Flight

SPOILER ALERT! The plot will be discussed.

Just some advice, don’t watch this movie or the other film by director Robert Zemeckis, Cast Away, before taking an airplane trip. The title of this film, Flight, suggests rising above problems, but through most of the film it also implies running away from those problems. Also, since the main character has a drug and substance abuse addiction, the title can refer to getting high. There is a spiritual element in this story too, raising the possibility that divine intervention could be at play, in addition to practical and coincidental reasons, in causing what happens. 

The movie starts in an airport hotel room where the alarm clock blares music (a moral wake-up call?) and the time is 7:14 a.m., which IMDb says refers to a biblical quote from “Chronicles” that notes that people must “humble” themselves and turn away from their “wicked ways” so that God can forgive their sins. The lines fit what is happening to pilot Captain Whip Whitaker (Denzel Washington, in an Oscar-nominated performance). There is a glass with residual whiskey in it on an end table. We are immediately presented with the problem. Whitaker is in bed with a woman, Trina (Nadine Velazquez), when he gets a phone call. He is hungover and has trouble answering the phone. He can’t even have a conversation until he has some leftover beer from a bottle that is next to several empty bottles, which shows there has been excessive alcohol consumed. The call is from his ex-wife, Deana (Garcelle Beauvais), and we are quickly shown that there is conflict in his life as she wants tuition for their son’s schooling and he wants to talk it over with the boy to see if he wants to attend. So he has left (flown away from?) his family. Trina is a flight attendant and they are in Orlando with a plane leaving in only two hours. He says he feels “a little lightheaded,” and to counter the numbing effects of his alcohol consumption, he snorts cocaine. In the background, as the coke kicks in, a Joe Cocker song plays with the lyrics underlining the pilot’s up and down (flying high and crashing?) drug dilemma with the words, “I’m feeling alright/ I’m not feeling too good myself.” 

At takeoff, there is a strong storm. Whitaker slips a bit as he tries to go up the stairs to the plane, showing his precarious state of mind. Margaret Thomason (Tamara Tunie) is another flight attendant, and she and Whitaker jokingly talk about how she wants him to get her on time to her church meeting in Atlanta. Here the movie adds to the religious theme, with Whitaker irreverent in the exchange, and Margaret saying she will save a seat for him at the service, implying his need to be saved. Whitaker wants black coffee and aspirin, suggesting he is fighting a hangover. He takes whiffs of oxygen from his mask and asks if his co-pilot, Ken Evans (Brian Geraghty), wants a “hit.” The word shows that for Whitaker even inhaling air is like taking a drug, so submerged is he in the need for intoxicants. Evans is a bit taken aback by Whitaker’s need to right himself before taking on the responsibility of the welfare of 102 lives. Whitaker is brushing his hair, acting like he just got out of bed, which is close to the truth. The co-pilot has to remind Whitaker they are approaching the departure time, and that pushes Evans to ask him how he’s doing. Whitaker only concedes that he is tired from several flights in three days. 

There is a cut to an attractive woman, Nicole (Kelly Reilly), coming out of the Hotel Atlanta with her luggage, (even though we soon discover she has an apartment). She is another traveler, like Whitaker, not rooted in her existence. Her track marks are visible as she counts the small amount of cash in her hands. She and Whitaker will meet up soon. She calls a man named Kip (Conor O’Neill), for some drugs, but hopes he won’t answer the phone, knowing she is in trouble with her addiction. He does answer and as she arrives to meet him he is snorting cocaine. He makes pornographic movies and suggests that she be in the one he is shooting. She is outraged, but she offers to give Kip a hundred dollars for a fix. Kip says he thought she had gotten clean, which shows Nicole wants to quit, and she even says she stopped using needles. Kip won’t take her money, gives her some heroin, tells her not to inject it because it is strong, and then gives her some cocaine to help get herself “back up” if the heroin makes her too sedated. Nicole’s up and down drug use parallels that of Whitaker, showing the shared connection. 

Back at the airport the plane takes off experiencing, as Whitaker says, severe turbulence. We hear the Joe Cocker song lyrics again as Whitaker sings them quietly as he flies the plane, again reminding us of his unstable life. Despite his condition, Whitaker is cool and able to read the weather radar, and sees an opening between the storm clouds to level off the plane. As the aircraft shakes and the passengers become alarmed, Evans invokes the Lord, but Whitaker’s disconnect from religion shows as he smiles and says to him, “He can’t help you now, brother.” Whitaker levels off the plane at this point which is not standard procedure while taking off. He also insists, despite Evans’s warning that he is going too fast, that they need to speed up to get through the bad weather. By trusting his unorthodox flying instincts, Whitaker gets the plane through to an opening, and it soars upward. He turns the plane over to Evans and tells Margaret he is coming out of the cockpit area. 

Nicole goes to her apartment, finds the door already open, and is upset when she sees a man named Fran (Adam Tomei) there in a robe. He is her landlord holding her camera, which she tells him never to touch, implying that her photography is her real passion. She is behind in her rent, and says she will come down to give him the money after she takes a shower. There is a suggestion that she has been intimate before with this sleazy fellow, which points to how far she has stooped to get by in her life. She uses her wits to get him to step out of the apartment by pretending she wants to take a picture of him. She is angry at her life so she slams things around, and then a hypodermic needle falls out of a box. As she stares at it, we see how she is almost hypnotized by its seductive, penetrating appearance. She injects the heroin that Kip said not to do because of its potency. She overdoses, falling to the floor as Fran bangs at her door after smelling the heated drug.

