Flight Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Flight
Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Starring: Denzel Washington, Don Cheadle, Bruce Greenwood, Melissa Leo, Ellen Block, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman
Year: 2012
Country: USA
Author Review: Roberto Matteucci
After so many American superheroes, Robert Zemeckis in Flight narrates the story of one alcoholic superhero.
Well, we missed it! But being a hero is not how to be holy, it is a public prerogative that everyone can access also alcoholic and drugged, and in the history of cinema there are many illustrative examples.
If the initial scene usually draws the story, in Flight we have a very significant beginning for the presence of a thousand details.
A messy hotel room. A phone rang, a man - Whip - he talks. He is arguing with the ex-wife for one check, for the money. Meanwhile, a naked woman passes in front of the camera; around many empty bottles, lots of cigarettes. We understand on the previous night there was a lot of fun.
Whip is the commander of a plane, he has to go to work, to recover and wake up pulls a line of cocaine. The time of drug consumption is shot by the high camera, framing the captain's absurd grimace.
Jumping scene: a beautiful young girl, Nicole appears in an Atlanta motel. She is looking for drugs and she asked for a director of porn movies.
Other time and space: the plane takes off and soon it meets a storm. The director shows us the captain as a cowboy in the act of riding a wild horse. He succeeds in bringing the airplane in safety and then he entertains the passengers with a brilliant tone while secretly preparing a glass of alcohol.
But something is wrong. The drama is coming and in a very intense scene, and edit with mastery the plane must be are faced with a new emergency. The plane is out of control and it is falling on the houses. In this situation, the Whip pilot is the opposite of the depressed man in the hotel room. He is brilliant, awake, attentive and able to handle the dramatic moment with great calm. The airplane makes a prodigious emergency landing, saving almost all of the passengers.
Other change of scene suddenly. A splendid and ironic John Goodman arrives in a playful way, accompanied by a cheerful music and a constant chatter. With him there is a total break, transforming the language for a moment between the drama of emergency landing and the sequel. We will see him again in one of the most beautiful scenes in the end.
The sequel to the story is concentrate in Whip's human and medical problems. It also tends to be a love story with a casual encounter with Nicole.
After the trip and the adrenaline landing, the film 'loses quota'. It is not clear what direction the director wants to have. There is a bit of everything as well as a legal movie, then end up in a totally different dimension.
Zemeckis's morality is clear and outlined.
Robert Zemeckis grew up in a Catholic family originally from Lithuania. When he was young he left his religion, now he is declared a different spiritual attitude in an interview:
"Robert Zemeckis: I think that was bred in me, growing up. It was really a very healthy, balanced system when I look back at it. I was sent to a Catholic school when I was in grade school, and I think in those days, the 50s, that was a bit more heavy. I carry a lot of emotional scars from that, but that's all changed now. The idea of having solid values, coupled with the reality of how the world and the system works, I think is ultimately pretty healthy, because you're not walking around completely naive. " (1)
The Whip man reached the maximum of depravity, moral and ethical decadence and loneliness. He must find spiritual redemption - because Whip is materially a hero - but he doesn't see the presence of God.
The participation of God is total in the film. Everything is done with this end.
Beyond many religious symbols distributed everywhere, there is a metaphor evident when the plane struck with a wing the bell tower of a church.
There are also so many Christian groups in the United States. Presbyterians witnessed the accident and prayed in the same place. There is the Baptist steward; there are Christian devotees and copilots who ask Whip to pray with them despite the accusations against him.
But the will of God is stronger and in Flight God manifests Himself even in a drunk man.
Morale is told by a cancer patient who meets both Whip and Nicole.
Speaking neurotically, he describes the casual facts of life as determined by God, and nothing can be done to counteract Him.
Emergency landing is divine will, a miracle, done by Whip's hand, at that moment instrument of the will of the Lord.
The same says the copilot, Whip is innocent because everything comes from Heaven including the landing.