Grounding - Die letzten Tage der Swissair

As a young investment greenhorn, still in High School, I invested some money in the company this film is about. I really thought that nobody could let this national symbol fail. It could never happen.

And then I lost US$ 550. In order to end my experiment at the stock exchange I even had to donate the shares to the broker firm because Swissair was in bankruptcy and I could not sell them for US$ 30.

Well, this summarizes how I approached this film. The powerpoint slides shown by the consultant were tell-tale and neatly summarized how Swissair got into that mess. The negotiations with the banks were also a (perverse) fun to watch – big banks wanting to crash Swissair in order to cheaply buy the still-profitable remnants of the wreck.

As somebody grown up and living in Switzerland I did not like that the film was made in the Swiss-German dialect. You know all the regional dialects that good that you wonder if the Swissair CEO really spoke like *that* – may you even know him? The new chief financial officer Mario Corti hires from the U.S., Jacqualayn Fouse, speaks such a horrible "English". It sounded more like a German imitating American English than an American imitating German. They could have used a perfect, accent-free German playing her part, especially when all the other roles speak Swiss-German dialect – this would have kept the distance between the Swiss managers and her as the hired expert from the U.S.

Another big trouble was the trashy, kitschy story about the little boy. About her mother. About her husband. It just did not look genuine. And the Italian worker in the GateGourmet kitchen – the police storming the cold room. Really.

The movie was certainly a well-made one. If one forgets everything beside the main plot, which was saving the airline and the negotiations with the government and the banks. A well-made corporate thriller is feasible and will attract many moviegoers. But don't waste the good premise with cheesy subplots, please. And I really mean PLEASE.

Another positive point worth mentioning is that the chief personnel officer of Swissair, Matthias Mölleney, actually played himself in this movie.

And I want my US$ 550 back, by the way.

The film makers managed to reduce the fascinating example of arrogant mismanagement to a manipulative, confusing wannabe tearjerker. There is an abundance of irrelevant, sappy characters. My favorite being the heroic stewardess, who saves the life of a passenger who has a heart attack - and all she keeps worrying about is that she may be neglecting her poor pubescent son.

The facts are totally distorted. The incompetent manager "Super Mario" is depicted as the altruistic hero, who only wants the best for all his poor employees. And the bankers, of course, are just greedy cold-hearted monsters.

All in all, extremely annoying.

As stated in the Financial Times, this fast paced movie is an excellent lesson for companies. A MUST SEE for all Swiss and Germans and all former frequent flyers of Swissair.

Great casting (for those who know the real-life protagonists), convincing acting and script (although schmaltzy at times) and thrilling from start to end with a mix of news coverage documentation and movie. The simplification of the characters is permissible as are some of the lapses, like showing car models that didn't exist at the time.

I hope the movie gets some international attention and will be synchronized in English (swissgerman in the original) or at least get subtitles.

GROUNDING shows the story from the great air flag of our country which became a nightmare and that didn't never have the chance to get the emergency exit.

I didn't see GROUNDING in the theaters because there were long rows so I forgot this movie until I heard from an ex Swissair stewardess that she watched it and she found it very dramatic with full of emotions. In fact it touched me very deeply too and I recommend it to everyone that like air planes movies.

The picture was well done and I never got bored from start to the end. All the actors did a great job here and the director succeeded to tell all in a very dramatic countdown. What I didn't like therefore was that the story has been set up with a good and a bad guy that doesn't match at all the real events that happened before the definitive catastrophe.

I was impressed when I saw the SWISSAIR headquarter of Balsberg near the airport of Zurich where I spent a banking workshop last year. I realize now how hot the situation really was there and all the economical fights the management had to affront in this building. I was pleased to watch the Gate Gourmet employee called Luigi Dini in the film that was my partner in this workshop. All in all I give a 7/10.

Fascinating look at the events leading up to the grounding of Swissair in October 2001. The first part of the film is a documentary with the real people, then the story starts with actors. It makes the grounding personal by interweaving the impact on a family where both parents work for the airline. It is convincing, but friends in Switzerland tell me the film angers them because they feel the grounding could have been avoided. The problem here for American viewers is the film is presented in German (or French and Italian, the languages of the country) and with subtitles in the same. No English option. Perhaps if it is distributed in the US they'll add an English track or titles.