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Must See Movie...

Admirable film.

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

Relaxed entertainment for plane films fans dealing with three pilots , US Air Force operating in Japan ; they carry out a rescue attempt over Pacific . Exciting flick with overwhelming aircraft scenes , pyrotechnics , some silly and boring romances and including a moving final . This interesting picture packs big stars , intrigue , action , love stories and historic deeds ; however being deliberately narrated and predominates the melodrama . A helicopter rescue team piloted by Lt. Col. Glenn Stevenson (Richard Widmark), TSgt. Mike Takashima (Yul Brynner) and 2nd Lt. John Gregg (George Chakiris) tries to save the survivors of a shipwreck off the coast of Japan during a raging typhoon . As they are plunged into hell with the most fearless breed of men on earth . Later on , there take place various flashbacks about the aviators ; as 1954 Germany where the Air Rescue Service pull off operations piloted by Glen Stevenson and John Gregg ; Manila during WWII where Stevenson (Richard Widmark) falls in love for a beautiful girl (Shirley Knight , though Tuesday Weld originally announced for this role) and Tunisia 1942 where Mike Takashima (Yul Brynner) to win the heart a gorgeous Arabian woman (Daniele Gaubert) with tragical consequences . Thrilling film in which there are nail-biting action scenes , drama interlaced with breathtaking aerial scenes , love stories , intrigue , suspenseful set pieces and almost overloaded with stars . The movie gets a simple emotional appeal , professionalism , though being regularly shot and slow-moving . Stiff as well as excessively melodramatic screenplay by Waldo Salt based on the novel by Elliott Arnold . Good trio protagonist as Yul Brynner , Richard Widmark , George Chakiris along with the beauties Suzy Parker , Danièle Gaubert and Shirley Knight . Nice special effects interwoven with impressive aerial scenes and excellent production design by expert Eugene Lourie , though including excessive maquette and scale model . Filmed on splashy color and brilliant cinematography in Panavisión by excellent cameramen Burnett Guffey and Joseph MacDonald . Rousing as well as evocative musical score by Frank Cordell. The motion picture was middlingly directed by Michael Anderson . This is one of various and professional works of his long career as filmmaker . He was a craftsman with reputation for making a variety of commercial and amusing films , it's well demonstrated in ¨Flight from Ashiya¨. Anderson did most of his best work in the thriving British cinema of the 50s . Anderson was quickly a man with a reputation for making a variety of commercial , entertaining movies . As his films from 1953-58 were all quite well received , his cycle ended with the best of them , the suspense/thriller ,¨Chase a crooked shadow¨ . Latterly resident in Canada , he has continued to direct , mainly in lower-profile projects and TV adventure movies . Anderson has filmed all kind of genres as cinema as TV ; such as Adventure : ¨Around the world in 80 days¨ , ¨Doc Savage¨ , ¨The sea Wolf¨ , ¨20.000 leagues under the sea¨ ; Sci-Fi : ¨Logan's run¨, ¨The martian chronicles¨ , ¨Milennium¨ ; Thriller: ¨The Quiller Memorandum , ¨Dominique is dead¨ , ¨The naked edge¨ , ¨The wreck of the Mary Deare¨ , ¨Murder by phone¨ and Wartime : ¨Battle hell¨, ¨Shake hands with the devil¨, ¨Damm Busters¨, and ¨Operation Crossbow¨ . ¨Flight from Ashiya¨ is an interesting as well as tedious film at times , though it will attract to Yul Brynner and Richard Widmark fans .

