Yeah I know but why is SHE in AA and not NA?
Plot ma happen but when it is so contrived it loses me.
I’m sure there are limits on what she can ask or what he has to answer.
I just didn’t like the that it was a 120 minute commercial for AA. What can I say?
Yikes! You really thought that movie could play as a commercial for AA???
“Fly American Airlines. Our planes will fall apart mid-air, but our drunken pilots will turn the plane upside down to save most of you.”
I keed, I keed!
That being said, I don’t think it was a great movie. It was, however, a fantastic performance by Denzel Washington.
You obviously feel strongly about this.
I am curious: How did Whip benefit from AA?
mmm
I don’t think it was about AA in particular. It was about how some people are so damaged, they have to hit rock bottom before getting help.
My partner and I are both pilots and watched this last night. We were both chuckling at the inaccuracies in the flying scenes and I wondered out loud if junkies watching the movie roll their eyes at the drug scenes.
I did like the movie though, despite the inaccuracies. It was actually the climactic scene that stretched my suspension of disbelief the most. I could overlook the captain jumping into the flightdeck, having a quick suck of oxygen, introducing himself to the first officer, then declaring they were ready to push-back without having any kind of preparation/briefings at all. I could also overlook the piss poor turbulence penetration technique used just after take off as I figured they were trying to establish the character as an unorthodox yet talented pilot. The crash itself was not as completely implausible as I thought it would be. What I found really hard to believe was the final question posed to the captain at the hearing. I was expecting him to refuse to answer on the basis that it is not for him to voice opinions about what other crew members may or may not have done during the flight, but no.
He got sober, he got to see his son again, and claimed that, despite being in prison, for the first time in his life he felt free.
Watched this film last night - it’s still at the cinema here. Very good film, extremely unflinching in it’s portrayal of substance abuse. More so than I was comfortable with, having given up alcohol just over a year ago, and I actually felt slightly shaky and sick coming out. I’m glad I saw it, but I won’t be watching it again.
There was probably too much emphasis on AA being a miracle cure (and not, as has already been pointed out, no better than doing it alone*, and with some aspects that I consider significant downsides), but in this film it seemed more like a convenient shorthand than propaganda.
Overall, brilliant acting, a pretty good plot, and some epic nudity. It asks questions about the nature of God, personal responsibility, and substance abuse, and doesn’t spoon feed you answers. You see the answers the particular characters come up with, but I never felt that I was expected to agree with them.
I can’t speak for the drug scenes, but I can speak for the alcohol scenes, and no, they were pretty realistic. I’d imagine there’s far more people in Hollywood with expertise in drug and alcohol use/abuse than flying anyway 
I just watched it. I think I would have been happier with a “conspiracy against the black pilot” movie than an alcoholism one. Washington acted well but the whole thing was too heavy handed.
A question, though. The blood test after the crash read 0.24%. Suppose it was actually accurate, even though the lawyer got it thrown out. Wouldn’t that level of alcohol be almost totally incapacitating, even for an alcoholic? The movie shows a few hints at motor impairment, like stumbling on the stairs going in, but for the most part he functions normally.
Cocaine fixes everything apparently.
That was by far my favorite scene in the movie. I absolutely love when Don Cheadle won’t hand over the money directly.
Oooh! First Post on Page 2! I get a puppy!
What’s that, a bottle of spirits over a couple of hours? No, it wouldn’t necessarily be - especially if one had taken stimulants as well. It would certainly fuck you up, and I’m sceptical one could fly a plane in that situation, but it would certainly be possible to walk and talk.
Some alcoholics would be more incapacitated by having a BAC of 0.
I think my problem with this film is that the intense plane crash and everything which followed seemed like two completely different movies. And they didn’t mesh well. I agree that the ending was heavy-handed, and John Goodman was basically a cartoon. Nothing very memorable about it besides the plane crash.
An average person would have severe impairment at that level but a long-term alcoholic, especially a large man, might not. I’ve known a few alcoholics who blew higher than 0.4 in a DWI.
I saw an ad for this film, but figured it was just the airplane version of denzel saving the train as he did in his recent “Unstoppable”.
I saw an ad for this film, but figured it was just the airplane version of denzel saving the train as he did in his recent “Unstoppable”.
Oh, as to “Wouldn’t that level of alcohol [0.24] be almost totally incapacitating, even for an alcoholic?” plainly you know no alcoholics.
My take on it was that regarding Washington’s role character, seemed that investigator had him cornered - so that either he had to take responsibility for the booze bottle empties (discovered in wreckage), else his coworker/friend would posthumously take the blame. He could not have it go down that way, had no choice to come clean in honor of her memory.
I watched this the other night. I thought Washington’s performance was good. I didn’t like John Goodman’s character, it was way too over the top. The AA stuff was disappointing but not surprising. Almost all movies/TV programs perpetuate the myth of AA/12-step programs as an effective treatment for alcoholism, so I was expecting it.
I would say it was not bad, probably worth the $1.27 rental, but a bit heavy-handed in parts.
" perpetuate the myth of AA/12-step programs as an effective treatment for alcoholism"
I’ve known several people it/they have been quite successful for.
Yes - the investigator knew about the blood test (which the lawyer magically had excluded.) So the only way to “get” Denzel was to corner him into blaming the dead flight attendant, and hope that we would not allow her to take the fall.