I just watched The Flight of the Phoenix (Aldrich, 1965) for the first time this past weekend. A little overlong, but generally fascinating, not least due to an excellent cast.

The major point of interest was the subversive set-up where James Stewart (the all-American, ever-triumphant homeboy) is cast as a dilapidated pilot who must concede his impotence and be upstaged by a German (Hardy Kruger). In its post-WWII setting, this obviously cuts the Americans down to size somewhat.

Interesting how that compares to a similar film made in the same year, John Sturges' The Great Escape, where Steve McQueen's cool, macho persona could not be much further from Stewart's in the other film.

I was wondering when American filmmakers first started this kind of subversive commentary on the American ego. Was Aldrich one of the few (his films were always rather offbeat), or can you think of other films that pull the same trick?

Interestingly, the film at first reminded me of one of my all-time favourites, Ice Cold in Alex (J Lee Thompson, 1958), but only for superficial reasons. In retrospect, they are quite similar thematically--in Thompson's film, John Mills (perhaps the nearest we Brits had to a James Stewart?) is the dilapidated leader who must face up to his weakness and be upstaged (and saved), this time by a German spy masquerading as a South African (Anthony Quayle).

Anyone think of other examples? Or were American directors in the 1950s and '60s too timid to put America in its place the way Aldrich did?

For me, I actually find a lot of Capra's stuff quite challenging to the American and the ego. He;s been perceptively institutionalised, much like the Simpsons. People forget how on the edge he is, but watching It's a Wonderful Life again reminded me of the sheer deapths that he plunges his dudley do-right hero before the (over-schmaltzy perhaps?) redemptive ending.

Mr Smith goes to Washington is one of my favorite films right now (and I have always enjoyed Flight of The Pheonix), and that is a direct slap in the face to American government and bureaucracy.

This is of course much later, but I was watching Wall Street the other night and that might be more what you're looking for. It gets preachy at the end, but the 'Greed is Good' speech is captivating.

Hmm, I don't know. It was his roles in films such as Mr Smith Goes to Washington that gave Stewart the persona of the American everyman that later films in his career were to subvert. Mr Smith may well be cynical about bureaucracy, but not about America and Americans--the all-American homeboy emerges triumphantly over corruption because "Americans can do anything". That is the impression I have, anyway, though others may beg to differ.

I LOVE John Mills. He's one of the stars of The Family Way, my third-favorite film of all time.

As for subversive takes on the American ego, I think you can see this going on in John Ford's The Searchers, which came out in 1956, I think -- the big question hanging over that film is whether the racist John Wayne character will kill his neice once he finds her, because odds are she will have been raped by and/or married to an Indian by then, and it would be more "honourable" for her to die than to go on living.

I had never even heard of The Family Way, but what I've just read on the web looks intriguing--and what a cast! (Albeit mainly Brits that most folk here will not have heard of.) Just out of interest, Peter, what are numbers one and two on your list?

And would you agree that John Mills, in terms of his whole persona, was the nearest thing the British had to a James Stewart?

Alvy wrote:
: I had never even heard of The Family Way, but what I've just read on
: the web looks intriguing--and what a cast!

Yeah, they're all great. And would you believe this film has NEVER been released on video in North America, not even on VHS?

: Just out of interest, Peter, what are numbers one and two on your list?

Lawrence of Arabia and The Purple Rose of Cairo. For more, see here.

: And would you agree that John Mills, in terms of his whole persona, was
: the nearest thing the British had to a James Stewart?

I can see the comparison, now that you mention it, but I have never followed either actor's career all THAT closely.