The High and the Mighty

The quintessential movie from which Arthur Hailey and others began writing the ho-hum disaster movies. Based on the book by Ernie Gann, this movie is a study of people brought together in a confined space under great duress. It may be very difficult for people to understand the 1950s film unless they put themselves 65 years back in time (when there were no passenger jetliners flying at 84% the speed of sound miles above the weather) when a flight in an unpressurized aircraft from Hawaii to California took 14-16 hours instead of 5-6. The movies emphasizes much different personal dilemmas in terms of morality, illness, and tragedy, all brought together on one fateful flight. The book from which the movie was developed took no prisoners in the portrayal of a co-pilot’s actions to override a weak, indecisive, and panicked captain who nearly cost all the occupants of the aircraft to lose their lives by panicking; the copilot took control of the situation by forcibly getting the attention of the captain and causing him to consider that heir plight, which was dire, was not hopeless — and that there was reason to merit attempting a landing at their destination, San Francisco, rather than to ditch the aircraft in the nighttime Pacific ocean during rough and stormy conditions. The actions of the copilot might seem laughable to some, but doing this would have saved hundreds of lives in real-live but for one fact: federal law, and the long-time traditions of the sea, dictate that the captain is always right. Today, we know the substance of the copilot’s actions to be correct (though not his technique) in what is called “Cockpit Resource Management.” Truly, the film was 35 years ahead of its time when made: too bad that the movie was made in the 1950s. Excellent acting, though it will likely bore most modern moviegoers. The movie was ignored by Hollywood for any consideration other than Dimitri Timken’s excellent musical score and the theme song, which lost consideration because the Academy ruled that the theme must be sung in order to qualify for Academy Award consideration, likely a deliberate slap in the face of John Wayne, Robert Stack, and the author of the book from which the movie was made, Ernest Gann, for their conservative politics.

One of the very few films starring John Wayne I had not seen. It was certainly worth the wait. It has an exciting main storyline as well as subplots that add to the film's character. Claire Trevor, Jan Sterling, Robert Stack are excellent in their roles. John Wayne is great as the co-pilot with demons of his own. The supporting cast does a wonderful job in bringing this story to life. I really enjoyed this one!

This was a good John Wayne movie, with Wayne as the hero. The subplots were interesting. The best part of the movie was the theme song, "Theme from the High and the Mighty". I saw this movie when I was 12 years old and the melody is still a haunting, wonderful tune to me and I am now 66 years old. I recommend this movie to anyone. I am surprised that it does not show up on the classic movie channels on TV. I am buying it to show it to my wife who is 11 years younger than I and never had the good fortune to see the movie. It is also refreshing to see a Hollywood production that does not take a gratutious, cheap shot at George Bush.

This movie is a classic film that nobody has ever heard of. Outlandishly corny to the point where its funny, this flick is one of my favorites.