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List Price: $19.99 | | Label: Paramount
Salesrank: 12002
Released: August 2, 2005 |
| Our Price: $9.99 |
| Used Price: $3.98 |
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MPAA Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Passengers on a flight over the Pacific must rely on a washed-up co-pilot to land the plane after an engine fails and the pilot loses his nerve.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: NR
Release Date: 2-AUG-2005
Media Type: DVD
Description of The High and the Mighty (Two-Disc Collector's Edition):
John Wayne personally produced many of his '50s films, which is why some of them have languished in corporate limbo following his death. The High and the Mighty was one of his most popular vehicles (no pun intended). This long, necessarily sedentary drama aboard an endangered airliner is a CinemaScope bridge between 1932's Grand Hotel and 1970s disaster movies. Despite Wayne's iconic presence as a pilot--now copilot--who survived the plane crash that wiped out his family, it's an ensemble movie with an impressive cast: Robert Stack sharing the cockpit, Oscar® nominees Claire Trevor and Jan Sterling, Laraine Day, Robert Newton, Paul Kelly, John Qualen, Regis Toomey, the ubiquitous Paul Fix, and director William A. Wellman's good-luck character actor Douglas Fowley. Dimitri Tiomkin's score won the Oscar, though the fondly remembered theme song isn't as prominent as you'd expect. Wings veteran William H. Clothier shot the aerial footage. --Richard T. Jameson
The High and the Mighty (Two-Disc Collector's Edition) Reviews:
An Experienced Pilot Wrestles With Death 
2009-11-01 - Pilot Dan Roman (John Wayne), who had been flying planes since 1917, and who had taken part in the Allied bombing of the Ploesti oilfields during WWII, is on a routine Honolulu to San Francisco Flight. The routine aspect disappears just halfway into the flight.
First, the plane has episodes of vibration. Then a passenger shoots at another, puncturing fuel tanks and setting one of the engines on fire. The fire goes out, but the engine is not only disabled but also distorted, causing additional drag on the plane. The crew is frank with the passengers about the magnitude of the emergency. For now, the crew manages to keep the plane airborne.
Some passengers are horror-stricken. Others resort to gallows humor. One woman, for instance, faces her impending death with the satisfaction that she will never have to be an old woman. A couple on the verge of divorce reconciles.
The passengers and crew prepare for a landing in the water. The water is very rough, and the plane could sink in minutes instead of hours. The navigator makes a serious miscalculation as to the plane's location. The pilot, certain that the fuel is all but gone, initiates a water landing. But pilot Dan Roman has other ideas...
A Good John Wayne Movie
2009-10-08 - This movie is a good movie to watch. It has some drama and excitment. My favorite movies of John Wayne are Westerns and War Movies.
Loved the movie both at 5 and now at 60.
2009-07-04 - Like a few other reviewers I too was able to watch the High and the Mighty at our nearby movie theater. At the time I was only 4 or 5 years old and was sitting through the movie by myself. I was so impressed by how cool John Wayne was, in the picture, that I actually ended up sitting through the whole movie and then even watched the second showing. To this day, at 60, I can still recall well how on the way home, during my two mile hike, I would whistle the tune John Wayne would whistle through out the film. I had instantly became a John Wayne fan from watching the movie, twice yet. I would hope younger folks of today could watch the older 1954 movie and get into the excellent acting the cast of the movie did. An early movie that really effected me positively even at my then very young age of 5.
DVD purchase
2009-03-18 - product received was as advertised, and in great condition. Would buy from this vendor again.
Old-fashioned Hollywood film set the template for disaster film genre 
2009-01-13 - The "High and the Mighty" is one of those old-fashioned Hollywood films that you will either love or hate. One of the original disaster movies focussing on a diverse range of characters unexpectedly facing probable death (in this case on a crippled aircraft). The performances are excellent although it's hard to fathom why Claire Trevor was nominated for an Oscar - she's OK but nothing special.
The film features a fine, romantic score by Dmitri Tiomkin and looks great in it restored, widescreen format.
