Movie #6 - Flight

So difficult to review this movie without giving anything away.  I'm going to assume therefore that most people going to see this movie are aware of a fair chunk of the plot, but I won't give away the ending.

Flight is a simply told story of a hard partying man who happens to also be a pilot at the controls of an aircraft that is falling apart in the sky on this particular day.  However, despite being a relatively straight forward story with few sub-plots, the movie doesn't leave you with any easy answers about whether this guy is a hero or not.

Whip Whitaker appears to be 'the man'.  The opening scene of the aftermath of a hard night's partying at a hotel pulls no punches.  Until we realise that Whip is a pilot and that he has a flight today and yikes, he's just snorted a bunch of cocaine.  And that lithe young woman sharing the marijuana cigarette a few minutes ago is the air hostess on the same flight.  A little bit of turbulence on takeoff is negotiated aggressively by Whip Whitaker and you can see his co-pilot is nervous.  Things settle down and he's gotten away with it again.  Except towards the end of the flight, when the plane starts to fall apart and Whip Whitaker has to try every trick in the book to save the plane and the passengers.

The first 30 odd minutes of the movie deals with the aforementioned partying and flight, ending with a spectacular plane crash in which only 6 lives are lost.  The rest of the movie deals with the aftermath and whether Whip Whitaker is indeed a hero who saved many lives with his invention, or a villain who should not have been drunk and high on drugs.  Whip has survived with few injuries and initially tries to conceal his intoxicated state, but that secret is blown out early after his blood was taken in hospital without his knowledge as part of the standard safety board investigation.  The pilot's union for some reason decides to back Whip Whitaker (sorry but it's such a cool name) and a lawyer is hired to throw out the blood test and prove anything other than Whip being at fault.  In this process it is interesting to find out that testing indicates that no other pilot could have landed that plane without killing everyone on board.  This seems to tally up with the earlier scenes where it's almost like the drugs in his system increased his alertness, skills and gave him the confidence to try something crazy enough to work, while all the other crew were going to pieces.

This is pretty much a one man show, with Denzel Washington giving a performance that in any other year may have won an Oscar.  So is he a hero or a villain?  In my personal opinion given this is not a documentary or 'based on true events', I think the guy is a villain.  Clearly a long-term alcoholic with no relationship skills, the guy is selfish and has risked many lives for his addiction.  Who is to know whether he would have done the exact same thing even if he wasn't high on drugs?  Maybe he would have.  Late attempts at redemption don't seem to fit with the character and we would've preferred a different ending.  However it's still a strong and challenging film which I'd give 3.5 stars out of 5.