The Flight of the Phoenix, Stewart 65 Original vs Quaid 04 remake

Happened to see on Fox Movie Channel the other night (xmas eve eve) the 1965 Original "The Flight of the Phoenix" that starred Jimmy Stewart and Richard Attenborough, along with Ernest Borgnine, Peter Finch and George Kennedy among others, and was directed by Robert Aldrich.

The simple plot involves a plane that gets sand in the engines during a sandstorm, and is forced down in the Sahara desert, a hundred miles or more off course. Stewart plays Capt. Towns, an old and experienced pilot. They lose a few passengers from debris falling during the crash, and proceed to hold out for hope of rescue, rationing water. They were ferrying some members of the British army, who have a dislike amongst themselves. The Army Captain decides to head out on foot looking for help, only to end up back at the plane a few days later. They have to deal with a band of nomads, who set up a night camp a dune over from the crashed plane. The Army captain leads a mission to them to seek help, only they dont find such a good reception.

In the meantime, it turns out that one of the passengers is an airplane designer, a german named Heinrich Dorfmann (played by Hardy Kruger). After several days he convinces the rest of the party that there were enough parts in the plane to build a new plane, which they name "The Phoenix". They are almost done with the construction when Captain Towns (Stewart) learns that he is a "model airplane" designer, after thumbing through a catalog. Stewart and Attenborough don't tell the rest of the survivors, and they attempt to fly the new plane to safety...

Now that the plot summary is out of the way (actually written by me), the ensemble cast was well selected, and the various tensions between several sets of characters are well played to the end, biggest of which is Capt. Towns vs Heinrich Dorfmann. The Army Captain vs Sgt Watson is another, and even Capt. Towns and his navigator have some spats.

I would certainly recommend the original. I have seen only previews of the Dennis Quaid remake, with Quaid playing the Captain Towns role. The previews don't look promising, and the ensemble cast of the new one can't touch the old one. In short, the original set a real high bar for the remake, and I am unsure why they have done it.

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