Grounding - Die letzten Tage der Swissair

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.

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.

Amazing mixture of real documentation, geniously played characters and fictional story lines. A national disaster with a lot of questions behind it, is now a lot clearer. Who's fault was it, that on this octoberday in 2001 the planes of the proud Swissair were grounded? The movie does not tell this in a final way, but leads you to an opinion, which could be new to the audience.

Very well played by swiss actors Hanspeter Müller-Drossaart (as Mario Corti) and Gilles Tschudi (as Marcel Ospel). A really intense experience, especially if you witnessed the happenings on October 2nd, 2001.

One of the revolutionary "new" Swiss Movies. And there are more to come. Watch out for Director Michael Steiner, who's "Mein Name ist Eugen" has become last years most successful swiss movie.

Go and watch it! You're gonna see things, you never expect....

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.