# Flight with Denzel Washington **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 27, 2012, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248 "2012-12-27T03:44:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/81 "2013-03-19T21:39:58Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > They are if they use the name and identifiable elements. This is not correct. ---
**Author:** ![Accidental\_Martyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ce7236/32.png) [@Accidental\_Martyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Accidental_Martyr)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/82 "2013-03-19T21:44:55Z")
> [@Hamlet](#): > > The only thing that’s obvious is that he quit. I don’t think quitting drinking and abusing drugs is synonymous with AA (mayhap the opposite), or any 12 step program. It seemed like by the end when he was in prison that he was involved in some sort of program. I’m pretty sure that most prisons are affiliated with AA or some sort of 12-step programs. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 10:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/83 "2013-03-19T22:03:28Z")
I don’t get the “_Flight_ was a 2-hour ad for AA” argument either. I figured that Denzel got his act cleaned up merely by being in a situation where he didn’t have ready access to booze/drugs. Yeah, he was talking to a group of prisoners at the end, but I don’t recall that it was specifically mentioned (or even hinted at) that it was an AA meeting. ---
**Author:** ![Steophan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steophan/32/9595_2.png) [@Steophan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steophan)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/84 "2013-03-19T22:52:01Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > I don’t get the “_Flight_ was a 2-hour ad for AA” argument either. I figured that Denzel got his act cleaned up merely by being in a situation where he didn’t have ready access to booze/drugs. Yeah, he was talking to a group of prisoners at the end, but I don’t recall that it was specifically mentioned (or even hinted at) that it was an AA meeting. It looked like an AA meeting to me, and to be honest I think you’re naive if you think prisoners don’t have access to alcohol and drugs. I didn’t love the ending, but it was one of the better depictions of abuse - and of AA, and the fact that it doesn’t always work - I’ve seen on film. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [March 19, 2013, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/85 "2013-03-19T23:58:55Z")
Hey, I’ve seen _The Wire_ and I not only know you can get drugs/alcohol in prison but that you can also frame guards, order hits, and dictate strategy to your drug organization while in the pen! 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/86 "2013-03-20T00:04:45Z")
> [@Steophan](#): > > I didn’t love the ending, but it was one of the better depictions of abuse - and of AA, and the fact that it doesn’t always work - I’ve seen on film. Once again, I’ll disagree. I thought it was canned and saccharine, bent to please someone who had to approve of the depiction of AA in the film. (Had they used a fictional organization, they could have told a better story.) Of _course_ he walked out of the first meeting; he had to, for dramatic purposes. But AA clearly saved him in the end, bringing joy, redemption and family unity together. Sound the soaring orchestral score, roll credits. Vomit. Dick Van Dyke did a better job of portraying alcoholism and redemption 40 years ago. And we weren’t sold on the film because it had a cool, Roger Zemeckis-directed plane crash in it. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/87 "2013-03-20T13:42:50Z")
I think people are projecting their own AA baggage onto the movie. The way I figure it only figured into the plot in two ways: one, his girlfriend was attending meetings and brought him to one, and he left. It was apparently working for her at the time but we dont see her again after she leaves him so we don’t know if it helped her long term or not. Then at the very end of the movie - when he’s been in jail for at least several months - he talks to a group of inmates about how he’s sober now. We don’t know if it’s an AA meeting or just some kind of group therapy. Hell we don’t even know if he’s really clean or still lying. The movie wasn’t perfect (although Washington was great). But folks who see it as a glorified AA advertisement are way off - you’ve got to be looking pretty hard through squinted eyes to see that. Also, filmmakers don’t need AA’s “permission” to use their name or depict a meeting. Why would they? Do you think they need the Catholic church’s permission to show a mass? ---
**Author:** ![Hamlet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hamlet/32/2818_2.png) [@Hamlet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamlet)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/88 "2013-03-20T16:05:19Z")
> [@NitroPress](#): > > Of _course_ he walked out of the first meeting; he had to, for dramatic purposes. But AA clearly saved him in the end, bringing joy, redemption and family unity together. Sound the soaring orchestral score, roll credits. Vomit. I really think you’re reading whatever issues you have with AA into the movie. Hitting rock bottom and going to prison are what finally got him to quit, not AA, and outside of the fact he was talking about it in front of other prisoners is about the only thing raising AA at all. I also think you’re seriously overplaying the ending. Sure he’s taking the tiny steps necessary for “redemption”, but if you think sitting in prison, talking about your low point, and not being assaultive with your son is somehow a complete redemption, I’d hate to see what you do with a real redemption. Sure he’s on his way to redemption (I suppose it could have ended with him dead, ala Leaving Los Vegas), but he certainly ain’t there yet, and there’s every reason to believe he may not ever make it. ---
**Author:** ![harmonicamoon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/65b543/32.png) [@harmonicamoon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/harmonicamoon)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/89 "2013-03-20T16:12:40Z")
Do you think he would have copped out to the vodka had he been sober? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/90 "2013-03-21T02:11:49Z")
I thought that the movie kinda sucked. Of course, Denzel Washington is magic in whatever role he plays, but, sometimes, even he can’t save crap. John Goodman had a stupid role. Or, more correctly, it was too formulaic. Too Lebowski-ish, and that has been overworked since the 80s, or earlier. Rather dull ending. I don’t think the writers had one planned, and cobbled this together to wrap it up and collect their checks. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/91 "2013-03-21T02:59:40Z")
I just love how anything that verges on criticism of AA is deemed to be “projecting your baggage” on it. The friggin Scientologists are less pointlessly defensive. ---
**Author:** ![I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/i_love_me_vol.i/32/521_2.png) [@I\_Love\_Me\_Vol.I](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/I_Love_Me_Vol.I)\ **Post date:** [March 21, 2013, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248/92 "2013-03-21T04:45:21Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > What are you talking about? There is one AA scene in the movie and Denzel leaves. Nobody is required to get “approval” to depict AA in a movie. Why does everyone keep saying there was only one brief scene of an AA meeting in the film? The entire epilogue of the film was an AA meeting, with Denzel as the featured speaker! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/flight-with-denzel-washington/645248.md?page=4)