The Pilot (1981)

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Robertson (who also directed) is a near perfect pilot with North American Airlines or whatever that fictional name is. Never even a question about a fender bender after some thirty years with Global Circumcisional Airlines, nor a whisper of one. He seems to have second sight about problems like the weather ahead. But his co-pilot and his flight attendant are uneasy, as is his girl friend, Diane Baker. Robertson has this little problem. It's nothing drastic. He doesn't have a closet full of ladies' shoes or anything but he tipples all the time. He even has a flask ("my spooker") hidden away on the airplane, thoughtfully taped to the underside of the wash basin in the head. He's as cool a San Francisco in August. Nothing rattles him and he radiates self confidence. But he needs a few belts during a flight to keep him at the right altitude. At home, off duty, his self-imposed limits relax and though he's still cool his mind drifts and his words begin to run into each other.This is a serious business. I've known pilots who wouldn't drink a glass of beer at lunch because they were going to fly later that afternoon. If National Transgender Airlines ever found out about Robertson's little habit, it would be good-bye wings and four stripes. The flight attendant suspects something is up because of Robertson's many visits to the loo and Robertson's never having mentioned a problem with Crohn's disease. She's kept a notebook timing his visits to the john. Well, she merely suspects that Robertson is drinking but his first officer, Converse, knows about it. He's been flying with Robertson a long time and the flight deck is a small community -- in which members don't squeal on one another to the authorities.After one tense flight, when Robertson's flask leaks most of his booze, he decides to gamble on a long flight even though their fuel supply is low. He needs to set down in a city where he can get a drink pronto. According to the American Psychiatric Association, what Robertson suffers from is alcohol dependency. He doesn't need to get sloppy drunk but he needs alcohol on a regular basis to continue his normal functions. It's not acute alcoholism. That's the diagnosis for people who go on binges and stay drunk until they can't take it any longer. An example is director John Ford, who would stay bombed for several weeks at a time but allowed no drinking by anyone while shooting a movie. Of course a lot of individual cases fall in between these two categories. Now, if someone will help me out of this lab coat -- thank you, Anyway, the boss at Worldwide Transcendental Airways, Gordon MacRae, who in real life was in a position to know about these things, decides to plant a mole, Binns, aboard Robertson's airplane, flying as co-pilot, just to keep an eye on him and see if anything is up. Nothing seems up at first but then, after an abruptly aborted takeoff prevents a calamity, Robertson heads straight for his spooker and is caught in the process. MacRae offers Robertson time off to get treatment but Robertson quits both booze and Escher's Infinite Airlines and returns to crop dusting where his heart has always been.The film rests on Robertson's shoulders and he carries it well. The recent movie, "Flight", with Denzel Washington, is full of action and drama based on alcohol, crack, furious fireball-fomenting airplane crashes, and Washington's self righteousness. It could be a faster-paced and more violent variation on the theme established in "The Pilot." There are no fireballs here. Kids may find it sluggish and dull. But there is an abundance of tension and Robertson's performance is quite good.His last scene with Converse has the two of them recovering from a near accident by having drinks in Robertson's hotel room. Converse says, "Now I really need this myself," but as he pours the whiskey, we see that his glass is half full of ice cubes and they get only a good splash, while Robertson's tumbler is neat and half full. That's not a picture of two people talking. It's the language of movies.

Gordon MacRae who'll be remembered by most for his fluffy roles in musical comedies, always wanted to try his hand at drama and finally got the opportunity with the role of Captain Joe Barnes, the chief of flight operations for Northern American Airlines, who finds out that one of his pilots is an alcoholic and he doesn't want to believe it. They are good friends who share a love for old-fashioned seat-of-the-pants flying, both having been crop dusting pilots in the good old days. It's a problem that can't be swept under the rug, however, and Dana Andrews, as the airline president, must deal with it. Cliff Robertson stars as that pilot who gets away with flying under the influence until he get caught and is forced to face up to his problem. I covered the making of this movie in the April/May, 1979 issue of "On The Set Magazine." Now having seen the final cut, I'm of the opinion that some of its best clips wound up on the cutting room floor. It actually turned out better than anyone ever expected, however, considering its plethora of early problems. The screenplay was co-written between Cliff Robertson and Robert P. Davis who authored the novel on which it was based. Davis started out as the director and found it wasn't as easy as he'd thought it would be. Robertson jumped in to bail him out and save what was left of the project. "The Pilot" was hailed as the return to the silver screen for an old musical star named Gordon MacRae, whose first words to me were, "I'm one helluva good actor, Warren." I guess he did Okay, all things considered. I found it interesting that many of the stars I interviewed over the several weeks of hopping from airport to airport openly discussed their own bout with alcoholism. Robertson, the main star, also directed. Tony Rogers replaced Frank Converse as the co-pilot about halfway into the filming. Rogers is probably best remembered as Sir Dinadan in "Camelot." When the movie wrapped no one seemed very confident that it would make it to the big screen. One of its most exciting scenes was the aborted take-off, which was also one of the toughest to set up due to the logistics involved. While apologizing to us for all the delays Robertson told us at his press conference, "Now you can sit down and write that the engine erupts in a ball of flames, followed by billowing black smoke, followed by people screaming, followed by people jumping out of an airplane and that may take you a couple of hours to write and maybe another thirty minutes to type up, but when you try to execute all that it involves many, many, people and many, many man-hours." We of the press all appreciated that explanation. I'm sure that all who knew and worked with Cliff Robertson will remember him as a fine actor and, perhaps, even a finer gentleman.

Super movie. Aviation and alcoholism; rich movie topics done well. Haven't seen in 20 years. But I remember very well. It seems the CAT-III approach to SanFran was close to accurate for 1978. That's probably due to Cliff Robertson's knowledge of all things with wings. He also ended up directing the second half of the movie. Who with flying in their blood could resist the shots of the old DC-8 in flight? The pilot's resistance to recovery is also on the bullseye. As well as his high level of functioning while under the influence.

This is the most technically accurate aviation movie I have ever seen. I only noticed one mistake (autopilot was disconnected with the fuel shutoff lever). Appears to have been filmed in an actual DC-8. The treatment of alcoholism also seems plausible.