Super Fly Guy

"A lot of really horrible things were written a few years back, but the worst criticism was directed at me - that I didn’t know what I was talking about, that the film was a just a total exercise in flag-waving. It wasn’t. It was marketed that way and over here that attracted a lot of knee-jerk anti-American reaction. Especially in hotpress and The Irish Times”.

Oh, right. That. Understandably, Irish director John Moore was rather less than thrilled with the reception afforded his last movie, the pyrotechnical excursion into the Bosnian conflict, Behind Enemy Lines. Not that he’s bitter. An affable fellow, with forthright political opinions and a quick wit, he’s happy to converse about anything, but seems utterly convinced that I’ll be sharpening my hatchet for his latest movie, Flight Of The Phoenix, despite my protestations to the contrary and cooing reassurances about my shameless hagiographical tendencies.
The former commercial-directing wunderkind need not have worried. Flight Of The Phoenix, Mr. Moore’s reworking of the 1964 boy’s own survival novel by Elleston Trevor and the subsequent 1965 screen adaptation by Robert Aldrich, is a genial potboiler, which sees a raggle taggle group crash-land in the middle of the Gobi desert. With no prospect of rescue, the gang struggle to re-build the plane McGyver style.
“I had a very sketchy memory of seeing the original film one rainy Saturday afternoon, but I avoided revisiting it before I made my version,” explains John. “I was only ever going to come away from the Aldrich film thinking, ‘Jesus, that was great. I’m going to fuck this up’. I didn’t want to lose conviction for something that was going to take three years.”
As it happens, John’s film is actually a good deal warmer than Aldrich’s, with plenty of joshing around and kicking back, despite the apparent hopelessness of the situation. One detail, however, would appear to be a direct lift, for Mr. Moore’s version sees Giovanni Ribisi sporting the same angel Nazi boy ‘do as Harvey Krueger in the original.
“I know, I know. You don’t believe me either. It was completely by accident. Maybe Harvey was in my subconscious or I selectively forgot, but when I asked Giovanni to dye his hair blonde, I was sure I came up with that fantastic idea all on my own! I like to think the blonde has a different significance here though. I mean, the whole dramatic fulcrum of the original was ‘Oh, my God, don’t tell me a Nazi is going to come up with the solution and save everybody’. I tried to replace that with an intellectual battle with Giovanni as the smart guy and Dennis Quaid as a regular joe.”
Indeed, perhaps the best thing about John’s update is the presence of the still criminally underrated Dennis Quaid, here essaying the role once played by Jimmy Stewart.
“He was great. He’s always great,” gushes John. “He’s just a classic American actor. I think Kurt Russell is another guy like that. Don’t laugh. But I think Quaid is a more subtle, talented version of Kevin Costner. He has this fantastic earthy realism. He makes it look effortless, but he puts so much work into making it look effortless.”
Is it the case that having started off in thrillers and comedies, that he’s never really been taken seriously since?
“Absolutely. You wouldn’t believe it. Not a day goes by that Dennis doesn’t endure some crack about Great Balls Of Fire. He’s the last guy to complain about it, but I suspect he’s coming into his own. He’s just directed and starring in In Good Company, and his work in that is phenomenal. The comic timing is so precise. And I think everybody should check out Savior. His performance in that film is unmissable. Really.”
Having heard all those Tony Kaye stories from American History X, I wonder if John had any difficulties making the switch from commercials. That sector is rather notorious for jet-plane taxis, bizillion dollar budgets and directorial control over every single pixel. Surely feature film must seem like slumming it by comparison?
“I think that’s accurate and God knows, there’s an awful lot of arseholes working in commercials and they do get to enjoy a lifestyle where because they’re in the business of making every single detail perfect, they get over-indulged and their creativity is often overestimated. The problem often then is that with movies the story is everything. Details are far less important. So you’ll often find that a commercials director will make one feature and that’s it. For myself, I found this movie easier. I had more of my own Irish crew with me and I knew what to expect.”
Yet, but he must still ache for those jet-plane taxis?
“Oh yeah. I wish!”

Flight Of The Phoenix is released March 4th.