Back on the plane, Whitaker uses a reassuring address to the passengers as an excuse to pour small bottles of vodka into some orange juice with one hand as he holds the microphone in the other, the split aspects of his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality displayed here. Whitaker falls asleep in his chair as Evans flies the plane. As they are ready to descend, the aircraft becomes unstable, waking up Whitaker. The attendants try to get the passengers strapped down. The airplane goes into an uncontrollable dive. Whitaker dumps fuel to avoid explosion in a crash. A flight attendant goes down the aisle to help secure overhead bins, but sustains a head injury as the plane’s motion slams her around. Whitaker acts controlled while Evans starts to panic as they head toward houses on the ground. With the help of Margaret and Evans, Whitaker turns the plane upside down in order to control the dive, which in a way symbolizes how Whitaker must turn his life upside down to right himself. In that inverted position, the aircraft flies over where Fran is with a paramedic who is taking Nicole in a stretcher for medical attention. The fate of Whitaker and Nicole is visually linked here, and the lives of people are also figuratively flipped upside down. As some passengers are tossed about and engines start to catch fire or lose power, Whitaker rights the airplane and glides it down onto a field where there are some who are dressed in white (like angels?) who we later learn are from the John the Baptist Pentecostal Mission associated with a nearby church. One of the plane’s wings smashes the church steeple, suggesting both that Whitaker’s self-indulgent and careless life has hurt him and others, but that he is a man capable of saving people and is worthy of redemption if he can turn his life around.

Whitaker wakes up in a hospital bed watching TV footage of the crash and rescue operations. Charlie Anderson (Bruce Greenwood), the representative from the pilot’s union is there, and he says he is now “flying a desk” which shows he is an ex-pilot and friend of Whitaker’s. He calls Whitaker by his nickname, “Whip,” which could suggest whiplash, and thus Whitaker’s dangerous nature. Two crew members and four passengers died in the accident. Craig Matson (E. Roger Mitchell) and others from the National Transportation Safety Board enter and start the investigation, putting an audio recorder on Whitaker’s bed as the nurse changes an IV. This shot stresses the immediacy of the inquiry as Whitaker has just become conscious after sustaining head and arm injuries. In particular, he has an injury to his left eye, which is covered with a patch and bandages. Eyes and vision are significant symbols in films (Blade Runner, Bonnie and Clyde), and can suggest a lack of moral vision, or just not seeing things as they really are. Katarina Marquez (Trina, the woman he was with in the hotel room) and Camelia Satou (Boni Yanagisawa) were flight attendants who were killed. Margaret suffered a broken collar bone. The co-pilot Evans sustained a serious head injury and was placed in a medically induced coma. Anderson asks if he should reach out to Whitaker’s ex-wife and son Will (Justin Martin), age fifteen, but Whitaker says no, he’ll do it. 

But Whitaker instead calls his drug supplier, Harling Mays (John Goodman), appropriately laid back in shorts and a ponytail. He walks through the hospital listening to The Rolling Stones’ “Sympathy for the Devil,” so we know that he is the enabler of Whitaker’s demon addictions. He is loud and is crude with the nurse. He has brought pornographic magazines for the invalid Whitaker. Mays shows him the media outside staked out around the hospital and says they are at Whitaker’s condo and even interviewed Mays. Whitaker says the drugs the hospital gave him were not working, probably because he is used to street-level doses. Mays looks at the list of medications and dismisses them, showing he has brought vodka and Red Bull, again pointing to the sedative and stimulant ranges of intoxicants in Whitaker’s life. So, the outward appearance of the pilot, one who is supposed to be in control of the flight, is that of a hero, but the private, personal life of Whitaker is chaotic. But Whitaker, shaken by the crash, tells Mays to take the vodka away, and says he is not drinking. He is grateful for the cigarettes Mays brought, which is another form of addiction. Before he leaves, Mays lays his hand on Whitaker’s head, and the image is one of a demonic priest, bestowing a blessing.

Whitaker wakes up startled by thunder, which probably reminds him of the crash, and he escapes to the stairwell for a smoke. It is here where he encounters the smoking Nicole, who was brought to the same hospital after her overdose. Whitaker humorously says, “Devious minds think alike.” The joke is funny on the surface, but is actually revealing of his character. She asks if he was on that plane, and says, since he survived, he must have sat at the back (which we later discover was the unusually fatal area to be in, stressing the opposite of what is expected). He says he was, not feeling like the hero who piloted the craft. 

In a pivotal scene, another patient, listed in the credits as Gaunt Young Man (James Badge Dale), bald and dragging an IV pole, arrives and he references Apocalypse Now, saying. “I like the smell of nicotine in the morning. It smells of victory.” Again, there is humor, but at the same time it brings with it the destructive nature of war, and the end of things, as these sick people share time together, but by indulging in something that can only add to their ills. The GYM, voicing what addicts know, says, “I should quit,” smoking and adds that “My cancer might get cancer,” another funny line with a dark edge as he multiplies his carcinogenic threats. The GYM recognizes Whitaker as the pilot of the downed aircraft, and says Whitaker was lucky to survive. Whitaker says he will be going home soon. The man says home for him is in the basement, which is where cancer is kept. This line conveys that people don’t want to think about disease so they shove it into an unseen place, as those with addictions may do. He reveals that his soft tissue cancer is rare, and “God chose me.” We have another religious reference, and the patient is being ironic, combining divine intervention that sounds blessed with what is actually deadly. The implication is that the Lord varies the good with the bad in his actions. The GYM says he believes in God because it’s easier to think that all the things that happen are out of one’s control, like the plane crashing. He says people either act like they don’t see him, probably because he reminds them of human mortality, or are drawn to him because being closer to the end he has some insights. He admits, “Death gives you perspective. It all makes sense, somehow.”

The GYM notices that Nicole has track marks, and she admits that she is an addict. In answer to his question about her work, she says she was a photographer and then a masseuse, and also washes hair in a salon. These are jobs that are dependent on other things or people, almost in service to what is outside of herself. He asks her if she thinks she is going to die, but she is quiet, which implies that she is worried that is the case. He says to Whitaker, “Don’t you just love her?” and he seems to know that the two will come together. Whitaker says he doesn’t know Nicole, but the GYM does seem to have insight, and says, “random act of God? I don’t think so,” concerning this meeting. He is sort of a divine messenger. He keeps saying things are a “trip” which fits in with Whitaker’s profession, and refers generally to life’s journey. His closeness to death heightens experiences for him, so, “every morning is special now. I’m grateful for that,” he says, and “I wish I could bottle this feeling that I have about how beautiful every last breath of life is.” Whitaker gives him his pack of cigarettes, possibly in the moment at least transferring the tools of death to the grim reaper to take them away. The man picks up on the ironic act, saying he’ll pass them around the cancer ward. He tells Nicole that she is going to be okay. A premonition?

