Flight Film Critique Essay

Submitted By AggieFan11
Words: 1276
Pages: 6

Flight Film Critique
You can fly in planes all the time and try to experience a crash landing for yourself, or you can watch Flight and feel like you are in the plane that is crash landing. Flight was written by John Gatins and directed by Robert Zemeckis. Key cast members were Denzel Washington, Kelly Reilly, John Goodman, Don Cheadle, and Justin Martin. Flight is based on true real-life events “occurred in 2001, when Canadian Captain Robert Piche skillfully glided a fuel-less Airbus 330 to a safe landing, saving 306 passengers from a certain crash. Becoming an overnight hero, he quickly learned the other side of fame when a journalist exposed his long forgotten criminal past and private life” (“Flight”).
The cast, in my opinion, was picked out well for Flight. The cast made dynamic interactions between their characters which seemed so real. They were easy to believe that that was who they really were. Some significant dynamic relationships were: Whip Whitaker – Nicole (Denzel Washington and Kelly Reilly respectively) and Whip – Will (Justin Martin). The characters are also appropriately cast to create and influence those dynamic relations and interactions.
There were multiple themes present in Flight. The two most important ones were: one should not let something define their life, such as alcohol or drugs, and the other was about redemption, forgiveness and reuniting with one’s self and others of their life. Whip relates to all of this. He learns that his addictions [to alcohol and drugs] should not define his life, and he has to learn that the hard way by having to be locked up. Once in prison, he realizes how bad his life was screwed up, and he redeems himself. What Whip really needed was forgiveness, and one day Will, Whip’s son, comes to visit Whip in jail and they reunite and Whip is forgiven by his son. Whip realized that even though he was locked up, he has been reunited with his real self; not the drunk and high Whip, but the sober and clean Whip.
The cinematography is very effective for the film Flight. The uses of color, lighting, and types of shots help create the theme, mood, and setting. Dark and dull colors are used to represent the darkness of life and troubled times, shown in both the dark gray clouds the day of the storm, and the setting of where we see Nicole first get “high.” Bright whitish colors are used to display heavenly effects, states of being in extacy “high,” and redemption, forgiveness and reuniting of friends, such blinding sun when Whip opened his eyes immediately after he safely landed the crash of the plane, and when both Whip and Nicole are “high” their setting is very bright and have very bright background. Redemption, forgiveness and reuniting are also represented by the bright white, as when Whip and his son, Will, make amends. Light pastel colors are used to symbolize hope and recovery, like when the nurses wore light powder blue pastel colored scrubs in the hospital that Whip and the other injured survivors stayed at during their recovery. Flight is filmed mostly in low key lighting, with some moments of high key lighting. These lightings help set the mood in most circumstances, with the help of other characteristics too. Many different types of camera shots are present in the film Flight. At the very beginning of the film, the camera zooms from a medium shot of Whip to an extreme close-up of the roll he uses to snort some cocaine rapidly to represent the pace of how fast he is getting high, and the blow he gets from it. Extreme close-ups are used to represent trouble such as the failing plane components during the rapid plummet through the sky, and the heroine needle and other drugs. Extreme close-ups in the film Flight are used to symbolize a theme of “the end is near” concept.
Flight has a very effective, appropriate, and functional sound track throughout the whole film. The sound track helps transition from mood to mood and from scene to