Disturbing yet enthralling

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

It's a routine story of three men in the Air Force Air Rescue Service in the post-war years. It reminded me of "Pearl Harbor" a bit. You may remember that epic CGI action sequences at the beginning and a super duper action scene at the end, with an extended black hole in the middle that dealt with a covert romantic triangle.Okay. Take that endless middle section, full of torment and opposite allegiances, like Buridan's ass that starved to death between two bales of hay because he couldn't make up his mind. Now chop that long middle part into three or four shorter parts and interpolate them at regular periods throughout the film. These are the back stories of the three men aboard a Grumman flying boat on a rescue mission in the North China Sea. And -- boy, are they dull.George Chakiris, the young pilot, is haunted by the memory of his rescue chopper causing an avalanche in the Alps and killing those he'd intended to rescue. Well, that's not a love story but you get the general picture. Chakiris is haunted by guilt and is uncertain about his flying skills. The second story belongs to Richard Widmark, the colonel in charge. He was a commercial pilot in World War II, captured along with his wife by the Japanese in the Filippines. She was denied medicine by her captors and she and her baby died in child birth. Widmark still hates Japs. "These things run deep," he mutters.Then we get Yul Brynner's tragedy. A paratrooper in North Africa, he falls for a lovely Arab girl but her family forbids the affair to continue. Brynner races to her house, shouts up at her window that he'll be back some day and they will be married. Then he must zoom off in a Jeep and join the others on the demolition team. But his girl defies her family and runs after the jeep. She finally catches up with them just after Brynner has lighted the fuses that will blow a brick bridge to smithereens. By happenstance -- or Kismet in her case -- she comes to a halt just under the bridge, flings her arms open wide, and shouts, "MICHEL", to Brynner. Boom. She disappears in a puff of smoke like a stage magician.If you think all this misery is too much, you still have to suffer through the chief action of the film, of which we get glimpses from time to time. Widmark, Brynner, and Chakiris are still flying that Grumman through a powerful storm to rescue a raft filled with Japanese.Will Widmark hesitate to try a landing in an impossibly heavy and confused sea? Will Brynner talk him into it? Will Widmark finally yield? Does he successfully land the plane? Does he break his arm in doing so? Must Chakiris then take over the controls and get the overloaded flying boat skillfully off the sea and into the air? Are all the crises resolved at the end? You'll have to watch it to find out.I wish it were possible to say that the action scenes -- the flying through the storm, the scenes on the raft in the tossing swells, the Japanese bombing of the Filippines, the plowing of the Grumman through the whipped-up sea, were exciting but they're really not. The airplanes are clearly models and not done very well. The raft scenes were shot in the studio tank. The special effects are hardly an improvement on director Michael Anderson's much superior "The Dam Busters", made in 1955.I hate to sound sour about this but the performances seem lazy or inept as well. Of course it's difficult for any actor to overcome a stilted script. But to see a mature Yul Brynner stumbling around with a cane, trying to speak English to a young woman who speaks only Arabic and French, and to hear him using slang words like "crazy," as if he were fifteen years old, is almost grotesque. And here he is with the other members of the combat engineers fighting a delaying action and he and the rest wear the spiffiest, cleanest, most finely pressed uniforms known to man or beast. Their helmets are as glossy as their boots. Chakiris, a good dancer, was never much of an actor, and this is one of Widmark's most lackadaisical performances.See it if you must but it's not very good.

There are at least 4 instances of Paul Frees stepping in as the voice actor overlaying the on screen performance of a minor character. It was a lot of fun for a fan of Paul Frees. It made it seem like an Orson Welles movie. With all the lips not quite matching the dialog and the rich voice of Welles replacing the original actor. I wonder if it was just a gun and shoot issue for this movie. Knowing that sound would have to be cleaned up later and that Frees just got handed a copious load. He's also the narrator. It's interesting that this is an aircraft lover movie and that I'm writing about Paul frees being used so much. The Steve Canyon TV series, out on DVD, also has Frees popping up everywhere. And Steve Canyon is aircraft porno.

It is said, during the worse disasters, we see ordinary people, exhibiting extraordinary heroics. Basically that's the core of this film entitled " Flight From Ashiya. " The men of the Air Rescue Service are given a ceremonial tribute and for the most part it's about them. Three men and their lives are personified each offering a segway into their background. The first is Glenn Stevenson (Richard Widmark) the experienced commander who's lingering demons are a deep reminder that his personal bigotry is not only a hindrance to his job, but is itself more of a danger than the black ocean he willingly faces. Next is his second in command, Lt. John Gregg (George Chakiris) who's memories of a mountain accident have become a major obstacle to his courage. Fearing he caused the death of stranded villagers, he doubts he will ever overcome it. The last member of the crew is Tsgt. Mike Takashima. (Yul Brynner) Reaching into his past, he recalls vividly a tragic accident in which a lost love reminds him of his shortcomings and vulnerability. Together the crew receives a summons to fly into raging Pacific storm at night to risk life and limb and rescue a raft load of Japanese survivors on the verge of drowning. The film is a stark reminder of what these courageous men face in their tireless efforts to save lives. Excellent acting from Widmark, Brynner and Chakiris make this a worthy tribute to the profession. Unfortunately the clumsy use of miniatures and models diminishes the visual power of this fine movie. Nevertheless, actual locations and backdrops add to the touching story and contribute to it's success. ****

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.