His presence starts up a conversation between Nicole and Whitaker, establishing a connection. After he leaves, Nicole says the GYM has “chemo brain,” which is what happened to her mother, who became chatty during treatment. She died of breast cancer at age fifty-four, and Whitaker asks if that is why she thinks she’s going to die. She reveals more about herself when she says that female heroin addicts who use needles statistically don’t have a long life. She says that the GYM made her feel like she and Whitaker were the last two people on earth, sort of like an upside-down version of Adam and Eve. Whitaker says, sadly, like it’s an impossibility, that “together we’ll save the world,” And they laugh at the absurdity of the statement. Whitaker gets her address and says he will visit her.

Mays gives Whitaker a ride as the song “Gimme Shelter” plays, which is what Whitaker is searching for. They go the “farm,” which belonged to Whitaker’s father, so he can avoid the press. He feels badly about the deaths on the plane and probably wants no scrutiny of his flawed inner life. He appears to want solitude in his battle to become sober. He flushes his pills and pours booze down the drain. There is a one-prop plane in the garage and pictures on the wall of the house showing that flying is a family tradition. But, he can’t escape the specter of the crash as it is on the television. Also, Anderson calls to have a meeting about the crash. 

Whitaker goes to a brunch with Anderson and Hugh Lang (Don Cheadle) an attorney. Anderson tells Whitaker that the religiously devout wife of co-pilot Evans said that “God landed the plane,” which stresses the movie’s exploration of whether divine intervention occurs in our lives. Lang specializes in criminal negligence, which surprises Whitaker and angers him. Lang states that because there were deaths, someone has to be made responsible. Anderson says that the airline will argue the plane’s manufacturer was at fault, but Lang says the possibility of pilot error will be examined. He says that evidence was gathered to develop a toxicology report. Lang informs Whitaker that the pilot’s blood was drawn at the hospital for this purpose and his blood alcohol level was .24, way above the .08 limit. Whitaker says that his intoxication didn’t cause the engines to burn up, and maintains that he was put in a “broken” plane. He argues that if it wasn’t for him, all aboard would have died. But Lang says that the investigators also found cocaine in Whitaker’s system, and that is a felony which would land him in jail for twelve years. Plus, if it is decided that his intoxication led to the onset of the plane’s problems that resulted in deaths to those onboard, then he can be charged with manslaughter of six lives and sentenced to life imprisonment. Lang wants to kill the toxicology report. Anderson says that will allow Whitaker to remain a hero, thus creating a cover-up. Whitaker says he is not worried because the one thing that he is sure of, what anchors him, is that he knows he is the only person who could have landed that plane. 

Whitaker appears assured in his flying abilities, but he is stressed out about the evidence of his inebriation. He leaves the meeting, and at first orders an orange juice at the bar, but then asks for hard liquor while the TV there continues to talk about his flight and the investigation that will follow, adding pressure on Whitaker. He stops to buy beer and alcohol and drinks while he drives. It’s as if he was given a second chance, but he is failing the test to keep his sobriety.

He heads to Nicole’s place, as if instinctively seeking the person who can understand his problem, but who also has caregiver skills. He happens (or is it fate?) to see her outside in the parking lot of her apartment house. She is loading up her car, ready to take “flight,” as it were, from her responsibility to pay rent. Whitaker hears Fran the landlord threatening Nicole. Whitaker throws Fran to the ground and gives him some cash to settle Nicole’s debt. Nicole’s car won’t start, so Whitaker gives her a ride and says she can stay at his place. He saves her here, but can she save him? She starts out trying, back at the farm, as he continues to drink, and she refuses to join him. She puts a pillow under his injured leg and massages his knee. She then continues to touch him, and removes the glass of booze from his hand. She replaces the alcohol with her lips, kissing him. The next shot is her naked in his bed. She is trying to heal him physically and emotionally. 

Lang shows up at the farm and takes Whitaker to the crash site. Lang says that the left wing of the plane hit the ground, but if it had sheared off completely, everyone would have survived. Instead that part of the wing then “drove the engine cowling into the rear fuselage,” thus causing the fatalities. Is this another instance of bad luck or was it the result of God acting in “mysterious ways?” Out in the field Ellen Block (Melissa Leo) shows up and Lang says she heads the investigation. Whitaker admits that he drank and then used cocaine to counter the effects of the alcohol. But, he says that is not why the plane failed. Lang says he knows it was clearly mechanical error. But, he says, “this was an act of God.” He says he will fight to get the NTSB “to add ‘Act of God’ as one of the probable causes.” That line mirrors what the GYM in the hospital stairwell was saying about things not being in our control. Or, is that just a belief that makes us feel good, as he also said, or a way of abdicating our responsibilities? Whitaker voices skepticism by asking “Whose god would do this?” He is trying to understand how a benevolent being would also allow such horror to occur. Lang says that the airline is on their side and there will be a meeting the next morning. He tells Whitaker he must stay sober since he is “under the microscope” now, even though that is exactly not where Whitaker wants to be given his frailties. He promises that he can be abstinent on his own, as he is in denial about needing help.

