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Simply A Masterpiece

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

The High and the Mighty was the grandpa of the plentiful disaster movies from the 1970s, so if you like that genre and haven't yet seen this original version, rent it this weekend. It has all the elements: a large, star-studded cast, backstories for each character to make you care, a reason why each character should survive even when it doesn't look like they will, and of course, a disaster. It's intense and exciting, and while I find the subject matter frightening, it's very good!John Wayne and Robert Stack-who would later spoof this role in Airplane!-are airline pilots on a flight from Hawaii to San Francisco. Keep in mind, back in the day, that route was a twelve-hour flight, not a five-hour flight like it is now. Among the passengers are Claire Trevor, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Phil Harris, Jan Sterling, and Joy Kim. During the flight, the audience is treated to everyone's backstory as the tension builds; we finally learn there's a problem with the plane and it might not make it all the way to Frisco!As a sidenote, Dimitri Tiomkin won an Oscar for his memorable theme. If you listen to it, you might recognize it, but while it is a pretty theme, it sounds much more like a romance than a thriller. If it was the theme to Peyton Place, it would have been lovely. For a disaster movie about a plane crash? It just doesn't fit, and it almost ruins the movie.Besides the music, a couple of technical flaws, and a healthy bit of Americana racism, the rest of the movie is very good, especially when you consider it was the first of its kind. John Wayne and Robert Stack, the two with the vastly larger amounts of screen time, are very good. I've never thought John Wayne was the greatest actor in the world, but he puts his whole heart into this movie.

. . . THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY is that O.J. Simpson was not cast to play the part of "Toby." Being born in 1947, Master Simpson would have been 6 or 7 years old during filming, and could have been mentored by that famously mellow developer of Hollywood Talent, John Wayne. Since the older Simpson had such an affinity for Tinseltown Disasters, the casting would have been perfect, and deflected many of the national protests against THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY by the Black Movie Stars Matter Movement. There's an eight-minute extra on the initial DVD release for this film which is titled THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY: A PLACE IN FILM HISTORY. I think the MIGHTY producers missed their mighty chance to ACTUALLY make "film history" by NOT casting O.J. as "Toby," the boy traveling by himself on this star-crossed flight. He probably would have been so cute that he'd have earned a Shirley Temple-like Oscar nomination (the youngest Black Male ever to do so), and would not have been forced to contract CTE by playing tackle football for so many decades. Under such a scenario, O.J. would have been less likely to get caught up in jealous entanglements, while enjoying a more knife-free environment. So if O.J. ever wants to blame someone for his troubles, maybe he should start with John Wayne.

This has always been a great movie. Even contrasted with today's technology of great big airplanes that carry hundreds of people, this story of a little DC-7 on the brink of disaster makes for good movie stuff.The movie isn't just about the pending disaster, of course, it's about the life problems each of the characters is dealing with and how this experience of survival puts all of those problems into perspective.If you're going to watch and appreciate "Airplane" you have to watch this movie and "Airport" to get the jokes and the satire of "Airplane".The actors overplay their roles, and that's what makes this movie great 1950's movie history. I love the scene of the DC-7 taking off right into the camera. It's a cool shot.They don't make like this anymore.

The phrase "they don't make 'em like they used to" frequently refers to movies made long ago that are much better than most movies made now. But it can just as often refer to movies that aren't necessarily that good, and weren't really that good even at the time, but which carry such a freight of nostalgia with them that watching them all these years later makes us realize we no longer care all that much how good they are, just so long as they're still fun to watch.Such is the case with "The High and the Mighty," a cornball disaster movie about an airplane in peril that set the blueprint for films like "Airport" and "The Poseidon Adventure" two decades later. Actually, those movies from the 70s are much cornier than this one, so it is really a testament to how good "The High and the Mighty" really is that it holds up well in comparison to movies made much later. Its success is largely due to veteran director William Wellman, who was much more exciting when directing grittier stuff like "The Public Enemy," but who worked across so many genres ("A Star Is Born," "Battleground," "Wings") that he knew how to make a popcorn movie that you could also take seriously. But much credit for the film's success must also be given to the film's cast, which features John Wayne and Robert Stack as the pilots of the plane, and a host of passengers, each with his/her own story, but which is headlined by two marvelous actresses who both received Best Supporting Actress nominations for their work in this film, Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling.Movies like this are fascinating to watch now, because they work in so many of the cultural topics that were dominating public discourse at the time. This film brings up the atom bomb, American relations with Korea, disintegrating marriages, you name it. It's like a Cliffs Notes version of everything that was wrong with the 1950s.In addition to the Oscar nominations for Trevor and Sterling, the film garnered a nomination for Wellman's direction and brought three-time Oscar winning editor Ralph Dawson ("A Midsummer Night's Dream," "Anthony Adverse," "The Adventures of Robin Hood") his fourth nomination. Also, legendary composer Dimitri Tiomkin won his third Oscar for the film's famous score, and he inexplicably received a nomination, with lyricist Ned Washington, for Best Original Song, even though there is no song in the movie.Grade: B+EDIT: I have since found out how the film was nominated for Best Original Song even though no song appears in the movie. Apparently the main theme had lyrics, but the song was pulled from the film by a studio exec during its previews. Tiomkin protested and fought to have one print of the film released in Los Angeles with the song intact so that it would eligible for an Academy Award. The studio obliged, and Tiomkin got his Oscar nomination.