Captivating movie !

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

William Wellman's direction of an adaption of Ernie Gann's book of the same name starring John Wayne as "Dooley".Based on a true WWII incident which Gann was party to - the pilots of the Air Transport Command can't believe that "Dooley is down!" - somewhere in the frozen wastes to the North West of track, somewhere in the uncharted mountains. Dooley is their best pilot. If Dooley is down - what hope for the rest of them? Their commander agrees and writes Dooley off. Some of the men almost mutiny and insist on a search for one of their own.The film opens with perhaps one of the best depictions of a DC3 getting iced up till she is too heavy to fly and a desperate descent through cloud - hoping for the best - and miraculously breaking out at "lake minimums" (meaning just time to get the wheels down) before touching down on a frozen lake. While played for Hollywood effect - the wing boots busting off the ice and it clattering down the sides of the fuselage as the plane sinks into the clouds give the opening of the film a real sense of drama.The rest of the film slows right down and portrays just how hard a search and rescue attempt was back in the day - and even is now. The crew have lit a signal fire - but when on top of a hill realize themselves just how pitiful a signal it is.The hand cranked emergency radio uses hundreds of precious calories in order to send out a homing signal. The crews in the aircraft can barely hear it due to thunderstorms, static and competing AM radio stations on the same frequency.John Wayne as "Dooley" plays a remarkably understated "John Wayne" and is quite believable as a vulnerable pilot in command - sure of some of his decisions and instincts about staying put till help finds them while being remarkably unsure of himself. A very unconventional role for John Wayne.The crew on the ice are overflown and overlooked and start to die of the cold. What now for Dooley and his remaining men?

For professional pilots, their planes are their island in the sky. Capt. Dooley (John Wayne) pilots his military transport plane. He and his crew are traveling back across the Atlantic. Off the coast of Labrador, icing forces him to land. The survivors struggle in the frozen north as his friends scramble to search for him.The movie tries a few jokey scenes which are too broad and ill-fitting. Around half of the movie is spent on the search party. I would have preferred more John Wayne in a John Wayne movie. As for the crash site, I'm guessing it was filmed up in the Californian mountains. It doesn't look cold or threatening enough other than those scenes where they bring out the wind machine. It would help to see their breath in the air. There should be more tension although the search is fairly compelling. This works for the most part.

. . . to transport four tons of fuel over Mount Everest to the Pacific Front during World War Two, narrators detail during FLYING FOR UNCLE SAM, a background piece on the ISLAND IN THE SKY disc. Since the whole world hated Hitler, the Nazis, and their Axis Hench Armies, 21st Century People have to wonder exactly WHY it took almost SIX YEARS to eradicate this hateful bunch. I think a lot of this delay has to do with the inefficient planning of the Air Transport Command (ATC). How many loads of gasoline do cargo planes deliver nowadays? Not very many, because pipelines, ships, and local oil wells all are much more efficient means of delivery. If enemy submarines threaten shipping, you can use escort destroyers and torpedo planes to establish safe corridors for tankers with far greater capacity and efficiency than a fleet of ATC planes. Better yet, just expand the flexible Trans-Oceanic phone cable tubes to pipe petroleum products to one's advance bases. Or send Army Rangers to siphon what you need from the Evil Doers' fuel dumps. If all else fails, let some Navy SEALS protect a platoon of Fighting Seabees as they set up working oil rigs near the front lines (or just drill as you go along "island hopping"). It would seem that Big Oil was running the Allies' WWII Campaigns with an eye toward wasting as much fuel as possible.

Not as good as it starts out. The initial idea is fine, the plane, off course is forced down due to ice. The early scenes in the aircraft are good. But from there on, just like the plane the movie crash-lands. It starts sinking when the plane is forced down; none of the crew except the pilots bother with belts, let alone sitting down. A forced landing in the snow and the crew is standing up in the cockpit door? It then "bursts into flames" when the overeager rescuing pilots have to be restrained from going searching for the Duke without any idea of what to do or where to go. The hokey comedy scene with the hotel? clerk is just misguided. The music score in the hotel scenes totally detracted from what might have been a great movie. Previous reviewers cover the rest. Bit disappointed, it could have been a really entertaining movie, rather than the cringe it turned out to be.