. . . my rating of "8" out of 10 actually is for a supplemental piece titled ON DIRECTOR WILLIAM A. WELLMAN, which is one of the many diverse and unconnected musings thrown together into something called THE MAKING OF THE HIGH AND THE MIGHTY for this film's 2005 restoration and DVD release. Wellman, of course, directed that John Wayne vehicle, as well as the first-ever Best Picture Oscar winner, WINGS. Wellman's biographer, Kevin Brownlow, emphasizes here that MIGHTY was NOT Wellman's preferred bag of popcorn, but that the director was a sucker for any story involving flight, since he was a decorated WWI war hero himself as a military aviator. Though it's mentioned in passing that Wellman's masterpieces were such movies as HEROES FOR SALE, this DVD extra clocks in at less than 10 minutes, so there apparently wasn't time for anyone to explain how an authentic American Hero politically to the left of Bernie Sanders could have co-existed during the shoot with Wayne, America's self-appointed "Snitch-in-Chief" at this time, who during the 1950s ruined the lives of Oscar winners such as Dalton Trumbo (please see TRUMBO) and Paul Revere's several-times great grand-daughter Anne, and fingered many Hollywood greats for Black Ops assassination by the CIA, including John Garfield and Errol Flynn.

The High and the Mighty is the rare film that has been rendered almost impossible to watch because of the later films that it has inspired. It tells the story, way back in 1954, of a propeller airliner that loses an engine and is in danger of ditching midway through a flight from Honolulu to San Francisco (sound familiar?). The characters on the plane are revealed through dialogue and have self-revelations as a result of their terrifying experience. The pilots grimly try to nurse the plane to safety.How can anyone really watch this movie? When the 2nd officer says to John Wayne, "remember that day over South America (when you crashed)," I could only think of Robert Hays and "Macho Grande" from our favorite comedy. Then, of course, Robert Stack gives us his best earnest looks and determined dialogue, and I was expecting someone to say "Don't call me Shirley." Of course, the other "serious" Airport movies that this creature inspired were some of the most insipid cinematic trash in movie history (albeit entertaining trash), so you really wonder if director William Wellmann was thrilled at giving rise to a whole genre that could be considered a blight on the face of film making.Still, we have to make some sort of effort to like this movie on its own merits. I will say one thing--it is the only "Airport" movie that actually makes a serious attempt at characterization--this was, after all, made before directors realized that you did not need real characters in order to sell tickets to a disaster flick (Rosie Grier, anyone?). And yet, some of the script is so dated that you wonder if people really talked like that back in 1954. I doubt it. And then, there is Dmitri Tiomkin's musical score. Unlike the later Airport movies, which featured lousy music by Hollywood hacks, Tiomkin's score is an amazing symphony in the style of Wagner or Rachmaninoff that, even to a trained ear, is an absolute delight to listen to. Problem is that the score is sitting behind a plane crash drama and bunch of panicky people, and simply seems way out of place. I found myself listening to the music blissfully and wishing everyone would just shut up.Oddly enough, as weird as this experience was to watch this movie in 2015, I cannot fully conclude it was a bad movie. The story lines were vaguely interesting, John Wayne gives his usual sympathetic performance, and some scenes were genuinely heartfelt and/or evocative. I enjoyed it. But never has a movie been more completely obliterated by its spin-offs and rip-offs, especially given the fact that it was only decent at best to start with.

I watched it because it purported to be a John Wayne action film about piloting a crippled plane across the Pacific. It had 3.5 stars out of 4. Man, what a disappointment.For starters, it's not a John Wayne movie. He's the co-pilot, so Robert Stack the pilot has more lines than the Duke. It's an ensemble cast of stereotypes: the faded beauty, the young couple, the Asian immigrant, the bloviated Englishman, the unflappable stewardess, the shrewish wife, etc. To fill time (I guess), we get waaaay to many details into all their private lives. Phil Harris reliving his ruined Hawaiian vacation of a lifetime is particularly worthless. Others have rightly pointed out how one passenger fires his pistol at another - and nothing is done about it! (Another passenger takes the gun, then later gives it back??) But this flying soap opera is only part of the problem. Potemkin hammers overly dramatic melodies at every opportunity. The angle of a sailor on a ship relaying message is totally unnecessary. It seems like the whole West Coast scrambles when the plane issues a mayday - accompanied by more dramatic tunes.Perhaps the worst part is the handling of the emergency itself. The passengers remain totally calm and cooperative. There's little actual drama to it. Endless shots of the plane flying through stormy skies - and yet none while flying over San Francisco?? 1950s aviation may have been different, but I cannot believe it was solely the pilot's discretion to keep flying right over a major city with a crippled aircraft that by their own calculation was already out of fuel! There's hardly any communication with the tower on this. But they'll make it because, well, because John Wayne knows they will. His "If we can just make it for 30 more seconds." utterance tells you how poorly the sense of suspense was handled.The epilogue sums it up how bad this film was. The plane taxis right up to the terminal like nothing happened. Each passenger dramatically exits one-by-one as the score blares away, breezing through the press and marching off to a better and brighter future. Even the little boy who slept through it all. (How about waking him up to handle the expected crash landing?) The one (?!) airline official stoically puffs his stogie. The crew finally exits, spiffed up like it'd been a normal flight. No reports? No debrief? No nothing? Nope, just an "I'll call you." The best that can be said about this film is that it was the original airplane disaster film. Fans of "Airplane!" should definitely watch, as it borrowed heavily from this particularly the overly-dramatic utterances of Stack (aka Rex Kramer).I want these 2.5 hours of my life back.

This is by no means a bad film. It's just not terribly original. The area of film-making where the plane gets into trouble and everyone's story on-board the plane gets told and why they're there was started with "Phonecall from a Stranger". A very fine film with Bette Davis in a minor role.This was a good watch but right off you already know the ending so what your in for is the stories from each passenger. What put them there and they tell their story and what not. All good actors in here but as I mention, not original.If you wanna get an idea of a good film with an airplane scenario...try a better film before this was made..."Island in the Sky". It's miles above this one in terms of enjoyment and edge of your seat thrills. You won't waste your time with this one and it has a lot of good points but go and find "Phonecall from a Stranger" and see what I mean.