In the meeting with the head of the airline, Avington Carr (Peter Gerety), an interesting name for an airline boss, admits he wishes he was in the baseball business, obviously something that exists safely on the ground.  He is mostly concerned about how much it is going to cost him in terms of lawsuits, instead of thinking about the loss of life. Lang is quick to assure him that only the four civilians are involved, since the two flight attendants’ families will come under the workman’s compensation claim which is associated with the union. Anderson says he flew with Whitaker in the Navy and says that Whitaker is a great pilot. But Carr just wants to know if he is a drunk, and Anderson admits that Whitaker is a heavy drinker. Lang says he will kill the toxicology results through technicalities, saying that the testing devices had not been calibrated for a long time, so were not recently checked for accuracy, the labeling was incomplete, and a preservative was used that was known to cause fermentation, thus inflating the alcohol measurement. Carr doesn’t care if the airline fails, he just doesn’t want the liability to extend to his own wealth. The coldness of the mentality of the wealthy is attacked here, which shows no compassion for victims or workers. The union doesn't want the airline to fail because that would mean the loss of jobs, so they want to put all the blame on the airplane manufacturer. Despite Lang saying his clients don’t go to jail, Carr says Whitaker will be. In any event, everyone here is trying to place responsibility onto someone else. 

Back at the farm, Whitaker is surrounded by empty bottles of booze as he drinks so much he can’t speak coherently and passes out when he tries to get up. He watches home movies that show his son as a child as he tosses a football with his grandfather. Whitaker seems to be mentally escaping into a time that was innocent and hopeful, when he was encouraging his son to follow the family tradition of becoming a pilot. In contrast to Whitaker’s inebriated state, Nicole has come back from a sobriety meeting, as she continues to try to tend to Whitaker. 

The next morning Whitaker says to Nicole he threw out the beer and vodka, as he bounces back and forth between attempts at sobriety and falling off the wagon into intoxicated binges. Nicole has her camera, her lifeline to keep her afloat, saying she took some beautiful pictures of the sky, the place that is Whitaker’s domain, (and supposedly God’s), though Whitaker keeps flying in a self-destructive way, allowing his addictions to pilot him. He says the farm originally belonged to his grandfather, where his own father grew up. After his father’s death, Whitaker has been trying to sell the place, but it still represents a sort of pastoral retreat (maybe even a religious one?) for him. Whitaker doesn’t say much about his mother, only that she was dead, which in the absence of words says a great deal about the lack of a relationship. Nicole also was estranged from a parent, her father, but her mother was loving until she died, and possibly that love is what keeps Nicole alive.

At the funeral service for the two flight attendants, Trevor (Ron Caldwell), Margaret’s son, thanks Whitaker for saving his mother’s life. Even though that is true, Whitaker is still in denial as to his unfit status to fly on the day of the crash. He can’t look at the bodies in the coffins and tells Margaret he can’t go to the counselors to help deal with the crash. He tells her that he only had two glasses of wine at dinner, and just wants Margaret to say at the investigation there was nothing out of the ordinary concerning the crew. She knows he is a drinker and Trina told her that she and Whitaker had not slept the night before. He tries to manipulate her emotionally as he says if he wasn’t flying the plane, her son would be at her funeral, and how terrible it would be for Whitaker’s son to see his father in jail, She says it’s a lie to say he was fit to fly, but Margaret seems to want to help him.

Nicole has a job at a food market and is grateful for her AA sponsor. She is going to a meeting later and invites Whitaker to go as she continues to try to rescue him. He goes to the meeting but won’t raise his hand when the group asks who is an alcoholic. Whitaker is dead serious as others laugh at “Two Beer Barry” (Dylan Kussman) who when drunk and driving told the cop he only had two beers. The two beer line sounds like Whitaker’s two glasses of wine lame excuse. Barry talks about how his lying about drinking became contagious to the point he lied about everything, and his life was “a series of lies strung together.” Barry is echoing what Whitaker’s life has become, which the pilot can’t deal with. He leaves the meeting, taking “flight” from confronting his demons as Barry, appropriately, says, “my lies would walk me out that door.” 

But Whitaker can’t escape the circumstances of the fatal flight. He sees on TV that his now awake co-pilot Ken Evans and his wife Vicky (Bethany Anne Lind) are being interviewed. Evans says that he is sure the truth about the flight will be revealed. Worried about what Evans might say, he visits him and his wife in the hospital where Evans is a patient. Evans says that he is “glad” to be alive, but his wife wants to substitute “blessed.” The co-pilot and his wife seem unwelcoming at first, as Evans says his legs were crushed and his pelvis was severely injured. He says he’ll have trouble walking again and will never be able to fly. He called his wife while on the plane saying Whitaker was intoxicated and felt the flight was doomed as soon as Whitaker sat in the pilot’s seat. Evans’s demeanor seems to soften and admits he hasn’t told anyone about Whitaker’s unfit condition. He says what happened was “preordained,” as his wife keeps interjecting, “praise Jesus.” Evans says that God has “a higher plan” for Whitaker. The co-pilot says that although tragic, the event was also a celebration of life. He basically is saying that God reminds us of the good that exists in life by allowing the bad to occur, since everything happens according to a divine plan. The film shows the husband and wife as overly immersed in their beliefs, but it also puts out the possibility that what they are saying is possible. They ask Whitaker to pray with them as Evans says that they thank God for guiding Whitaker to save them. Whitaker seems uncomfortable, although he acquiesces. He is not willing to take responsibility for any wrongdoing on his part, but is not able to accept that his broken self could be an instrument of God.

A friend drops Nicole back at the farm after the AA meeting to find Whitaker working on his father’s Cessna, implying he still has hopes of soaring again into God’s realm. But she also sees the small mirror and rolled up bill that he used to snort cocaine, so he is still flying high through the use of drugs, and his inability to stay grounded on earth conflicts with his ability to be a safe pilot. Whitaker symbolizes both the opposing baser and exalted qualities that dwell in all humans. The poet Andrew Marvell, in “A Dialogue between the Soul and the Body,” touches on a belief during his time that we walk upright because our sinful selves weigh us down but our spiritual nature points us upward. Thus, we are caught between both sides of our nature. So, he said we walk on our own “precipice,” always in danger of falling out of grace. 

