A Fear Of Flying Might Be A Bad Thing

Phobia Group Regresses; Airline Deeply Apologetic

Los Angeles (AP) American Airlines has been left with proverbial egg on their faces this week- not for pilot error, mechanical problems, or running horribly behind schedule, but for in flight entertainment on a flight between Los Angeles and Sydney, Australia. A flight on Friday travelled across the Pacific in a flight lasting over eighteen hours- a long haul by most standards, but typical for such a journey. Problems for this flight revolved around the choices made for in flight movies.

“Usually we have different choices for in flight movies,” Jessica Montgomery, a spokesperson for the airline told reporters. “You know, light fluffy romantic comedies. That’s about the only thing Kate Hudson does, and we keep her in heavy rotation on our flights. We’re still investigating who might have been responsible for the selection on this flight, but rest assured, movies featuring plane crashes and turbulent mid-air disasters are not standard entertainment on our flights.”

However it came about, AA Flight 70’s movie selection were all films that in one way or another featured plane crashes, tense suspension on board flights, or some variation meant to unnerve passengers who might not like to fly. Alive, Die Hard 2: Die Harder, Flight, Con Air, Air Force One, Escape From New York, Flight Of The Phoenix, Snakes On A Plane, and Cast Away were the flight’s list of movies. On a normal flight, this might be problematic enough, but Flight 70 had on board a group of passengers who were graduating from a series of classes meant to calm their fear of flying.

Callie Hart, the facilitator of the group, was still fuming three days after the flight. “Months of work, down the drain. I had twenty people who for years had experienced crippling fear at the idea of even getting off the ground and being up in a plane for hours on end. Every single one of them wanted to conquer that fear, so they joined my class. We’d meet weekly, do a whole series of mental exercises to get them past their fears, even started getting them onto short flights in Cessnas as a way to work through the phobia. All of them did well through classes and exercises and talking through the fear, all of them were feeling good and had made good progress. The trip to Australia was supposed to be their way of showing that fear would never control them again.”

Instead, the fear of the aviophobic passengers came roaring back. Not only in terms of the movie choices featuring the worst possible material for people striving to put their fears behind them, but a peculiar glitch in the aircraft meant that the screens at each seat couldn’t be turned off. A flight attendant, speaking anonymously, sighed and mentioned the plotline behind Alive. “Imagine being in a plane, watching Flight 571 crashing in the Andes, and then watching Ethan Hawke eating the dead, and not being able to turn the monitors off. Even the passengers who didn’t have a problem with flying were queasy. Our class of phobic passengers were throwing up. I feel sorry for the maintenance crews who had to clean things up after we got to Sydney.”

“It was like taking a bunch of people who have a fear of heights, and making them watch Cliffhanger, Everest, or The Walk,” passenger Geoffrey Birch, who was not one of the group of phobia sufferers. “By the end of the flight, some of those people were outright catatonic. I saw one of them vowing that she would be applying for permanent residency in Australia, saying as long as she lives, she never steps off terra firma again.”

“Oops,” Montgomery told reporters after a couple of drinks at one of the bars at LaGuardia’s terminal. “Look, these things sometimes happen in international air travel. In flight entertainment have glitches, fear of flying groups choose the wrong flight entirely to cure themselves of their anxieties, and people end up throwing up all over the flight attendants. Which is sort of why I got out of the flight attendant job and became a spokesperson instead. That, and I hate the public, but everyone in the aviation industry hates the public. Wait... did I say that out loud?”

Director Michael Bay, busy in pre-production for a multitude of films, heard about the story and left a peculiar message on his Facebook page. “Wow! You know, this gives me an idea or two. About a heroic cop who doesn’t like flying and who ends up having to fly across the country to stop a terrorist bomber named Hans and reunite with his ex-wife. What do you think of the title Die Easy?”

The last word belongs to someone who quite literally doesn’t know when to shut up. Donald Trump, the recently confirmed (barring any tricks happening at the convention) Republican candidate for President, has continued to run his mouth off about anything and everything in recent days, using favoured media and stump speeches to spew his usual brand of Trump verbal excrement. Campaign staffers informed him of the incident, and he took to the matter in one of his speeches before a couple of thousand loyal (and stupid) Trumpites.

