I think the most complex character of all who let his CO down twice yet never got his just rewards. This is odd because
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — The Flight of the Phoenix
pullgees — 21 years ago(January 01, 2005 10:53 AM)
I think the most complex character of all who let his CO down twice yet never got his just rewards. This is odd because in most movies that sort of character always gets killed.
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pcread — 21 years ago(January 01, 2005 11:07 AM)
His punishment is having to live with himself afterwards. I just watched it on BBC over in the Netherlands, but the microwave link from Belgium went down just before the end. Grrrr.
BTW, why didn't they eat the camel? -
pullgees — 21 years ago(January 02, 2005 05:56 AM)
Yes he would have to live with that for the rest of his life but the story moved on and never refocussed back on this character and I felt a bit left up in the air over him. Perhaps the book goes into more detail.
I hope you didn't miss the starting up the engine scene with only a few Coffman cartridges. -
pcread — 21 years ago(January 02, 2005 06:33 AM)
I'm a big fan of Elleston Trevor's books, especially the ones he wrote under his Adam Hall pseudonym (Quiller series).
I saw the starting of the engine, but the screen went black just as they were all clambering aboard on the ridge. Luckily, I have seen the film a couple of times before. -
thomasprescott — 20 years ago(July 10, 2005 07:58 AM)
I would have expected his character to get killed off as well but it's one of the things that make this a great movie - it's not Hollywoodized. In a typical Hollywood version Frank Towns would have used all of the cartridges to fire up the engine. But instead, the writers leave him with one left. Another little thing - when one of the survivors is painting the words "the Phoenix" on the plane, he begins to explain to another character what the Phoenix is but doesn't finish, as the writers know that the viewing audience knows the answer, so why talk down to them?
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telegonus — 20 years ago(August 19, 2005 11:52 PM)
I actually like the sergeant. He's a refreshingly real life character, behaving pragmatically, in his own self-interest, as most of us do. He's a survivor, not a hero. The world needs both types or there would be no one left.
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Adam60z — 19 years ago(February 26, 2007 05:34 AM)
Sergeant Watson was the hero because he had the courage to stand up to that bastard Captain Harris. His plans got two other innocent people killed, the Mexical and the doctor.
Play the game existence 'til the endof the beginning -
gribfritz2 — 13 years ago(October 12, 2012 08:00 PM)
who spent the entire time dodging any kind of responsibility
Untrue. He helps build the plane every step of the way, unlike the Capt who, while well-intentioned, ran off on several wild goose chases. The only thing the Sgt did is not want to hike 100 miles in the desert to a water hole they had no chance of finding and he did not want to say howdy to a group of unknowns who most likely were criminals and would kill him. At the end of the day, the Capt is dead and the Sgt is alive. And the Capt, as well-intentioned as he was, as far as I can remember, did virtually nothing helpful. -
Erik-Bloodaxe — 13 years ago(November 13, 2012 03:08 PM)
I guess one point is that Harris was used to giving orders and when it came to being part of the team, and effectively taking orders from Towns, he couldn't do it. It was more important for him to run his own silly mission.
"Knowledge is cheap at any price" -
JurorNr13 — 16 years ago(April 25, 2009 05:08 PM)
Capt Harris gave his life so that the others may not have ben spotted by the raiders.
Wrong. He was killed by the arab caravan when he approached and asked them for help. If he hadn't gone noone would have been killed because the arabs would never have spotted the wreckage and the survivors. This is what Capt. Towns realized in the scene where he shoots the camel.
I don't think Sgt. Watson is a coward, but I do think that he is a pretty low human being and comrade as seen in his reaction to the news of Capt. Harris' death. -
jonpride — 20 years ago(December 07, 2005 05:50 PM)
Sgt. Watson was the coward, but only until he stands up to his his officer. It is obviously implied that he feels that his position is humiliating, like when Captain Harris tells him to be a good chap and clean his gun. Pretending to sprain his ankle is a cowardly move because he is sidestepping his real problem, which is his obsequious position in relation to Captain Harris. When he tells Captain Harris that he will not join him, he is finally facing his problem, and the line "I am not afraid." is the coup de grace. I almost feel that he earned a spot on the airplane, not just for his work on it, but for his ability to face his fear. The book really elaborates on this complex character, and really gets inside his motives. Read the book if you get the chance; the philosophies are very insightful. Good comment for discussion.
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porfle — 18 years ago(May 24, 2007 09:34 AM)
I agree completely. Watson is the character that I identify with the most, although we're supposed to be sickened by his "cowardice." I wouldn't want to trail along after Harris on his bonehead suicide missions either.
http://www.bumscorner.com
http://www.myspace.com/porfle -
LionHearted99 — 18 years ago(July 16, 2007 02:16 AM)
Possibly he let his CO downbut not himself. His CO was quite mad to try to traverse the hostile desert under those demanding conditions. And even more insane to ask another man to go to certain death also. This had nothing to do with any war time campaign. Under these conditions the hierarchical rules of the military should be suspended. Anyone who has the capability to think for himself would have had a problem with this, I think.
"The Pope gave a dispensation to allow the king to marry his brother's widow. Now we must ask the Pope to dispense with his dispensationagain for state reasons"? "I don't like plodding, Thomas. Well?" "Clearly then, all we have to do is to approach His Holiness and ask Him." -
greenleafie — 18 years ago(September 02, 2007 11:26 AM)
Watson was a victim- sold into military servitude by his parents, when he was only a boy. It took remarkable courage to do what he did, to stand up to an all-powerful, corrupt system and become his own man. Crashing in the desert was probably his best stroke of luck. Harris' death illustrates that when nature, or fate, or God, or whatever you want to call it intervenes, the system we all seem compelled to trust in fails, and cost Harris his life and those of two others as well. Watson, more than anyone, deserved to survive, because life, up until then, had never given him any choices. He was indeed a victim, until he had the courage to break the cycle of servitude. His story, following the end of this show, would be by far the most interesting. Would he, for example, if he chose, be able to escape the military trap his parents had condemned him to, or would he simply be imprisoned in a stockade for failing to be the slave his "superiors" wanted him to be? I like to think he got out of the army and began to experience life as a free man. The contempt the others- like Towns and Moran- showed him for his actions, reveal the narrowness of their thinking, when they themselves were unhappy about their own treatment at the hands of Arabco Oil.
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porfle — 18 years ago(October 09, 2007 08:18 PM)
Yeah! Well said. Hooray for Sergeant Watson!
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