Dark Hero Has To Pay For Wrong To Make Right

Rating: 9/10 (23 December 2012)

Sometimes we believe those at the top of the chain are some kind of super humans, you know as in who am I to question a doctor of medicine for example. Truth is no matter how high one functions, that person is still a fallible human being. Flight is a look into man, who even as he surely saved lives in a situation where he was not at fault, ultimately failed himself as well as countless others. If this sounds uncomfortably powerful you sense the core of what makes the movie Flight, staring Denzel Washington, worth your time to watch and, hopefully, ponder.
Could a plane accident be avoided by better engineering of a several hundred dollar part? Could the strictest maintenance procedures correctly adhered to circumvent a preventable accident? Does any of this matter if the pilot of a doomed airliner performs a miracle of flying, one where many lives saved, yet said pilot is performing while under the influence of alcohol and drugs? These are the questions the viewer is forced to ruminate over. There is great discomfort involved because Denzel Washington's excellent portrayal of an equally likable/detestable flawed human being, who willingly has taken on this responsibility, but has miserably failed even while he has performed a statistically impossible miracle.
Flight is in no way a typical Hollywood vehicle for anyone. It is a picture of grievous loss in which innocent people are caught, some even dying. Flight isn't pleasant, but it is extremely compelling in its nakedness of the reality of the human condition. Big business makes less than perfect airplanes, airlines do not always do everything possible to catch impending disasters, and finally those in positions of utter infallibility still fail. Sometimes all of the above come tragically together for an outcome. Flight is the story of a very real possibility of this. I applaud all involved, especially director Robert Zemeckis and actor Denzel Washington (who turns in a performance worth of a Oscar), for bringing a extremely upsetting portrait of the confluence of events resulting in a absolutely avoidable tragedy.
Saving for the last, and quite powerful in its compactness, is a scene with Denzel, imprisoned yet finally being free of his addictions, begins to bond with the son he never really knew. A short segment that speaks volumes about a man facing his demons and starting to heal. This movie is worthy of your time, a powerful study in human frailty - don't miss it.