Ordeal in the Arctic

I can't recommend anyone to watch this movie now as the GFX are outdated. But i am here to write a review of this movie because back in 1999 it was a blockbuster movie for me. I used to watch it almost every week and I used to show it to every guest that came to my house. It was a great movie. The ordeal was pretty real and at that time, the effects seems great too. Even though i cant stand the GFX and the set now but at that time it was a special movie and holds a special place in my heart.

This movie was a chore to sit through. The first half hour was entertaining but the last hour was very tedious and predictable. I think cutting back between the downed aircraft and the rescue teams was a mistake and the movie would have been better served focusing on just one plot. As for the actors, none of them delivered memorable performances. As the leads, Richard Chamberlain and and Catherine Mary Stewart were bland and I found Melanie Mayron's character to be particularly annoying. I will probably not watch this movie again, not when there are better titles like 'Alive' (1993) and 'Flight of the Phoenix' (1965) to choose from.

No Hollywood hype. What you see is what happened. The story is unvarnished and brutal in its simplicity. Ordinary people caught in a life or death struggle in a hostile environment, and digging deep to help each other survive. I used to show this movie to my 8th Grade students and you could hear a pin drop.

What people tend to forget was that this was a made for TV movie and a completely true story. I was just out of the Canadian Military when this happened and remember watching every news broadcast that I could on it as well as the inquest report done after. I also know one of the actors in the film and he was telling me that it was important to keep it as true as possible to the events as they happened. I did notice some flaws like when they leave they were at CFB Edmonton. I noticed that because I have flown out of CFB Edmonton and recognized the terminal. I also found that there was to much light used in the filming because that far north at that time of year it is completely black. It is all in all a damn good Canadian movie and I would recommend it for your video collection.

With only a minor flaws this movie is rather well-made, exciting and enjoyable. Richard Chamberlain plays the leading character well. Sad is that the movie doesn´t work all the way. Something is lacking. It is noticeable that the budget is quite low, but it all adds up to a good film. 5/10