Whitaker relates how he once flew to Jamaica in the Cessna and seriously suggests that he and Nicole take off for the island the next day. He is still trying to escape his problem, but she tells him she is worried about him and he needs to go into rehab. She says they are the same, the truth of which he can’t deal with. His defensiveness kicks in and attacks her for being self-righteous, using her mother’s death as an excuse to use heroin, and condemns her for prostituting herself to get high, which she denies. He says he chooses to drink, but she says she doesn’t see the ability to choose here, implying that he is denying that addiction has taken away his ability to act freely. 

Nicole is on the phone, probably to her sponsor, saying she can’t stay there anymore, understanding that Whitaker is toxic for her. He goes into the house sounding calmer, but still needing to take a drink of beer before speaking, showing his need for the alcoholic crutch. On the wall of the bedroom where the two are is a plaque on the wall with hands together in an act of praying. The movie continues to stress the religious theme, possibly suggesting that we all seek some sort of salvation. He admits to her that he was drunk when he piloted the flight and says he has to get away so he won’t get sent to jail for the rest of his life. He grants that he needs help and says that he’ll check into a hospital when they get to Jamaica, and she can leave if he doesn't sober up. He is just saying whatever he can to get her to be with him, but he may recognize that she cares for him, and he needs that. But, she is like him, so he may have gravitated to her as a fellow addict, hoping she would enable him. She says she can’t use drugs again, because she realizes she won’t be able to save herself anymore. She hugs him, but she needs to take “flight,” not to deny her problems, but to face the necessity of having to leave Whitaker because she knows the power of addiction. She departs the next day while Whitaker sleeps, and leaves him a note. As the GYM in the hospital predicted, she will be okay.

Whitaker finds Nicole’s note and flings a bottle of vodka against the wall, which shows his anger but symbolically indicates that it is the alcoholism that caused him to lose Nicole. He receives a call from Anderson telling him of “good news.” On the way to meet Anderson, he pours vodka into orange juice and drives while drinking, again demonstrating his recklessness. At an airport hangar Lang and Anderson offer congratulations since Lang was able to insert his “Act of God” clause into the investigation and had shifted responsibility away from Whitaker’s condition to the “condition of the plane.” This announcement takes place next to the reconstructed remains of the wrecked aircraft that sits as a looming reminder of the horrible crash which contrasts with the “good news.” They tell Whitaker he just must stay “sharp” for the inquiry, which translates to him being sober, an almost impossible requirement for him now. There were however two unopened bottles of vodka found in the plane. Since there was no beverage service allowed due to turbulence, and toxicology screens for other flight crew members were negative, Whitaker is the likely candidate to have consumed the liquor. Whitaker arrogantly says that he drank three bottles, so one is missing. Lang says he found the pilot to be a “scumbag” when they first met, but after multiple simulations showed nobody could have landed the plane safely, Lang was “in awe” of Whitaker. Lang says he is trying to save Whitaker’s life, but the pilot is so spiritually empty now he says, “What Life?” Lang says it’s all up to Whitaker since the lawyer has “no more moves.” Lang walks away frustrated telling Anderson to just get Whitaker “to the church on time.” It is an interesting choice of words. The phrase is consistent with the religious theme of the story and stresses the need for Whitaker to redeem himself. But, Whitaker only sees the union acting selfishly to save itself. 

Images show how out of touch Whitaker is in doing the right thing. He storms out of the meeting with Anderson, cursing his old friend. He drives too fast and when he gets back to the farm, the press are there and he can’t be honest with them, so he speeds off. He parks illegally in front of a fire hydrant near where his ex-wife and son live. He swigs some more booze before leaving his car and is combative when Deana says he should call first and then accuses him of being drunk. A guilty person changes the argument and blames those pointing out his infractions. So, Whitaker counters by saying nobody has been calling him, and says Deana, within a few seconds, jumped to saying he has been drinking. His responses are lame because Deana’s words are due to his bad actions. His grown-up son confronts him, calls him a drunk, and tells him to get out. He grabs his boy, and after Deana holds up the phone showing she is calling the police, he leaves. But, the press have been staking out the house, and ask why he has not been open to the public about the crash. He is able to cover up his bad behavior again by saying that he will be forthcoming later but now is a time for grieving and to give his family some space.

Whitaker, still running away from basically himself, goes to Anderson’s house. His old friend is fed up with him following his public display at his ex-wife’s place. Whitaker says he will stay with Anderson since the press are staking out his places, and will not leave until the day of the hearing. He sticks to his promise and is sober for the nine days prior to the inquiry. Anderson and Whitaker meet Lang at a hotel near the airport where Whitaker will stay the night. The next day Whitaker will go before Ellen Block, who heads up the investigation, and who is not happy about Lang killing the toxicology report. Lang leaves Whitaker his defense records, including possible questions that may be asked and suggestions for safe answers. They even place a guard in front of Whitaker’s room to make sure he won’t go looking for booze, which shows how precarious Whitaker’s condition is.

Later, in the hotel room, Whitaker says to himself, “just like flying,” which is where he excels, up in the sky, in his job, but he is always at risk in his personal life. He checks out the refrigerator in the room, probably instinctively checking to see if there is any alcoholic temptation inside. But, the hotel stocked it only with non-alcoholic beverages. He eats a steak dinner and flips through some TV stations, one of which significantly displays a TV evangelist on it, again inserting the call to a religious reckoning. He doesn’t look at the files Lang left, showing how he is still not committed to defending himself. While stretched out on his bed, he hears what sounds like knocking coming from the adjoining room. The door has been left open and it is striking against his door. Nobody occupies the other room. Whitaker goes to the window and sees and hears a plane taking off, seeming like it is calling to him, maybe for the last time. He then hears the room’s refrigerator go on which of course is filled with booze. Is it a coincidence or temptation placed in his path to show Whitaker that just by being sober for nine days is not a commitment to sobriety and does not get him off the hook for his past transgressions.