“You know what, folks? This wouldn’t happen if Trump Airlines was still in business,” he boasted. “Believe me, we knew how to run things. I had the best people, the most amazing planes in the business with me, and well, long story short, Trump Airlines isn’t around anymore, but that’s not my fault! No! You know whose fault it is? Hillary Clinton. I’ll tell you, it’s disgusting what that woman personally did to my company. Not as disgusting as what she does in the bathroom, let me tell you.”

Trump sneered before carrying on. “And let me tell you something else. So what if some sissy pants scared of flying liberals had a meltdown? Because I can promise, without knowing one thing about every single one of them, that they’re all left wing godless commie Muslim fascist black cowardly liberal Mexicans. They can’t handle gettin’ in a plane, they should just dig a hole and bury their heads in it. Just like I’m gonna bury the Democrats and Crooked Hillary in November. I’ll tell you, folks, when I’m done, you won’t recognize what’s left of this country.... hold on, did I say that out loud?”

The Great Emancipator

Some scholars of history refuse to play the What If game. I rather like it. In regards to the American Civil War, we can ask ourselves what might have happened if John Wilkes Booth might have decided to call it quits and leave the country in April 1865 instead of choosing the path he did... or if he had missed his one shot that night in Ford's Theatre, and President Lincoln had lived. Reconstruction would have taken a very different path, civil rights would have been in place firmly as part of it nearly a century earlier... and Martin Luthor King Jr. would have been merely a particularly eloquent preacher.

Director Steven Spielberg has long sought to film a biography of the sixteenth President of the United States; he has had the project in mind for years on end, and finally the film itself has been made and released. Lincoln examines the final months of the President's life, and the final portions of the horrendous Civil War, on a very different battlefield: politics.

The film is drawn from the book Team of Rivals, by historian and writer Doris Kearns Goodwin, with a script by Tony Kushner. It revolves around the fight to pass the thirteenth amendment, abolishing slavery once and for all. The President, played masterfully by Daniel Day-Lewis, struggles to keep the country together in the final months of the war, while his commanding general, U.S. Grant (Jared Harris) works to force the surrender of Confederate forces near Richmond.

The struggle to pass the amendment presents its own challenges in Congress. On one side, fervent abolitionists like Thaddeus Stevens (a scene stealing Tommy Lee Jones) demand the immediate abolition of slavery. On the other, Democrat representatives who are openly hostile to abolition refuse to budge. In the middle are a swirl of voices, such as Francis Blair (the magnificent Hal Holbrook) and Secretary of State William Seward (the always outstanding David Straithairn) trying to find a path to peace- one that might mean setting the amendment aside.

Lincoln argues for the amendment, among his cabinet and among his opposition. He copes with the turmoil in his marriage to Mary Todd Lincoln (Sally Field) and worries about his son Robert (Joseph Gordon Levitt), a staff officer in the army. He's a father who has already buried children, and this- along with his worry for Robert- reflects in his relationship with the remaining son, Tad, still a boy. He finds himself trying to coax, cajole, twist arms, even using political favours in the efforts to bring about the end of slavery once and for all, feeling that a just peace can only happen if slavery is ended forever.

Spielberg is often known for bombast in his films, but here that isn't the case. With few exceptions- early sequences of battle, for instance- the bombast is turned off. He lets the story tell itself, and he assembles the ideal crew for it. The film feels like a Washington of the 1860s, from the look of buildings, the lighting of homes and offices, and the clothing and accessories of people to the infighting and volatile nature of the political atmosphere. Tremendous attention to detail has been shown by the crew. Cinematography seems to carry us into the midst of the political field of battle, drawing us back in time. Spielberg's frequent cinematographer Janusz Kaminski outdid himself with his work on the film, and deserves an Oscar. And John Williams gives an indepth, stirring musical score, once again living up to his reputation as the best Hollywood has to offer in film composers. 

Spielberg has assembled an extraordinary cast for the occasion. Holbrook, a legend on stage and screen, gives yet another fine performance as a voice of reason and elder statesman. Straithairn, who always brings depth and layers to a performance, does so again as Seward; I was reminded several times of how in history, Lincoln and Seward started out as rivals for the nomination, and only later became friends. Bruce McGill, a character actor who often appears in the most unlikely of roles, has a fierceness in his role as Secretary of War Edwin Stanton; the performance is similar to Kevin Kline's take on the man in The Conspirator. Harris, previously seen  in Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows gives the right amount of gruffness to the exceptional General Grant.

