History Film / TheFlightOfThePhoenix1965

A twin-engine Fairchild C-82 piloted by Frank Towns (Creator/JimmyStewart) with navigator Lew Moran (Creator/RichardAttenborough) is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. They include two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who are hitching a ride on Towns' plane; eight Arabco oil company employees comprising six riggers who include sardonic Scotsman "Ratbags" Crow (Ian Bannen) and muscular American Mike Bellamy (George Kennedy), an accountant, Standish (Dan Duryea), and a foreman, "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who has suffered a mental breakdown and is accompanied by a doctor, Renaud (Christian Marquand); and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), a German civilian who was visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

* SenselessSacrifice: Harris ends up being responsible for three of these. First, when he and Carlos strike out for Madara on foot, Carlos dies of thirst and Harris ends up walking in a giant circle back to the crash site. Second, when he and Renaud approach the nomads camped just over the dunes from the crash site, they end up with their throats cut. In both cases, he knows he is taking a potentially life-threatening risk, but [[HonorBeforeReason decides the possibility that he might be able to get help outweighs the risk.]]

''The Flight of the Phoenix'' is a 1965 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film of the 1964 book of the same name]] by Creator/EllestonTrevor, directed by Creator/RobertAldrich.

* CaliforniaDoubling: Filmed in California and Nevada, representing the Sahara.

''The Flight of the Phoenix'' is a 1965 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film of the 1964 book of the same name]] by Creator/EllestonTrevor, directed by Robert Aldrich.

The film was quite popular, garnering AcademyAward nominations for best supporting actor (Ian Bannen) and film editing.

A twin-engine Fairchild C-82 piloted by Frank Towns (Creator/JimmyStewart) with navigator Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. They include two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who are hitching a ride on Towns' plane; eight Arabco oil company employees comprising six riggers who include sardonic Scotsman "Ratbags" Crow (Ian Bannen) and muscular American Mike Bellamy (George Kennedy), an accountant, Standish (Dan Duryea), and a foreman, "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who has suffered a mental breakdown and is accompanied by a doctor, Renaud (Christian Marquand); and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), a German civilian who was visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

The film was quite popular, garnering Academy Award nominations for best supporting actor (Ian Bannen) and film editing.

Another version of the book was released [[Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix2004 in 2004]].

[[quoteright:220:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/220px-The_Flight_of_the_Phoenix_-_1965_-_Poster_2233.png]]

''The Flight of the Phoenix'' is a 1965 [[TheFilmOfTheBook film of the 1964 book of the same name]] by Creator/EllestonTrevor, directed by Robert Aldrich. A twin engine Fairchild C-82 piloted by Frank Towns (Creator/JimmyStewart) with navigator Lew Moran (Richard Attenborough) is flying from Jebel to Benghazi in eastern Libya with a dozen passengers aboard. They include two British soldiers, Captain Harris (Peter Finch) and Sergeant Watson (Ronald Fraser), who are hitching a ride on Towns' plane; eight Arabco oil company employees comprising six riggers who include sardonic Scotsman "Ratbags" Crow (Ian Bannen) and muscular American Mike Bellamy (George Kennedy), an accountant, Standish (Dan Duryea), and a foreman, "Trucker" Cobb (Creator/ErnestBorgnine), who has suffered a mental breakdown and is accompanied by a doctor, Renaud (Christian Marquand); and Heinrich Dorfmann (Hardy Kruger), a German civilian who was visiting his Arabco-employed brother in Jebel.

Another version of the book was released [[Film/FlightOfThePhoenix in 2004]].

Another version of the book was released [[Film/TheFlightOfThePhoenix2004 in 2004]].

** He remains determined to set off for Madara, a hundred miles away, on foot, insisting that it can only improve the chance the others will be rescued, even after Towns points out that the magnetic rock in the nearby mountains will render his compass useless while Lew notes that the calculations involved in navigating by the stars require too much precision and his right-handedness means that he will end up simply walking in a circle. Sure enough, Harris ends up back at the crash site a few days later, near death from dehydration and exhaustion, his companion from the expedition, Carlos, having died in the desert.

*** ItsTheOnlyWay: In Harris' defense, he believes the chances of Dorfmann's plane getting off the ground is zero, and Towns isn't inclined to disagree.

** Ratbags Crow is barely able to go for a single scene without making fun of one of the other castaways, most of whom do not find him nearly as funny as he finds himself (such as when he pretend flirts with an unamused Watson while asking him for a spanner; the latter tells Crow to knock it off). That said, while he's a pretty unsympathetic character (less so than Watson, maybe), he works very hard during the ordeal and never could be accused of cowardice or bringing any detriment to the group.

* SenselessSacrifice: Harris ends up being responsible for three of these. First, when he and Carlos strike out for Madara on foot, Carlos dies of thirst and Harris ends up walking in a giant circle back to the crash site. Second, when he and Renaud approach the nomads camped just over the dunes from the crash site, they end up with their throats cut. In both cases, he knew he was taking a potentially life-threatening risk, but [[HonorBeforeReason decided the possibility that he might be able to get help outweighed the risk.]]

* DeadHandShot: Bill and Tassos, the riggers who are crushed to death by loose heavy equipment during the crash, each get one of these, with Bill's hand next to the issue of ''Playboy'' he was reading before the crash and Tassos' hand around the neck of his smashed bouzouki.

* SurvivorGuilt: Capt. Towns has this when he loses two people and one is gravely injured in the crash; as he is writing the crash report in his log book, he scribbles out his description of the sandstorm and simply writes "Pilot error" as the reason for the crash. The subsequent deaths of Cobb, Carlos, and Gabriele make his guilt steadily worse.

** [[ViolentGlaswegian Ratbags Crow]] spends most of the film poking fun at the other characters in ways he alone seems to find amusing, starting by telling Standish as the latter disappears into the plane's toilet before the crash, "Not while the train's in the station!"

* LastNameBasis: Several of the survivors are only addressed by their last names, including Harris, Watson, Renaud, and Standish (in the case of the two soldiers and the doctor, some characters don't even bother using their professional titles). "Trucker" Cobb and "Ratbags" Crow are given nicknames (though Cobb is never addressed as "Trucker" in the film, while only Carlos addresses Crow as "Ratbags"), but no first name.

* TheAlcoholic: Lew is established early on as having a weakness for booze when he has a drink while they are in the air; Towns gives him a disapproving look. After the crash, Dr. Renaud asks him if there is any liquor on the plane to help with Gabriele's pain; Lew initially shies away from handing over his bottle by asking he couldn't use morphine instead. Later, Towns accuses Lew of being drunk the night before the flight and skipping the preliminary checklist - which is why they didn't have a working radio.

* AndStarring: Includes several levels of this. The opening credits begin as follows: "An Associates and Aldrich Company Production starring / [[Creator/JimmyStewart James Stewart]] / Richard Attenborough / Peter Finch / Hardy Kruger / Creator/ErnestBorgnine as Trucker Cobb / in ''The Flight of the Phoenix''". But Borgnine's credit is just the beginning - they continue with "Co-starring Ian Bannen / Ronald Fraser / Christian Marquand / Dan Duryea as Standish". And they're still not done, moving on to "Also starring George Kennedy / Gabriele Tinti / Alex Montoya". And that's still not the end, as they continue with "Featuring Peter Bravos / William Aldrich / and Barrie Chase as Farida". Worth noting, perhaps, that Bravos and Aldrich die in the crash immediately after the opening credits, and Chase only appears in a flashback/hallucination.