Can't Help Myself. I Love It.
Does this film have a C-17 Cargo Plane full of flaws? YES. Does that keep me from loving it? NO. I saw it in a theater when it first came out. I guess one thing that draws me back to it is the camaraderie among the cockpit crew. George Kennedy, Alain Delon and David Warner are excellent, IMHO. One of my favorite "nothing" scenes is after the F4 incident. As the engineer announces he is going to call his wife and moves to de-plane, Paul says "Mr. O'Neill,". Peter turns and they make eye contact. He simply says "Thank you.". In my view he summed up what they'd just been through with a simple, heart felt statement. If all three of these men hadn't been damned good at their jobs, they would have crashed. (in the context of this bad but fun film) Then, right after, Joe kisses Concorde's yoke and says "Thank you, too, sugar". The two pilots look at each other and simply nod and say "Captain". Call me a simpleton, but I really love this part.
The main plot is silly crap, the SFX are bad (except for the crash) even for the time, and the various peripheral characters are stereotypical and one-dimensional. Then, there are the numerous times that the laws of physics and aerodynamics are ignored. Now, as for cringe moments.....The whole thing with Paul and Isabel was obviously going to turn out "sweet". I kept expecting Robert Palmer to serinade Alicia Rogov with "Bad Case Of Lovin' You". (Oops, wrong Robert Palmer) Anyway, I knew he was going to propose to her and get her coach's blessing JUST before they hit the snow field. As soon as Joe grabbed the flare gun I KNEW what was going to happen. They telegraphed it. Can you say "Predictability"?
When the F4 goes down, it is already in a crash dive when we hear the French pilots shoot at it. It doesn't show any signs of bullet impacts as it hits the water. I'm not sure if a failed FX shot is called a "blown take", but they screwed up the sequence and obviously had to use it because model work (even that bad) is expensive.
But, I don't really care about any of the flaws. I love this film. It's fun.
Favorite lines:
"Any time you feel like a good cry, come on up."
"You should hear my yawn."
"She was really......special!"
"For two-thousand francs, she better have been special."
"You mean she was a ....HOOKER?"
"As you Americans say, 'a real pro'..."
"You Gd son-of-a-bitch, she was GREAT!!"
"I dreamed I was being chased by a giant banana!"
(After Peter has gone WAY off his wife-imposed diet)
"Sarah....Sarah.....Sarah who?"
"MY GOD! We fell 20,000 feet!!"
"I landed into experimental nets in Viet Nam. It was like trying to stop a bullet with crepe paper."
(George Kennedy kisses the Concorde's yoke)
"Thank you, too, sugar..."
"The bathroom's broken."
"I could swear that floor's movin'."
That object you're tracking isn't a large asteroid. It's a very large spacecraft.