For a moment it looks as if Whitaker will overcome his self-destructive drive. He opens the refrigerator, takes a bottle, opens it, then screws the cap back on, places the bottle on the counter and walks away. For a suspenseful few seconds the camera lingers on the bottle. Then Whitaker’s hand sweeps it up. The next morning Lang and Anderson find Whitaker completely wasted in the bathroom, implying his life is going down the toilet. We again hear “Sympathy for the Devil” as they only have an hour before the hearing and Whitaker asks for Mays, his satanic dealer, to bring cocaine to make him alert. Mays knows his drugs, and orders Anderson and Lang about, demanding a cigarette with a little tobacco removed so he can stuff it with cocaine that Whitaker smokes after snorting a couple of lines of coke. Mays leaves a gram of the drug for later. The words to “I’m feeling alright” play which again points to the false appearance of being okay. Mays says he’ll see them later “On the dark side of the moon,” an album reference, but which also points to how he represents that scary side of the human soul.

Block says that the investigation found a part on the plane failed and caused the elevator mechanism to lock and place the plane in a downward dive. Whitaker says he just acted on “instinct” to invert the plane. Block asks him if he ever had a problem with alcoholism or was intoxicated before the flight and Whitaker says no. Trina’s blood alcohol level was high. He lies when he denies he knew her outside work and did not know she had an alcohol drinking problem. Block notes that she was treated for her addiction. Block displays her picture up on the screen and asks if it was Whitaker’s opinion she drank on the flight which would explain the empty liquor bottles. Whitaker looks at her picture and hesitates. He then says, “God help me,” which shows at this point he is actually reaching for some divine aid. He says that Trina was just trying to save a boy when she died, and did not drink the vodka. He confesses that he drank the vodka, and was drinking heavily the days prior to the flight, the day of the flight, and is drunk at that moment. He finally admits to his problem, saying, “I am an alcoholic.”

There is a voice-over and we find Whitaker in prison at a sobriety meeting, saying, “It was as if I had reached my lifelong limit of lies. I could not tell one more lie.” If he had lied one more time he could have kept flying and not been in prison for the last thirteen months and not have to spend another four or five more years incarcerated. He finds that sentence to be fair along with having his pilot’s license revoked because “I betrayed the public trust.” He sent apologies to those that lost loved ones and to those who tried to help him. Even though he may never be forgiven by those he wronged, he says at least he is sober. He is now devoutly grateful as he says, “I thank God for that.” Even though he is physically locked up in prison, he says he feels “free,” implying addiction no longer controls him. He is now the pilot of his own destiny. He has a book that’s titled I’ll Fly Away, but now he is not high on drugs or looking to escape but desires to have his soul rise to the heavens where he once physically flew, but not spiritually. There are pictures of him with AA members including Nicole next to the AA pledge to sobriety, which shows he reconciled with his angel of mercy and accepted help from others who had fallen from grace but were on the mend. 

His son visits Whitaker now and is there to interview him for a college application essay entitled “The most fascinating person that I never met.” Here is a chance for him to bond with his boy. The first question is “Who are you?” Whitaker says it’s a good question, which is one that may be difficult for any of us to answer truthfully. 

After the holidays, the next film is Blackboard Jungle.

Recent Films Dec. 2019

As I have done in the past, here are some short reviews of recent movies. There will be some references to the plots:

Motherless Brooklyn

This movie, set in 1957 New York, stars Edward Norton, who also wrote and directed the film. The title refers to the fact that Norton’s character, Lionel Essrog, is an orphan who was taken in by private investigator Frank Minna (Bruce Willis). Lionel becomes a PI working for Frank, as do other orphaned men. They make up a sort of family business of outsiders. Lionel is the most outside of the bunch because he has Tourette’s syndrome. Sometimes what he says, or the way he says them, is funny, but mostly is truthful. His honesty contrasts with the corruption going on around him. Others call him “freak,” but the criminals in this story are the real freaks of a just society. Lionel has a connection to jazz, which makes sense since that music form allows for improvisation and is nonconformist in its compositions. The so-called freak, Lionel, does hold to an honest code of behavior that a civilized world would aspire to.

The darkness of the plot fits in with this film noir story. The dialogue is stylized and witty which occurs in movies that fit into this genre. Like Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon, Lionel investigates the death of his partner, in this case Frank. Lionel is smart and has an amazing memory which makes him a good investigator, despite his condition. He even wears Frank’s coat and hat, showing how he is continuing the legacy of his mentor. The music even sounds like the soundtrack of Chinatown, maybe the greatest of the film noir movies.

The villain here is Moses Randolph (Alec Baldwin), and his character is based on a real person, Robert Moses, a city planner who supposedly caused the Brooklyn Dodgers to leave for Los Angeles. (His name "Moses" is ironic since he seems to be leading his people into, not away, from moral enslavement). Here, Randolph is a New Yorker described as a real estate businessman who acts like he cares about the people but actually has contempt for them, and is only concerned with his own selfish acquisition of power and money. Could the movie be making a connection to Donald Trump? Without giving too much away, there is information damaging to politicians and Randolph that Frank possessed, and Lionel then tracks that evidence down.

Usually in a film noir there is a femme fatale. There is no such character here. Frank’s wife, Julia (Leslie Mann) did cheat on him, but he was also not a very attentive husband. The other females are exemplary characters. Laura Rose (Gugu Mbatha-Raw) and Gabby Horwitz (Cherry Jones) are defending the poor and minorities in the face of the demolition of their neighborhoods. 

The title of the film is Lionel’s nickname, but it may also refer to Brooklyn itself, and maybe much of America, that feels it has lost the nurturing presence that fed it on hopes of truth and justice that symbolized the American way.

Harriet

Although most people have heard of Harriet Tubman and her association with the Underground Railroad to free slaves, this biographical motion picture dramatizes what a force of nature this woman was. Powerfully portrayed by Cynthia Erivo, Harriet, whose name was changed from Minty, propels herself into action because of the need to keep her family together and safe. 

