Flight from Ashiya (1964) DVDRip (SiRiUs sHaRe)

Flight from Ashiya (1964)



The film is about 3 men flying rescue in the Pacific, just after WWII. A Japanese ship has gone down in a storm, with the survivors clinging to rafts in storm tossed seas.



Yul Brynner ... TSgt. Mike Takashima

Richard Widmark ... L:t. Col. Glenn Stevenson

George Chakiris ... 2nd Lt. John Gregg

Suzy Parker ... Lucille Caroll

Shirley Knight ... Caroline Gordon / Stevenson

Joe Di Reda ... SSgt. Randy Smith

Mitsuhiro Sugiyama ... Charlie

Andrew Hughes ... Dr. Horton

Danièle Gaubert ... Leila



Director: Michael Anderson



Runtime: 100 mins



http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0058104/
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Codecs:



Video : 611 MB, 870 Kbps, 25.0 fps, 592*256 (Unknown), DX50 = DivXNetworks Divx v5,

Audio : 134 MB, 192 Kbps, 48000 Hz, 2 channels, 0x2000 = AC-3 ACM Codec, CBR,



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Flight from Ashiya is a melancholy adventure story about 3 valiant military aviators, starring Yul Brynner, Richard Widmark, and George Chakiris in the United States Airforce Air/Sea Rescue Service. Set in post World War II 1950's Japan at the US Airforce base at Ashiya, the men of the Air/Sea Rescue Service repeatedly risked their lives, and sometimes gave their lives, "So That Others May Live".



The US Airforce vehicle of choice to perform these rescues was a seaplane made by Grumann aircraft named the Albatross. This airplane was designed to make open ocean landings, even during inclement weather conditions. Flying these missions was considered very hazardous peace time duty. In fact this was so dangerous that the US military no longer performs fixed wing open ocean rescue landings. This movie is one of the few films ever to feature the Grumann Albatross in action.



Flight From Ashiya is a character study of what motivates these three individuals to risk their lives daily in the service of humanity. Through the cinematic technique of "flashback", the viewer is able to see the individual stories of TechSgt Mike Takashima(Yul Brynner), LtCol Glen Stevenson (Richard Widmark), and 2ndLt John Gregg(George Chakiris) and the dark secrets that both whittle away at their collective confidences, yet simultaneously spur them on to conquer their fears en route to a very difficult and deadly mid-ocean rescue mission.



Seaplane buffs will enjoy the Albatross footage, and the special effects were just good enough to show how difficult open-ocean landings were without overwhelming this story of human courage, and coming to terms with "personal demons" in the face of implacable odds.



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In 1964 at Ashiya Air Force Rescue station in Japan, another Flight From Ashiya is launched when word of survivors on a raft in the North China Sea is heard. Two planes are given the mission.



While on the way in flashback we see the lives of three of the men on the rescue mission with various incidents from their past. The three are Colonel Richard Widmark, Lieutenant George Chakiris, and Sergeant Yul Brynner.



You're supposed to take only essentials, but in this situation all three men are taking a lot of baggage along. Both Widmark and Brynner met and lost their true loves during World War II and Chakiris blames himself for the deaths of several people during another mission ten years earlier that both Widmark and Brynner were on.



There are some very nice flying and rescue sequences in Flight From Ashiya, aviation buffs will love this film.



Best performance in the film has to be Yul Brynner the half Japanese half Polish American sergeant who decided to make a career of the Armed Services even after World War II. My guess is that Brynner probably served in the 443rd Division of Nisei and served in Italy as well as North Africa where his flashback takes place.



Widmark was a civilian pilot who ran an airline in the Phillipines before World War II where he met Shirley Knight. What happens to both of them after Pearl Harbor and the invasion of the Phillipines shapes Widmark's attitudes.



Last year Dennis Quaid and Ashton Kutcher did a film about the Coast Guard Rescue Force called Swimmer. A lot of Flight From Ashiya was incorporated into that film. That was a worthy successor to Flight From Ashiya.



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If you want to see this film it helps being not too attentive. This film has a nice surface which promises an entertaining, adventurous film but unfortunately "Flight from Ashiya" instead is full of clichés, stereotypical characters and of often unintentionally funny story lines. "Highlight" is the story of Yul Brynner which takes part in Africa and which involves a super-exotic woman and a doll's house's Africa. The end of this part of the film is ridiculous and at the same time disgusting and a perfect example of the exploitation of a character for a very cheap effect. The most funny is the pathetic narrative voice-over commentary which claims that everything in this film really happened - which indeed would surprise me... All in all "Flight from Ashiya" unfortunately is a perfect argument for all the people who despises classic Hollywood films for being stereotypical and false, which this film surely is.



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Airplane aficionado's will like the Martin PBM Mariner footage of flying through the storm to attempt to find the survivors. Yes there is a lot of flashbacks for Richard Widmark's character, as he wrestles with the decision as whether to attempt a landing in the storm tossed seas or not. However, in fairness he was a civilian pilot married to a beautiful photographer, when both were captured by the Japanese and place in an internment (read "work until you die") camp.



Japanese soldiers are usually depicted as introspective souls that carry out their duties only after tortuous reflections on their lives as in "Bridge Over the River Kwai". This movie didn't follow that formula, but didn't get into the real details of camp life either.



Yule Bryner doesn't appear to be Japanese, but then he didn't like the King of Siam either. His character was in French occupied North Africa (Algeria?), and who knows how to accurately depict that torturous time period and mess.



All, in all not a bad picture, and one I remember enjoying staying up late to watch in my childhood in the late 60's, early 70's.