Flight (Robert Zemeckis, 2012)

[mfunk9786]

Flight is a genuinely moving film, but it's also incredibly flawed. What was John Goodman thinking accepting this part, and what was Robert Zemeckis thinking filming him? In his final appearance in the film (he drops in and out, I'd forgotten he was even in it until he turned up again), he manages to completely demolish the serious tone of the film and essentially urinate all over the good (however saccharine) taste that had been exhibited up to that point. In an effort to be Billy Wilder, Zemeckis managed to totally drop a bomb onto his mostly successful and emotional character study of an alcoholic coming to terms with his problem. Cheese comes so naturally to Zemeckis, but dark comedy seems to be something he can no longer manage. A great film that completely sabotaged itself in its final few scenes (everything after the masterful mini-fridge moment [you'll see] is pretty damned uneven one way or the other) until Flight is sadly downgraded to merely a good film with big problems. Could've been so much more here with this material and cast, but bad taste in cinema is much like the famous quote about pornography - you know it when you see it. I know I do.

[swo17]

In his final appearance

Careful there. For a second, I thought you were suggesting that John Goodman had either died or retired!

[Andre Jurieu]

In his final appearance

Careful there. For a second, I thought you were suggesting that John Goodman had either died or retired!

OK, so I wasn't the only one who made that mistake. I had to do a Google news search right after reading that post because I thought I missed something.

[swo17]

"Did John Goodman die or retire or something?" now trending on Google.

[mfunk9786]

His final appearance in the film! Fixed above, sorry about that. One critic who reviewed the film called him (might be paraphrasing) "this year's go-to walking laugh track" - couldn't be any more spot-on. He couldn't have been crammed into this film more awkwardly and callously. I'm fine with the content of the scene in question, and am fine with John Goodman in most roles, but playing that scene for laughs was... yuck.

[PfR73]

I also didn't find that scene funny & was rather horrified by other audience members laughing. It was something I pondered after leaving the film & thought perhaps that might have been the point; that laughing at that scene makes the audience complicit in enabling Whip? I'll admit I may be attributing it subtext that wasn't really intended.

[mfunk9786]

Beyond what I perceive as bad taste, just in a cinematic sense, it stuck out like a sore thumb. I'm looking forward to perhaps hearing a compelling defense of it, because I haven't yet.

[JMULL222]

I thought the text of this movie wasn't about recovery so much as it was 'cocaine makes you awesome at things', so maybe I was off-base.

[wigwam]

defense of it

i found the black humor of it just as well-done as the cockpit scene and as emotionally/tonally accurate for the characters - i was horrified at myself for laughing at it because consciously i'm w/ Greenwood and Cheadle, but if I've been along for Whip's arc so far, why not be now? There were humorous scenes and parts throughout the movie (stairwell) so that's not tonally inconsistent at all. I thought Goodman's The Dude as a bigger than life party guy was appropriately broad and shallow.

I was amazed at how un-cheesy and un-Zemeckis-y Zemeckis was w/ this until the scene after that scene you're discussing when all contradiction and ambiguity evaporated into the last 15 minutes of hackneyed schmaltz, the content of which is exactly what I was hoping the characters would go for yet the way it proceeds is a travesty.

Still, the stairwell scene is one of the best cinematic moments of the year for me, loved that scene, the performances and framing and looks and everything

anyone who disliked The Master for not playing to you and giving an ending, this is the movie for you!

[dustybooks]

I gotta admit, I was hoping that

SpoilerShow

the movie would let Whip do the asshole thing and implicate the flight attendant for drinking, and would then show him walking away as a hero. I feel like that would be a really challenging bit of irony, and I would love to see a director as big as Zemeckis create an actually amoral film at this point. I hope that doesn't sound heartless -- I wouldn't actually advocate this behavior, but I think it would make for a more memorable and challenging film.

With that said, I thought the last few scenes were fine, they just seemed to come from a different film. At the very least I wish he'd cut out after "I'm an alcoholic" at the NTSB hearing.

Still, a pretty good movie with a truly great central performance.

[mfunk9786]

I'm with you on the dream ending, and after the tasteless Goodman scene, it would have been the only honest way to go. But the way this film ends is essentially like There Will Be Blood concluding with a handshake.

[willoneill]

I saw Flight when it first came out, but I've been sitting on my thoughts since then. The crash sequence is among the best bits of film I've seen this year, but I have a real problem with the way this films ends. Spoilers, of course:

SpoilerShow

Throughout the film, it is made fairly explicit that a) Denzel being drunk and high did not cause the plane crash, and, if anything, gave him the wherewithal to land the plane in a way that no one else could do, and b) no matter why the plane actually crashed, if it were to come out that he were drunk and high, the small airline for which he worked would be sued to the point of shutting down, costing roughly a thousand people their jobs. Yet, despite this, Zemeckis chooses to go with the "moral" ending in which Denzel admits his intoxication to "save his own soul", and this is treated as being the right thing to do. Setting aside how ridiculous this makes not only the American legal system, and more indirectly the Drug War, it is also the worst decision Denzel makes in the movie, and also the most selfish, for the reasons I've explained. The plane malfunctioned for technical reasons beyond operator control, Denzel saved almost everyone (his physical state being at worst irrelevant), and yet the film wants the audience to believe that admitting his drug addiction is the best solution for society. It's not, and for the film to suggest that is insulting to common sense and decency.