When the plantation owner defies the law that says that her children should be free since her husband, John Tubman (Zachary Momoh) is a free man, Harriet can no longer tolerate the injustice that is being perpetrated not only on her, but especially on other family members. When the slave owner dies and his son, Gideon (Joe Alwyn) takes over, he plans on selling Harriet, separating her from her family and husband because he heard her pray for his father’s death. While the father betrayed the law, the son’s betrayal is personal, because he grew up with Harriet. She decides to run away, but is cornered on a bridge. She tells Gideon, “I’m gonna be free or die,” and jumps off the bridge into the swiftly moving river below. 

She is presumed to have died, but her amazing drive carries her to the Underground Railroad and she makes it by herself all the way to Philadelphia and William Still (Leslie Odom, Jr.) of the Pennsylvania Anti-Slavery Society. He helps her adapt to the freedom in the city and she becomes friends with Marie Buchanan (Janelle Monae) who runs a house for runaway slaves. In this sense, Harriet is becoming part of a new family which is dedicated to a just cause.

After a year she has not heard from her family and decides heroically to return to the South to get her husband. After another arduous journey she finds John, but he has remarried rather quickly and is about to be a father. Harriet feels betrayed since family is what is most important to her. She learns that her brothers are being sold, so she realizes that she must free them and leads her brothers and others away from the plantations. The film shows that there were some black men who betrayed their African American family by working to retrieve escaped slaves. One is a brutal man, Abraham (Willie Raysor), and another is Walter (Henry Hunter Hall). Walter is later won over by Harriet’s strength, and it seems her visions, which can predict some future events. In a way, he also becomes part of her new family.

Harriet’s father and mother stay behind because Harriet’s sister was too afraid to leave. But, Harriet made numerous trips back and forth to the South to free them and others. She disguised herself to look like a man, and she was called Moses. This ruse protected her from being found out, but the biblical symbolism suggested another person who led the enslaved to freedom. In this case, it was a woman who had the strength of character to get the job done. Despite the betrayals of others, she persevered to help her extended African American family. In a rousing speech to black soldiers during the Civil War, she compares slavery to a poisonous snake (a reference to Satan as well?) that keeps biting. She tells the troops, “Now is our time! Are you ready to kill the snake?”

Knives Out

This entertaining twisty murder mystery has an Agatha Christie feel about it, and it is quite humorous as it satirizes the unproductive heirs of a self-made wealthy person and their attitudes toward immigrants. In this case the rich man is successful crime novelist Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). He is old and sick, but mentally very alert. Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas) is his Latino health caretaker who Harlan sees more as his child than his actual worthless offspring. It appears that she may have accidentally given him a lethal dose of medication. Before he dies, he tries to make it look like a suicide by cutting his own throat so that Ana will not have to deal with immigration authorities regarding her undocumented mother. Of course, there is much more to the plot. Harlan’s children and their spouses say that Ana is part of the family while they treat her like a maid. They don’t even know what country she is from, listing numerous South American nations when speaking about her. Ana turns out to be the sole inheritor in Harlan’s will, which brings up the possibility that numerous people had motives involving Harlan’s death and framing Ana for his demise.

There are many stars in the cast, including Jamie Lee Curtis, Don Johnson, Toni Collette, Michael Shannon, and Chris Evans. And then there is the character of renowned private eye Benoit Blanch, (Daniel Craig, with, as one character notes, a Foghorn Leghorn Southern accent), who figures it all out in the end. It would be great to have more Benoit Blanc mysteries, hopefully with Craig reprising the role.

I don’t want to say much more, but pay attention to the first and last shots of Anna in the movie, and what is written on Harlan’s coffee mug. As was noted on the Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, “a pleasant time is guaranteed for all.”

The Report

This movie had a limited theatrical release and can now be seen on Amazon’s streaming service. The full title has the word “Torture” redacted before “Report,” referencing how there was so much deleted from an official investigation account of extreme measures of interrogation by the CIA of Islamic suspects during President George W. Bush’s administration. 

The story, based on real events, focuses on Daniel Jones (Adam Driver, giving another strong performance), who wanted to make a difference in the world when he seeks employment with Democratic political leaders in Washington. He is urged to get some experience doing investigative intelligence work and he starts a career with the FBI. He later joins the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The head of that committee, Senator Diane Feinstein (Annette Bening, in another excellent portrayal) tasks Jones with investigating possible abuses in the aftermath of 9/11 under the CIA’s Detention and Interrogation Program. What follows is an exhaustive undertaking by Jones and his dwindling staff as they review millions of pages of evidence, some of which was initially undisclosed. 

The film is most upsetting as it provides flashes of torture and humiliation of prisoners, including sleep deprival, exposure to unrelenting, extremely loud sounds, bodily harm, suffocating and waterboarding. In addition, the architects of these practices, James Mitchell (Douglas Hodge) and Bruce Jessen (T. Ryder Smith) had no knowledge of the customs and language of the detainees, and no interrogation experience. The results of their techniques were assessed by themselves, not independent sources, which was a conflict of interest. The report concluded that pertinent information acquired from suspects came from rapport building using FBI techniques and not through torture, as the CIA claimed. (Even the movie Zero Dark Thirty showed important intelligence revealed while a detainee was eating, not being tortured). The Obama Administration., although it did put an end to such activity, is held to blame for not prosecuting those responsible, basically wanting to build rapport with the Republicans instead of placing blame on the prior incumbent. The film notes at the end that nobody was convicted for acts of torture. The stands of both sides of the debate over such interrogation practices can be seen in one exchange between characters. An intelligence employee, Gretchen (Joanne Tucker) tells Jones, “You may not realize this, but we were trying to protect this country from people who wanna destroy everything we believe in.” To which Jones replies, “You may not realize this, but we are trying to do the exact same thing.” The enemy can come from without and from within.

This movie does not build suspense the way All the President’s Men does, because it establishes more a sense of frustration as compared to a feeling of danger. The film is at its strongest when it shows Feinstein trying to balance political contingencies with the desire to do the right thing, and when it follows Jones’s character arc. He initially is calm and idealistic, but becomes more angry, vocal, and disillusioned as he is thwarted by those in the CIA who want to keep the truth hidden. The movie argues that determined and virtuous people can succeed in exposing those who let their own personal agendas compromise the principles of an ethical and honest democracy.

