The crash of the Stearman still makes me hide behind the settee.
All in all, I think it’s a great film, well shot, directed and acted, my sort of film really, the character of the Sikh bomb disposal officer is a gem, my favourite scene is when he lifts up the nurse on ropes, armed with a flare in order to see the frescos in the church, and then the bit where he’s trying to diffuse the bomb next to the viaduct with the Shermans attempting to cross, nice film.

Watched the end of The Belle.

What tosh. 🙁

The story was dramatic enough without all the Hollywood bollox of the last minute cranking of the u/c and the guy nearly falling out of the bomb bay. 😡

Moggy

JDK, you might be repeating yourself ,but those of us that haven’t got as far as 4855 posts, probably haven’t covered this (and many other subjects); there seems to be a school of thought here that if you weren’t registered and active on this forum by a certain date ,that you cannot discuss anything previously “done to death” and must content yourselves with reading other peoples thoughts on a subject, near to your own heart. (thanks for the link)

Pictures and story of the tragic Mantz crash here

Be warned – photos of fatal crash included, but no close ups.

We have discussed this before, here and here

Are we repeating ourselves? Is that an echo?

The plane they leave on at the end of the film was meant to be constructed from one of the booms from the C-82. For some reason the stunt of “taking off” was considered too dangerous by the film makers, so a stunt pilot “Paul Mantz” was tasked with coming in low, running his landing gear along the ground and then climbing away to simulate a take-off.

On his second run in and the second take Mantz was killed when he unfortunately crashed the aircraft. However by this time all the main footage had already been canned, so another aircraft from a museum was substituted for the remaining close-ups.

Another great Jimmy Stewart film was Strategic Air Command made in 1955. Fantastic shots of B36’s in the air, and no CGI !!!!

Just had a look at the final scene, there was a tribute to Paul Mantz in the credits, anyway, back to the cup final, best I’ve seen for years, that last goal from Gerard was awesome, second period of extra time, must go.

Presumably thats why you don’t see it land, just the survivors climbing up a rocky path; almost the greatest film ever made,(see signature ) I look forward to watching the remake when its either sent through the post free of charge (randomly, just to get rid of existing stocks) or else it appears on tv when I’m too inebriated to find the remote and turn it off.

The plane they leave on at the end of the film was meant to be constructed from one of the booms from the C-82. For some reason the stunt of “taking off” was considered too dangerous by the film makers, so a stunt pilot “Paul Mantz” was tasked with coming in low, running his landing gear along the ground and then climbing away to simulate a take-off.

On his second run in and the second take Mantz was killed when he unfortunately crashed the aircraft. However by this time all the main footage had already been canned, so another aircraft from a museum was substituted for the remaining close-ups.

Another great Jimmy Stewart film was Strategic Air Command made in 1955. Fantastic shots of B36’s in the air, and no CGI !!!!

OK ignore me – I’ll go and sit in the corner and sulk!

Heads Up – Flight of the Pheonix/Memphis Belle

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This Saturday (13th May) pretty good TV if you’re not lucky enough to be off flying or at an airshow.

14.50 – 17.10 (BBC2) “The Flight of the Pheonix” – do not know at this stage if this is the original or the remake. It’s time slot suggests the former.

17.25 – 19.15 (Five) “Memphis Belle” – presumably the remake.

Roger Smith.
__________________

The original from 1965, haven’t seen either so will definitely watch it, this is what the BBC says about it

When a plane crashes in the middle of the Sahara Desert, the pilot and the navigator do their best to maintain order among the survivors, a group of oil men not well-suited for survival in the harsh conditions.

Is this the original or the more recent rehash ?????

The original.

Is this the original or the more recent rehash ?????

Heads up this afternoon, Flight of The Phoenix, BBC2 2:50

Unfortunately it clashes with the Cup Final and painting the kitchen and non of my VCR’s work properly.

Is it national garage sale day today, all the villages round here are selling their tut, just been to Bardfield and couldn’t find any complete examples of DH Hornets parked on anyones drive, my missus has gone looking for one in Panfield, with a bit of luck, she will be landing on the cricket pitch shortly.