The Flight of the Phoenix

Released Dec 15, 1965

2 hr. 27 min.

Adventure

List

83%

24 Reviews

Tomatometer

81%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Tense tale about a group of men who are left stranded in the middle of the Arabian desert after a plane crash. Their only hope of survival is to rebuild the craft so that, phoenix-like, she may fly again and carry them to safety, but can the captain and navigator calm the passengers as tension mounts and time starts to run out?

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Blu B

All Time Classic. This starts out solid enough but once they come up with a plan to build the plane it takes a big jump as the clock starts ticking. Than it jumps again with the character drama which is riveting. The whole cast is phenominal especially Frank, Lew, and Heinrich. This doesn't waste time giving pointless devlopment backstories and throws us right into the action and we learn about the characters along the way through the journey to survive. There is no throw away characters in this and everyone serves a purpose and no one is more powerful than the other. The script is really smart and generates a huge amount of tension despite there being next to no action in this whatsoever. You can feel the stakes keep ticking higher and higher as the casualties mount, resources dwindle, and time runs out in a palpable way. The desert setting is so simple and yet super memorable as we spend the whole movie in one location and it never feels boring. The best parts are the riveting character interactions between Stewart and Heinrich. The music is really good but not exactly catchy on its own. Everything else is exceptionally done. Everyone should give this a try once.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

02/04/24

Full Review

nick s

The cinematography was great and the acting was solid. However I felt that it started to drag... ostensibly because there was no mystery to the movie. Also the plot of making an aerodynamic Frankenstein plane just seemed absurd.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

11/30/23

Full Review

William L

My biggest regret watching this film was having picked up the 2004 remake on daytime television years ago, spoiling most of the interesting bits of the original. The Flight of the Phoneix might not be the psychological meat grinder that the premise seems tailor-made for, but the quality of the ensemble cast (substantial enough to pack away notable character actors like Dan Duryea and George Kennedy into niche supporting roles) manage to make the film a solid survival-adventure despite a slow-burning pace and a substantial runtime. There was clear thought put into the character details here, leaving room for personality traits to become evident, evolve, and clash against one another organically, though grittier takes on similar 'fight for your life' storylines make the overall film seem a bit less overtly dangerous than it might have otherwise. While the script seems to hate the idea of making any character do something deliberately antagonistic even under mortal pressure, there's still enough here to make this film watchable decades later. (3/5)

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

06/08/22

Full Review

Peter M

Great adventure film. Superb direction and so is the ensemble acting. Try not to confuse it with the downright lame and uninspired remake.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

04/26/21

Full Review

Audience Member

OK, it had a cast of well-known actors but the premise is so far-fetched it's ludicrous. Might have been an OK flick to catch Back in the Day when audience expectations were a lot lower, but it just doesn't hold up. Too bad an accomplished stunt pilot's life had to be lost making this PoS.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/01/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Slightly implausible premise notwithstanding, this movie tells the story of strangers trying to build a new plane from the wreckage of their old one after it crashed in the desert with all the charm and excitement one could hope for. The stellar cast does a great job at bringing the wide range of very distinct and fun characters to life, and it's a delight merely to see them bounce off each other. Despite the movie almost entirely taking place in one location I was never bored, it does just enough to up the stakes from time to time to keep you interested. Tensions as to who will survive the ordeal and who will make it are kept high, without the need for elaborate action scenes. If there ever was a movie to embody classic survival stories, this is it!

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/03/23

Full Review

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Robert Aldrich

Director

James Stewart

Frank Towns

Richard Attenborough

Lew Moran

Peter Finch

Captain Harris

Ernest Borgnine

Trucker Cobb

Ian Bannen

Crow

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Nick Schager

Lessons of Darkness

Gets exciting mileage out of examining male codes of honor and behavior.

Rated: B+

May 3, 2005

Full Review

Toronto Star

Rated: 2/5

Dec 18, 2004

Full Review

Pauline Kael

McCall's

Are there people to whom a movie like this is new? Are we being snobbish and thoughtless if we groan? I don’t think so: even to those who haven’t grown up and beyond this kind of movie, it can never be fresh.

Sep 20, 2023

Full Review

Judith Crist

New York Herald Tribune

The framework is there, ready for all the clichés of the desert-survival story, but somehow each expected cliché never quite develops as one.

Aug 15, 2022

Full Review

Yasser Medina

Cinefilia

A film that sparks my enthusiasm in some passages with a few effective performances from a cast lead by James Stewart, but somehow it's survival adventure leaves me in a state of detachment. [Full review in Spanish]

Rated: 6/10

Nov 6, 2020

Full Review

Wendy Michener

Maclean's Magazine

It doesn't matter if the whole thing is improbable, because Aldrich keeps things moving, keeps up our interest in who will survive, and how.

Jun 27, 2019

Full Review

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Synopsis

Tense tale about a group of men who are left stranded in the middle of the Arabian desert after a plane crash. Their only hope of survival is to rebuild the craft so that, phoenix-like, she may fly again and carry them to safety, but can the captain and navigator calm the passengers as tension mounts and time starts to run out?

Director: Robert Aldrich
Screenwriter: Lukas Heller
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: The Associates & Aldrich Company Inc.
Genre: Adventure
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 15, 1965, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 1, 2015

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