It seems most likely that the inspiration for Flight came from the successful crash
landing into the Hudson River by Chelsey Sullenberger. Only to spice things up they have the pilot
be not only a hero but a drug addict to boot (maybe writer John Gatins (Summer Catch, Coach Carter) also drew
from Bad Lieutenant but we’ll get to
that movie in a minute).
Smart idea, smart cast and smartly done overall. I had no interest in seeing this until recently
when a friend told me was pumped to check it out. Oh, and I found out a little more about how
much drugs Denzel takes (which is a lot).
I liked it.
The trailer makes the film look a bunch lamer and tamer than
it actually is. The impression I got was
that this was going to be sort of a mystery if this pilot, Whip, drank before
the plane crash and if his drinking was the reason why the plane went
down. That’s not what’s going on here at
all. You know from the start that Whip
is a mess but you also know from the get go that his shredded state had nothing
to do with the plane malfunctioning. There’s
nothing to figure out, it’s an engrossing character study.
Denzel gives his best performance since Training Day, ironically where he played another wolf in sheep’s
clothing. He’s tip top when he’s high,
no one can touch him when it comes to flying.
He’s so clear minded, collected, cool headed and totally fucked up. It’s not over the top at all or even on the brink
of being over the top like in Training
Day. Here Denzel plays just the
right notes and knows when to turn on the devious behavior and the anger. I wish he would’ve won best actor at the Oscars. Oh well.
The only thing I didn’t care for that much was the very last
scene. It gets too cheesy and heavy
handed but certainly doesn’t discount the rest of the experience.
Could this be a new Bob Zemeckis? It looks like he gave up on that remake of Yellow Submarine which is a good
move. This film definitely feels like when
a teen pop or movie star tries to shed their goody two shoes image. They start to dress more scantily clad, sing
about drinking, get tattoos, have sex with a lot of other celebrities, do a
nude scene, etc. They essentially say “I’m
not who you think I am, I have a wild side”.
After Polar Express, Beowulf
and A Christmas Carol (by the way that
motion capture shit creeps me out and I wish it would stop) Zemeckis wanted to
say that. And just like those young
celebs that tend to gravitate towards the extreme to prove their badassness Bob
decided to shoot the edgiest script he could get his hands on. I mean the thing starts with a full frontal
of some chick, Denzel taking a swig of beer, a hit of weed and snorting a line
of coke. Zemeckis: “See, I’m all grown
up now.”
But good for Bob for doing something that’s clearly outside
of his comfort zone and also for navigating through that unexplored area so
well. Hopefully this gave him a craving
to do live action again and to also do non children’s movies. I haven’t seen his three I listed above but
years ago Zemeckis was so great at crafting pretty wacky stories that catered
to both kids and adults like the Back to
the Futures, Forrest Gump and Death
Becomes Her (which is a forgotten classic).
I get that he’s a different person now but after seeing Flight it doesn’t look like he’s going
down the same path Spielberg did. Spielberg
will never make an edgy action adventure type picture again where our charismatic
hero unconcernedly shoots motherfuckers in the head. Because he got older and has a family now he
doesn’t want to portray violence with nearly as much glory as he did. Bob, on the other hand, wants to dig into heavy
shit like drug addiction. Maybe he’ll tackle
something really violent next.
So this was good, even great at times. We care about Whip because he’s charming, a
goddamn amazing pilot and we can see the good underneath the alcohol, drugs and
reckless conduct. It’s like if we just
give him a little more time he’ll sort it out and become the great man we know
he is. But at the same time we know the sonuvabitch
will always give in and destroy himself.
It’s tragic man.
Now this is not the same character as the Lieutenant from Bad Lieutenant (either of ‘em but I’ll
be talking about the 1992 one). Flight kinda felt like Bad Lieutenant lite. There are more differences than similarities
but I’d like to go through some of them because…well…it’s a chance to talk
about Bad Lieutenant which I haven’t
done yet.
Whip and Lieutenant are similar in that they both love to do
drugs and do their jobs while high as a motherfucker. They’re addicts so they need this shit to
function. They would probably do a worse
job without the help of drugs. Each of their
jobs involves positions of power and taking care of people. They both seem to like their jobs too.
I think that’s where the similarities end though. While Whip is a redeemable figure Lieutenant
is absolutely not. The man has a very
bad gambling problem (it’s kinda funny that he keeps betting against the Mets because
that would normally be a good move, poor bastard), does way more drugs and a
larger assortment than Whip, but most importantly he doesn’t help anybody. At least Whip successfully landed a broken plane
and saved people’s lives. Lieutenant
pulls two girls over and masturbates in front of them. He never does anything good, respectable or
valiant. This guy is a despicable human
being. Lieutenant doesn’t even attempt
to get sober like Whip. Lieutenant stays
in his crumpled state while things go from bad to worse.
It’s interesting that religion plays a role in both
pictures. In Flight I’m not sure what Zemeckis was saying. I couldn’t figure out if it was an
endorsement or a rejection. Maybe it’s both. More than anything it seemed like an
acknowledgement. Like Zemeckis was
giving a nod to religion but also saying that we control our own lives and
actions. The whole thing is dealt with
smoothly without much debate. In Bad Lieutenant there’s more of a
struggle. One of the cases Lieutenant
works on is the rape of a nun and it kind of haunts him throughout the
movie. At the end it’s Lieutenant
yelling at Jesus, calling him a “rat fuck”.
Lieutenant believes in religion but is pissed that it doesn’t seem to be
working for him. This also falls into
the acknowledgment category. Writer/director
Abel Ferrara is saying that he’s on board with religion but it’s frustrating to
deal with and understand.
Where Flight ended
on a relatively happy note Bad Lieutenant
does not. It’s grim and terrible but
also realistic and extremely fitting. I
want to say that it couldn’t possibly end any other way but Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
proves otherwise. Who the fuck knew the
exact opposite ending could work too? Pretty
weird.
The original Bad
Lieutenant is a masterpiece (Port of
Call New Orleans is almost just as good).
Harvey Keitel is phenomenal (he does a full frontal by the way), Ferrara
does an incredible job (it’s probably his best film, or at least my favorite of
his), it lives up to the title and the NC-17 rating and it’s just a fucking
crazy movie. And Flight is cool because it shows that you can have the Bad Lieutenant spirit in a much more
commercially viable film.
With the magic that Werner Herzog pulled on the Bad Lieutenant remake hopefully he’ll
reboot Flight next.
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