The Irishman

The title of this lengthy film directed by Martin Scorsese refers to hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) who we first encounter in a nursing home as an old man talking directly to us about his life. After the initial scene in the nursing home, the movie is framed by a driving trip involving the older versions of Sheeran, and gangster Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci, in an uncharacteristically underplayed performance), and their chain-smoking wives. Sheeran’s voice-over introduces the multiple flashbacks that comprise the story. (By the way the expensive de-aging technology used here appears very authentic as we see the main characters at younger stages in their lives). In the dramatization of his story Sheeran does little speaking and even in his narrative he does not reveal much of what he is feeling until we get toward the end of the movie. Even gangster boss Bufalino says Sheeran is a difficult man to read. In a way this objectivity allows the audience to have Sheeran be the camera lens through which to view events and judge for themselves the dangerous and sad life he has led. His speaking to the audience acts as his confession of what he had done.

This movie is similar to Scorsese’s Goodfellas in its use of voice-over provided by the main character telling how he became a gangster. But that film shows the attraction of Ray Liotta’s character to a life free of the burdens of the average working man. In The Irishman there is no glamorizing of the mobster life. We don’t even see the benefits of acquiring large sums of money. Instead the emphasis is on how this type of life eventually ruins people, filling them with dread. Scorsese introduces characters and then inserts frozen stills that look like visual obituaries showing how most of them died violently. (On a chilling personal note, I parked in the exact same spot the day before Mafia boss Angelo Bruno (Harvey Keitel) was shot in that parking space in front of his house in South Philadelphia. What a difference a day makes). 

Sheeran is a Teamsters Union truck driver and he decides to make money by providing mobster Skinny Razor (Bobby Cannavale) with stolen beef. He eventually has a chance meeting with Bufalino and is represented by union lawyer Bill Bufalino (Ray Romano), the gangster’s relative, concerning the stolen goods. (The lawyer basically shows that even stealing can’t get a Teamsters man fired, so powerful had the union become). Eventually, Sheeran works for Russell Bufalino. Sheeran was a soldier and he continues that role of following orders which brings purpose to his life. He becomes someone “who paints houses,” code for a hit man, as we see the blood of one of his victims splattered on the wall of a house.

But this film, unlike Goodfellas, has a broader scope as it depicts the interaction between the crime world, the Teamsters headed by Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino, in the flamboyant role in the film), and politicians. Hoffa was associated with Bufalino who eventually brought Sheeran and Hoffa together. Sheeran becomes Hoffa’s bodyguard and friend. Hoffa even gets him to be the president of a local chapter of the union. Hoffa can’t stand the Kennedy family. There is a belief noted in the movie that father Joe Kennedy with the help of Mayor Daley of Chicago, rigged election results that helped John Kennedy win in that city. But Hoffa particularly despises John and his brother Robert Kennedy. Hoffa says, “If there’s one person you can’t trust in this life, it’s millionaire’s kids.” The Italian mob however wanted the Catholic John Kennedy in the White House. They hoped he would get rid of Castro in Cuba so they could resume their casino gambling domination of the island. This wish was not granted. The mob wasn’t happy that Hoffa donated to Richard Nixon’s campaign.

In addition, Kennedy appointed his brother, Robert, as Attorney General and he started to prosecute Hoffa because of his ties to the Mafia. Hoffa eventually did time in prison. When John Kennedy was assassinated, Hoffa demonstrated no displays of public mourning. Quite the contrary as he ordered that the American flag not be lowered to half-mast at the union building, and said in response to how he felt about Kennedy’s death, that Robert Kennedy will not be able to be Attorney General anymore. His public contempt was not liked by the mob leaders. In addition, Hoffa was disrespectful of the Italians, at one point complaining to Sheeran that too many men in the mob were named Tony: “I mean what’s the matter with Italians that they can only think of one name.” Hoffa was also very demeaning toward his staff and at one point Sheeran tells him he is ready to quit when Hoffa has him present during one of his angry outbursts. 

But Hoffa knows how to work a crowd and can display a pleasant personality that wins others over. Sheeran’s daughter, Peggy, from when she is young to when she is an adult (Anna Paquin) is comfortable with him, but is distrustful of Bufalino and even her own father, as their stiff facades mask suspicious secrets. Hoffa is an example of how the acquisition of immense power is addictive and blinding. He says, “nobody threatens Hoffa.” He gets into nasty confrontations with mob bosses, and it eventually comes to Bufalino’s attention that Hoffa, once he takes back leadership of the Teamsters after his prison term, plans to not cooperate with the gangsters anymore. 

So, the road excursion involving Sheeran and Bufalino introduced at the beginning has that ironic gangster love of family versus the desire to destroy others combination seen in The Godfather. Here the gangsters are heading for a wedding but there is a side trip to whack Hoffa. Bufalino places Sheeran in an impossible situation. He must kill his friend, Hoffa, because that way he can’t appear to be an enemy of the mob by siding with the Teamsters. Bufalino says he can protect Sheeran despite his association with Hoffa. If he doesn’t do the job, there is the unspoken but palpable threat to himself and his family. Even though there has not been an official verification of Sheeran shooting Hoffa, Sheeran revealed in a deathbed confession that he killed Hoffa, and that is what is presented in this film.

Both Bufalino and Sheeran wind up in prison for other crimes. The movie shows Bufalino eventually is the victim of a stroke and Sheeran becomes confined to a wheelchair. Sheeran’s wife died of lung cancer from all that smoking, and he finally is tearful because his daughter, Peggy, will have nothing to do with him. The assumption that everyone involved with these criminal activities will meet a horrible end is seen when Sheeran is told his attorney died and Sheeran’s response is, “Who did it?” The man died of cancer, but natural causes aren’t expected in the bleak criminal world shown in this story.

The next film is Flight.