Warren Dickman Gordon MacRae who'll be remembered by most for his fluffy roles in musical comedies, always wanted to try his hand at drama and finally got the opportunity with the role of Captain Joe Barnes, the chief of flight operations for Northern American Airlines, who finds out that one of his pilots is an alcoholic and he doesn't want to believe it. They are good friends who share a love for old-fashioned seat-of-the-pants flying, both having been crop dusting pilots in the good old days. It's a problem that can't be swept under the rug, however, and Dana Andrews, as the airline president, must deal with it. Cliff Robertson stars as that pilot who gets away with flying under the influence until he get caught and is forced to face up to his problem. I covered the making of this movie in the April/May, 1979 issue of "On The Set Magazine." Now having seen the final cut, I'm of the opinion that some of its best clips wound up on the cutting room floor. It actually turned out better than anyone ever expected, however, considering its plethora of early problems. The screenplay was co-written between Cliff Robertson and Robert P. Davis who authored the novel on which it was based. Davis started out as the director and found it wasn't as easy as he'd thought it would be. Robertson jumped in to bail him out and save what was left of the project. "The Pilot" was hailed as the return to the silver screen for an old musical star named Gordon MacRae, whose first words to me were, "I'm one helluva good actor, Warren." I guess he did Okay, all things considered. I found it interesting that many of the stars I interviewed over the several weeks of hopping from airport to airport openly discussed their own bout with alcoholism. Robertson, the main star, also directed. Tony Rogers replaced Frank Converse as the co-pilot about halfway into the filming. Rogers is probably best remembered as Sir Dinadan in "Camelot." When the movie wrapped no one seemed very confident that it would make it to the big screen. One of its most exciting scenes was the aborted take-off, which was also one of the toughest to set up due to the logistics involved. While apologizing to us for all the delays Robertson told us at his press conference, "Now you can sit down and write that the engine erupts in a ball of flames, followed by billowing black smoke, followed by people screaming, followed by people jumping out of an airplane and that may take you a couple of hours to write and maybe another thirty minutes to type up, but when you try to execute all that it involves many, many, people and many, many man-hours." We of the press all appreciated that explanation. I'm sure that all who knew and worked with Cliff Robertson will remember him as a fine actor and, perhaps, even a finer gentleman.

carl-104-449997 I'm not a pilot so the fact that so many reviewers appreciated the cockpit scenes is an added plus. I liked the movie because of its accurate depiction of an alcoholic and his recovery. The insidiousness of alcoholism is shown well. The relationships of people close to the alcoholic, to those who want to help and how the alcoholic hides or believes that he hides his problem are also very true to life. Not only is the movie uplifting because it shows that recovery is possible but also there is a strong "follow your heart and your passion" message. Finally, is it just me or is the new movie, Flight, by Zemekis with Denzel a total ripoff of this movie?? Seriously, saw the new movie yesterday which is a good movie but during the movie, I was going, "Wait, I saw this movie already about thirty years ago."

Rick Scott The story line is good. What makes this a must see is the true to life cockpit footage. This is the most real to life cockpit filming including ATC, checklist usage and procedures that I have ever seen. Thanks to Cliff Robertson, who is a pilot, this movie is awesome if you are a pilot-or a fan of aviation. Finding this movie is a difficult task. I found it once in Blockbuster in the mid 80's but nothing since. The whole movie is a struggle for Mike Hagan with drinking and keeping his edge in the cockpit. Good ending, doing what you love is what he turns to. I think this movie is underrated as the story line is a personal struggle and involves his work.

McLearysTrip The whole point of this movie is this: the PILOT is an extremely talented and conscientious guy with a serious problem - he is an alcoholic. It's a disease!! People without this problem can never begin to understand what it is like. Trust me. I know. The PILOT knows he has a problem. He knows he has to stop. He just can't. This movie is about a decent guy in constant battle with himself, and his struggle to recover. If you missed this, then you missed the point of the movie.