Sally Field, who's actually two decades older than Mary Lincoln was at the time, and ten years older than Day-Lewis, nonetheless is right for the role. She looks younger than she is, and Mary, in all pictures of the time, looks older than she was. She plays the part as you'd expect; occasionally very difficult in personality, probably hard to live with, and with traces of the unstability that was to dominate the rest of her life. There's also a warmth and protectiveness at times in the character, as Field and Day-Lewis come across as very natural together. Joseph Gordon-Levitt playing their son Robert does well in the role. As a young actor, he's continuing to grow in interesting roles. As Robert, he plays the young man chafing at the bit, and it's one of the cruel ironies in life that Robert was touched by assassination again, later in life, witnessing the assassination of President Garfield.

Tommy Lee Jones steals pretty much every scene he's in (he's good at that), and should be a lock for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars. His take on Thaddeus Stevens is that of a passionate, ferocious man of principle. He's a crafty politician, yes, but he's also one of integrity. Jones breathes fire and life into the character.

I have long thought that Daniel Day-Lewis is the best actor around today. My favourite of his roles must be Hawkeye in Last of the Mohicans, and I had thought that his lead role in the film In The Name of The Father was him at his best. Playing the President is a performance that matches, if not exceeds both of them, and he should be given the Leading Actor Oscar right now. Day-Lewis has a talent for disappearing into the role, and only takes roles he finds interesting. I've heard he stayed in character even off the set, typical of his methods as an actor. Here he conveys a peculiar sounding voice that is nonetheless the sort of voice commanding attention- something that history records Lincoln himself had. 

He plays the President as a man given to making a point through telling a story, a rough around the edges Mid-Western politician, a frontier man. His Lincoln is true to what the man himself would have been like: a highly capable political operator, very intelligent, cunning and crafty, with great instincts about human nature. There are times he comes across as aloof or distant, qualities that feel true to what we know. And there is a strong sense of humour, integrity, and principle to the man. Day-Lewis shows us a man who's exhausted by years of war, but still firmly dedicated to the cause. Close your eyes for a moment, listen to the voice, and you'll wonder if you're listening to the actor, or the man himself. The performance is that good.  

This is the best film of the year.

The Dark Knight Triumphant

The Dark Knight returns one more time in the finale to director Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, and like the first two films in the set, the movie does not disappoint. It transcends the comic book adaptation, as more than an action thriller. It’s a cerebral film, taking on big themes and psychological issues, and it succeeds in every way.

It’s been eight years since the events of the previous film, since Batman (Christian Bale) took the blame for the actions of the fallen District Attorney Harvey Dent (not to mention his death). Bruce Wayne has given up the mantle of the Bat and withdrawn into himself, worn down physically and emotionally. He spends much of his time holed up in his manor, while the city he once protected has rejected him. His company has seen better days, and is now steeply on a decline. All he has left for company is his butler and father figure Alfred (Michael Caine), who worries about how deeply Bruce has been battered by the events of the last few years.

Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman) knows the truth of his innocence, but is obliged to maintain the facade of Batman as an outlaw, and he has his own issues to deal with, from political concerns and senior officers jockeying for his post to an arrogant belief in the city that major crime is a problem of the past.

Into the mix come two wild cards. Selina Kyle (Anne Hathaway) is a cat burglar with an agenda all her own. And Bane (Tom Hardy) is a ruthless anarchist who unleashes hell on the city, in a series of attacks meant to draw out and destroy the Dark Knight, which is only the beginning of what he has in mind.

The finale of the series is a harrowing journey into darkness. The film, scripted by Nolan, his brother Jonathan Nolan, and David S. Goyer, takes on themes that are very prevalent today: the conflict between rampant capitalism and rights of the people, the fear of terrorism, the role of justice in the world. It follows a hero who’s just a man, at his lowest point, and asks the question of what can bring him back. There are influences from some of the biggest Batman stories of the comics: The Dark Knight Returns, Knightfall, and No Man’s Land are obvious ones. There are also shades of the storming of the Bastille and the French Revolution underlying the story.

