767 en détresse

What an adventure. Based on a true story. If you don't like to fly, though, I wouldn't recommend you watching it! I agree with the reviewer below, you feel like you're part of the action. The acting is all good, especially William Devane as the brave pilot. I also enjoyed Shelley Hack as a stewardess, who has the best line: she snarks to a rude passenger, "Sir, shut your stupid mouth!"

I decided to watch this movie because William Devane was in the cast. I have enjoyed every movie he has been in. I liked the way, as captain, that he kept control, his determination to survive and a sense of humor throughout the ordeal. I laughed when Rick (Winston Rekert) says to him (Captain Bob-William Devane) that they don't want to cause the oxygen masks to pop out because it might panic the passengers. Captain Bob replies, "MIGHT panic?? I'd be surprised if they're not back there knitting their own parachutes right now!"

Free Fall from the Sky: Flight 174 is the true story of a Boeing 767 near-disaster in Canada when the plane runs out of fuel. It stars William Devane, Scott Hylands, Shelley Hack, Marietta Hartley, and Winston Reckert.

The Canadian government changed the way fuel was measured to kilos, I guess, and some duffess on the ground measured wrong and sent this thing up with not enough fuel to get where it was going. The highlight for me was seeing copilot Scott Hylands with a pencil and paper doing calculations.

Made in 1995, the move has that cheap Canadian feel to it, which movies did back then. For a disaster film, it drags. There was not enough script for 93 minutes.

There was a lot of inner monologuing which I could have done without.

The landing was good, mostly due to the excellent acting of William Devane. Look for lovely Molly Porter at 23 in a small role.

This was a very watchable film with lots of authentic cockpit time. I've spent lots of hours in jet cockpits and this was more realistic than most. Some criticisms : 1) The Captain (William Devane) and his first officer seemed a little weak on aircraft systems. Sure, this was a new Boeing 767, but most crewmembers I knew had a deep knowledge of every system on the plane, including fuel. There is no flight engineer... the pilots have to know it! 2)This LARGE abandoned airfield just outside Winnipeg was not on ANY chart and NO ONE knew where it was?? I found this hard to believe. 3)The ending didn't cover anything about culpability in this incident. What happened to the numbskulls who mis-fueled the plane in the first scenes? Were they fired or sued? None of them had a clue! And isn't it the Captain's responsibility for taking off with sufficient fuel? I felt they glossed over all the "legal" stuff. Devane was convincing... lots of great one-liners. Great flick.

I saw a dramatised 1 hour documentary of this accident on the Canadian Air Crash Invetsigations series "Mayday". The dramatised bits and interviews with passengers did a much better job of entertaining than this movie does, with the added bonus of conveying what really happened.

Instead of focusing on facts this film opts to go for 1970s disaster movie approach with casting, acting, set design, music and the invitable padding out with irrelevant sub-plots. The only thing that is missing is here Charton Heston but I guess he was too old by 1995 to pass as an airline Captain! Much of the dialogue between the crew in this movie is invented and they simply don't cut it as professional airmen. There is too much sighing and emotion, and too little professionalism. Most of the time they don't look like they are sitting a real cockpit, but a large wooden room in a studio.

Many of the events are exaggerated for sensational effect, and some events invented. This would be alright but it's poorly done and it just cheapens the movie. As do the invented dramatisations with passengers and crew.

I supposed it's a watchable film in is own right...I mean, I did watch it!