Dennis Quaid - and his "tricky blend of egoism and integrity" - holds together this amiable remake of Robert Aldrich's 1965 adventure Flight Of The Phoenix. He steps into shoes previously occupied by James Stewart as a pilot who crashes in the desert and leads his passengers in a battle for survival. Predictably, director John Moore was criticised for trying to improve on Aldrich's (flawed) film and a lack of star power was reflected in poor ticket sales.
Will It Fly?...
At first glance this DVD doesn't pack a lot of baggage, but The Phoenix Diaries documentary is worth a dozen studio-slick featurettes. Cameras follow cast and crew on location in a remote part of the Namibia desert to do real battle with the elements. Sandstorms uproot production tents and ruin continuity, but that's nothing compared to the disruption caused when the suits at Fox call up to order far-reaching changes to the script. Moore appears to take it all in his stride, explaining that, "Filmmaking is a combat zone". Still, on other days, he gets more than a little hot under the collar, like when babbling crewmembers ruin his sound. "I will find whoever's chatting," he barks, "I will hunt you down and kill you!"
Star Dennis Quaid has better things to panic about - even as the desert wind rips through camp once again. "I'm worried about my hair," he jokes, but we can tell he really means it. For Hugh Laurie the worst part of the job is doing the PR and he's distinctly crabby with an on-set journalist. "It's frankly less enjoyable than a rectal probe," he says, "Although, if the rectal probe's done right..."
Overall this documentary does a great job in taking the gloss off big-budget moviemaking. And hey, watching actors sweat is always fun.
Rising From The Ashes
A tense standoff between Dennis Quaid and Giovanni Ribisi is the best of four extended scenes, but even Moore admits that two deleted sequences are less than compelling. The first is a transitional moment just after the crash, which was jettisoned because Moore felt the plane looked like a model. (Ironically it was a full-scale C119 that took months to find.) The second is a montage of rebuilding the plane that's strictly for fans of Scrapheap Challenge.
In the main commentary, Moore is joined by the producers of the film and production designer Patrick Lumb (who doesn't say much). There's plenty of light-hearted banter but also a good deal of nuts-and-bolts information. Moore explains that he wanted to get away from the airbrushed look of CGI as well as the stage-bound feel of the original. He insisted on shooting in Namibia, which, as the producers reveal, was a sticking point for the execs. "Twelve crewmembers collapsed from heat exhaustion at one point," says Moore. But even worse, his stuntman had to play dead on a sun-baked rock and wound up with "burnt nipples". His shirts must have really chaffed after that...
With fly-on the-wall access and candid opinion from the actors, this DVD offers a rare glimpse into the agonies of shooting in a hostile environment. It's attention-grabbing stuff that will have you firmly seated in the upright position.
EXTRA FEATURES