To me, a better ending would have been to cut the film as soon as Denzel leaves his hotel room for the last time, enters the elevator, and puts his sunglasses on.

[lacritfan]

I saw Flight when it first came out, but I've been sitting on my thoughts since then. The crash sequence is among the best bits of film I've seen this year, but I have a real problem with the way this films ends. Spoilers, of course:

SpoilerShow

Throughout the film, it is made fairly explicit that a) Denzel being drunk and high did not cause the plane crash, and, if anything, gave him the wherewithal to land the plane in a way that no one else could do, and b) no matter why the plane actually crashed, if it were to come out that he were drunk and high, the small airline for which he worked would be sued to the point of shutting down, costing roughly a thousand people their jobs. Yet, despite this, Zemeckis chooses to go with the "moral" ending in which Denzel admits his intoxication to "save his own soul", and this is treated as being the right thing to do. Setting aside how ridiculous this makes not only the American legal system, and more indirectly the Drug War, it is also the worst decision Denzel makes in the movie, and also the most selfish, for the reasons I've explained. The plane malfunctioned for technical reasons beyond operator control, Denzel saved almost everyone (his physical state being at worst irrelevant), and yet the film wants the audience to believe that admitting his drug addiction is the best solution for society. It's not, and for the film to suggest that is insulting to common sense and decency.

To me, a better ending would have been to cut the film as soon as Denzel leaves his hotel room for the last time, enters the elevator, and puts his sunglasses on.

SpoilerShow

I basically agree with everything you're saying but the one thing you're leaving out is Whip seemed totally fine with the whole charade until they showed the picture of his girlfriend and he realized she was gonna take the blame for the vodka bottles and her legacy wouldn't've been the stewardess who risked/gave up her life to save the boy who fell out of his seat. That's what seemed to guilt him into finally coming clean.

I think either dustybooks or your ending would've been better. The father-son, who are you? meeting was kind of weak. Maybe even ending on the AA meeting in prison would've been better.

[bearcuborg]

I saw Flight when it first came out, but I've been sitting on my thoughts since then. The crash sequence is among the best bits of film I've seen this year, but I have a real problem with the way this films ends. Spoilers, of course:

SpoilerShow

Throughout the film, it is made fairly explicit that a) Denzel being drunk and high did not cause the plane crash, and, if anything, gave him the wherewithal to land the plane in a way that no one else could do, and b) no matter why the plane actually crashed, if it were to come out that he were drunk and high, the small airline for which he worked would be sued to the point of shutting down, costing roughly a thousand people their jobs. Yet, despite this, Zemeckis chooses to go with the "moral" ending in which Denzel admits his intoxication to "save his own soul", and this is treated as being the right thing to do. Setting aside how ridiculous this makes not only the American legal system, and more indirectly the Drug War, it is also the worst decision Denzel makes in the movie, and also the most selfish, for the reasons I've explained. The plane malfunctioned for technical reasons beyond operator control, Denzel saved almost everyone (his physical state being at worst irrelevant), and yet the film wants the audience to believe that admitting his drug addiction is the best solution for society. It's not, and for the film to suggest that is insulting to common sense and decency.

To me, a better ending would have been to cut the film as soon as Denzel leaves his hotel room for the last time, enters the elevator, and puts his sunglasses on.

SpoilerShow

I basically agree with everything you're saying but the one thing you're leaving out is Whip seemed totally fine with the whole charade until they showed the picture of his girlfriend and he realized she was gonna take the blame for the vodka bottles and her legacy wouldn't've been the stewardess who risked/gave up her life to save the boy who fell out of his seat. That's what seemed to guilt him into finally coming clean.

I think either dustybooks or your ending would've been better. The father-son, who are you? meeting was kind of weak. Maybe even ending on the AA meeting in prison would've been better.

SpoilerShow

It was refreshing to see a film that didn't end with a "non ending." Whip didn't buy into the whole "act of God" and took action in his life - for the better. The last appearance of John Goodman basically puts us in Whip's shoes - where Whip would be able to bullshit his way out of a jam and and live (un)happily ever after - and we kind of root for that to happen. However, he makes a choice to change his life at the end and that took courage from his point of view, and as well with the filmmakers. I wasn't sure if the ending with the son was necessary either, but with respect to him possibly easing his way out of jam with the aid of Goodman, to the point where he finally says "enough is enough with the lies" that seemed like a perfectly fine ending.

[HistoryProf]

I thought the text of this movie wasn't about recovery so much as it was 'cocaine makes you awesome at things', so maybe I was off-base.

i'm glad i'm not the only one who felt this way. That scene was so over the top I couldn't believe it was actually happening. out of nowhere we turn from a tragedy to a raucous party where cocaine is awesome and he's gonna show them just how smooth he is under pressure! the tone of it went against everything we'd seen for 2 hours leading up to it...and then bam we are slammed right back into tragedy and redemption mode. So completely bizarre.

I will agree that the crash scene was one of the most intense 10 minutes i've spent watching a movie. my hands got sweaty and I was downright uncomfortable.