In the 27 years since this brave little production first aired, I've seen it only once
- at its original showing; and even then, like old gal said long ago, "only partly."
The memory hasn't faded of how, after the effectively done crash sequence
(blending what little actual footage there is of Flight 232 coming in with well-done closeups of the flaming plane skidding along the ground), as soon as it came back after the commercial break, footage of screaming fire engines racing to the rescue went PFFT along with the house's power - & that of, as it turned out, hundreds of other homes in the area due to a different kind of crash: a stupid
drunk driver having smashed into a power pole and left more than just my family
totally in the dark for like 4 hours after the movie's end. It's never been rerun that
I know of, but I still recall how great were the performances of Richard Thomas,
James Coburn and Tom O'Brien, who played the ATC bringing Flight 232 in -
especially old Coburn, completely out of his cowboy/military element as a 1st
responder. He looked like his outsized personality was straining the seams of
that turnout rig but he didn't come across as "too big" for the role; rather, he
impressed as exactly the kind of fireman somebody in trouble would want on the
scene to save them. I could have done without that doddering old gun freak
Ben-Hur playing Captain Alfred Haynes - an interesting coincidence at this
30-year mark since the crash that it had occurred 30 years since his awesome
take in that role - but he was tolerable at it. "Left turns ... left turns!" he begged
through gritted teeth before the plane hit the ground is a line etched in memory
along with how, as I'd had my TV on mute at the time that day of heroism &
heartbreak, I was puzzled by the This Is News? footage of some plane about to
land somewhere, only to discover, and go down crying at, the awful truth behind
it. I even still have the (resurrected) Life magazine issue featuring Flight 232, &
sometimes its "Air Disasters" segment runs on Smithsonian, but I wonder why
"Crash Landing" has never been reaired in all this time? Perhaps there was a
10th- or 25th-anniversary reissue of which I'm just not aware, but given how
much small-screen trash is so widely distributed - NBC/CBS legal/fire "dramas"
come to mind - a retelling of how 4 true heroes of the sky managed to save 184
out of 296 souls onboard their crippled airplane from certain doom for all not
receiving even a small fraction of that kind of exposure is a serious
disappointment. May the original 112, the miraculously right-place-right-time
Captain Dennis Fitch & any/all others in the interval who have now joined them
rest forever in peace.
1 out of 1 found this helpful.
Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