The production values of the film are, as before, well worth it. The cinematography is spectacular; there are camera shots throughout the film that will leave you breathless. The special effects serve the story, and not the other way around; explosions for instance, in this film, are done properly, unlike the wildly over-exaggerated garbage we’d see out of a hack like Michael Bay (yes, Michael Bay, you are a hack of the first order. You are a hack in a hack class all of your own). And the score by Hans Zimmer (this time on his own, without his collaborator for the first two films, James Newton Howard) brings back some of the previous themes but goes off in other strong directions. Nolan has chosen his crew well, once again.

The cast itself is splendid in their roles. Marion Cotillard is a newcomer as Miranda Tate, a tycoon with an energy device that may be the salvation of Wayne Enterprises. Cotillard is a gifted French actress who you might recall from Inception, another Nolan film. She plays the role with sublety and nuance, and fits very well into the tapestry of the film. Another Inception veteran is Joseph Gordon-Levitt, playing John Blake, an inherently decent Gotham Police officer. There is a curious quality to his nature, and a basic integrity to him. He becomes the audience point of view character, the everyman we can relate to, who steps up to do right just because it’s the right thing.

The returning veteran players inhabit their roles once more perfectly. Gary Oldman as Gordon is as good as ever; Oldman is one of the great character actors of our time, and as Batman’s one time ally, we see a man who’s deeply unhappy at having to publicly be against the Batman early on, and then finds himself confronting the worst possible crisis of his life. Morgan Freeman returns as Lucius Fox, the Wayne executive and father figure to Bruce who’s provided much of the Bat tech in the past. There continues to be a wise strength in his portrayal of the character. And Michael Caine is very much the heart of the film, a foster father to Bruce Wayne, the guiding conscience, the Horatio to Bruce’s Hamlet.

Tom Hardy is another Inception veteran, and in that film, he completely stole the movie from the star, Leonardo DiCaprio (admittedly not that hard to do). He plays the monstrous Bane just as I’d expect him to be: a clever and brutal man, hidden behind a strange mask, a ferocious force of nature, and utterly nihilistic. Bane first appeared in the comics in the aforementioned Knightfall story, and has appeared in film, in the cinematic abomination that was Batman & Robin, where the character was a brainless idiot who happened to be nothing more than muscle for the two primary villains. For that and many other Bat-reasons, Joel Schumacher has more than earned his place in the seventh circle of Hell. This Bane is a decisive, bold leader, intelligent and sadistic, willing to do anything to achieve his objectives.

Anne Hathaway plays Catwoman, though she’s never once called that through the film. It’s probably impossible to outdo Michelle Pfeiffer’s take on the character, so Hathaway doesn’t even try, instead playing the character closer to the comic book version, a woman who's straddling the line between hero and villain. She brings a strong energy to the role, and her character draws Bruce out of the darkness he has descended into. She's got the look of the character just right, and gives the character just the right dramatic touches in terms of personality.

Christian Bale gives arguably his best performance of the trilogy in this film. His Batman has become brooding and withdrawn, consumed by losses in his life and the rejection of the people he once vowed to protect. The character is at the lowest ebb, and has to find his way out of despair and back to himself; he has to reinvest himself in his mission, to once again be the hero to a city that doesn't deserve him. Bale has an intensity and a drive as an actor that makes him fascinating to watch, and he inhabits the dual role of Bruce Wayne the tycoon and Batman the driven vigilante perfectly. In each of these films he’s understood the basic truth: the real man is the one driven by his own tragedy to wage war on crime, to seek justice, and the facade or mask is the carefree socialite.

Nolan has given us three outstanding, spectacular adaptations in this trilogy. The Dark Knight Rises is exhilarating, demanding, and rewarding, and not only is it a great comic adaptation and thrilling action film, it's also one of the best films of the year. It makes us care about the characters, surprises us in unexpected ways, and makes us ask ourselves questions. It makes us think, because it’s a film with depth.

Something that can never be suggested of Joel Schumacher, who, rumour has it, still wants to make his (self described) masterpiece Batman & Robin & Batgirl: More Bat Nipple Costumes, All The Time.