It's a routine story of three men in the Air Force Air Rescue Service in the post-war years. It reminded me of "Pearl Harbor" a bit. You may remember that epic CGI action sequences at the beginning and a super duper action scene at the end, with an extended black hole in the middle that dealt with a covert romantic triangle.Okay. Take that endless middle section, full of torment and opposite allegiances, like Buridan's ass that starved to death between two bales of hay because he couldn't make up his mind. Now chop that long middle part into three or four shorter parts and interpolate them at regular periods throughout the film. These are the back stories of the three men aboard a Grumman flying boat on a rescue mission in the North China Sea. And -- boy, are they dull.George Chakiris, the young pilot, is haunted by the memory of his rescue chopper causing an avalanche in the Alps and killing those he'd intended to rescue. Well, that's not a love story but you get the general picture. Chakiris is haunted by guilt and is uncertain about his flying skills. The second story belongs to Richard Widmark, the colonel in charge. He was a commercial pilot in World War II, captured along with his wife by the Japanese in the Filippines. She was denied medicine by her captors and she and her baby died in child birth. Widmark still hates Japs. "These things run deep," he mutters.Then we get Yul Brynner's tragedy. A paratrooper in North Africa, he falls for a lovely Arab girl but her family forbids the affair to continue. Brynner races to her house, shouts up at her window that he'll be back some day and they will be married. Then he must zoom off in a Jeep and join the others on the demolition team. But his girl defies her family and runs after the jeep. She finally catches up with them just after Brynner has lighted the fuses that will blow a brick bridge to smithereens. By happenstance -- or Kismet in her case -- she comes to a halt just under the bridge, flings her arms open wide, and shouts, "MICHEL", to Brynner. Boom. She disappears in a puff of smoke like a stage magician.If you think all this misery is too much, you still have to suffer through the chief action of the film, of which we get glimpses from time to time. Widmark, Brynner, and Chakiris are still flying that Grumman through a powerful storm to rescue a raft filled with Japanese.Will Widmark hesitate to try a landing in an impossibly heavy and confused sea? Will Brynner talk him into it? Will Widmark finally yield? Does he successfully land the plane? Does he break his arm in doing so? Must Chakiris then take over the controls and get the overloaded flying boat skillfully off the sea and into the air? Are all the crises resolved at the end? You'll have to watch it to find out.I wish it were possible to say that the action scenes -- the flying through the storm, the scenes on the raft in the tossing swells, the Japanese bombing of the Filippines, the plowing of the Grumman through the whipped-up sea, were exciting but they're really not. The airplanes are clearly models and not done very well. The raft scenes were shot in the studio tank. The special effects are hardly an improvement on director Michael Anderson's much superior "The Dam Busters", made in 1955.I hate to sound sour about this but the performances seem lazy or inept as well. Of course it's difficult for any actor to overcome a stilted script. But to see a mature Yul Brynner stumbling around with a cane, trying to speak English to a young woman who speaks only Arabic and French, and to hear him using slang words like "crazy," as if he were fifteen years old, is almost grotesque. And here he is with the other members of the combat engineers fighting a delaying action and he and the rest wear the spiffiest, cleanest, most finely pressed uniforms known to man or beast. Their helmets are as glossy as their boots. Chakiris, a good dancer, was never much of an actor, and this is one of Widmark's most lackadaisical performances.See it if you must but it's not very good.

It is said, during the worse disasters, we see ordinary people, exhibiting extraordinary heroics. Basically that's the core of this film entitled " Flight From Ashiya. " The men of the Air Rescue Service are given a ceremonial tribute and for the most part it's about them. Three men and their lives are personified each offering a segway into their background. The first is Glenn Stevenson (Richard Widmark) the experienced commander who's lingering demons are a deep reminder that his personal bigotry is not only a hindrance to his job, but is itself more of a danger than the black ocean he willingly faces. Next is his second in command, Lt. John Gregg (George Chakiris) who's memories of a mountain accident have become a major obstacle to his courage. Fearing he caused the death of stranded villagers, he doubts he will ever overcome it. The last member of the crew is Tsgt. Mike Takashima. (Yul Brynner) Reaching into his past, he recalls vividly a tragic accident in which a lost love reminds him of his shortcomings and vulnerability. Together the crew receives a summons to fly into raging Pacific storm at night to risk life and limb and rescue a raft load of Japanese survivors on the verge of drowning. The film is a stark reminder of what these courageous men face in their tireless efforts to save lives. Excellent acting from Widmark, Brynner and Chakiris make this a worthy tribute to the profession. Unfortunately the clumsy use of miniatures and models diminishes the visual power of this fine movie. Nevertheless, actual locations and backdrops add to the touching story and contribute to it's success. ****

This is, despite a fairly epic attempt at storytelling and a heavyweight cast, a snoozefest. The pacing is very dry and ultimately predictable and the storyline is trite, contrived and pat. Widmark, Chakiris and Brynner are on a rescue mission and as their plane approaches it's destination, each of them has a flashback to another dramatic time for them. Chakiris' is the most believable as he recalls a tragic rescue attempt of some villagers caught in an icy mountain range. Widmark recalls meeting a photojournalist (Knight) and falling in love against a war-torn backdrop. Brynner remembers meeting a foreign girl (Gaubert) who he can only communicate with visually since they don't speak each others' language. Parker gets the film's most pointless & thankless role as a woman who pines for Brynner back at the base. The film ranges from stodgy to overwrought with many unintentionally amusing moments and some really ripe dialogue. Made at a time when studios were still getting used to a little more freedom with immorality, it wants desperately to be cutting edge and racy, yet is hopelessly old-fashioned and silly. There is NO attempt at period flavor. Knight's story is set in 1941, yet her hair and clothing are early sixties (she even wears a skirt almost identical to Parker's, whose story takes place in 1964!) Her awesome mane of hair could easily have been styled into a neato '40's 'do, but alas, no one did. Widmark and Knight's story tries to cram a two-hour-movie's worth of clichés and dramatics into about 20 minutes. They literally fall hopelessly in love after one plane ride! The same can be said of Brynner's affair. He gives his seat to a girl on a bus and then can't live without her. This whole section of the film is ludicrous, but Gaubert is quite lovely. The ending of this sequence is surreal and jaw-dropping! It must be seen to be believed and is almost worth sitting through the film for. There are worse ways to spend two hours, but this is hardly rewarding entertainment. There is also a hilarious before and after narration by a man who sounds like he did voice-over for army recruitment shorts.