Il pirata dell'aria

If only all we had to fear today were hijackers.

As any film about an airplane made before 9/11, Skyjacked is badly dated but it's a real kick.

The plane wasn't full, first class was nearly empty - when was the last time anyone saw that? People entered and left the cockpit as though it was the Holiday Inn.

There was both a bomb and gun on board inside a carry-on satchel.

None of the carry-on baggage was screened.

People were smoking.

Roosevelt Grier could fit in a seat.

The story itself concerns a soldier from Crazytown (James Brolin) who hijacks the plane to take him to Moscow where he expects some sort of decoration for his service. Charlton Heston is the pilot. There are three people in the cockpit, which is a practice I recommend for all airlines now that a pilot left one cockpit and couldn't get back in.

Yvette Mimeux and Leslie Uggams are two of the flight attendants; Mimeux had a hot romance with the married pilot and is now engaged to the copilot.

Mariette Hartley plays a woman about to give birth.

Susan Dey is a hippie and a good suspect for leaving lipstick notes on the bathroom mirror.

It's a typical airplane story. There were some very exciting moments, particularly when the plane attempted to land in Alaska. There were some dumb moments: why Heston had to suggest the passengers deplane -- he was in the cockpit with James Brolin - the flight attendants, one would have thought, could have come up with that themselves. He also had to tell Yvette Mimiuex in code to deploy the chute and get the passengers out. Again, they couldn't have figured that out? Some parts of this were quite entertaining, and it's certainly worth seeing to look at old airline procedures. Flying was a lot simpler. And I wonder if it's any safer now.

Lots of familiar TV faces from the '70s and '80s besides those mentioned: Nicholas Hammond, who is still working, the late Claude Akins, Ken Swofford, now retired; the late Ross Elliott, Newhart's John Fiedler, and Magnum's John Hillerman, now retired. And two stars of the classic era of films: Walter Pidgeon, 75 then, and Jeanne Crain in her last film. If anyone is wondering, Jeanne Crain at 47 was still beautiful.

Simply put, I enjoyed this 1972 disaster film release even some 50 plus years after its original release. I am a senior citizen so all the film stars were familiar to me and the air disaster plot was reminiscent of the 1970's other disaster films with a cast of past their prime film stars.

What I kept asking myself while watching this film was why isn't air travel as roomy and easy to accomplish today as it was back in the 1970's even with the opportunity for skyjackers? I appreciate that 9/11 can never happen again and robust security measures must be taken and is todays norm, but this film reminds us all of a simpler time when air travel could be a real adventure and enjoyable.

This film explores the personal lives of each of the main characters and how they deal with a stressor such as being in the middle of a skyjacking with a bomb aboard their plane.

I enjoyed watching Skyjaclked and God willing I will most likely want to watch it again if I am still alive in the next few dceades. I give it an admirable and deserving 7 out of 10 IMDb rating.

Commercial airliner piloted by Charlton Heston is hijacked by someone claiming to have a bomb. Whether you consider it a knockoff of Airport or not, it's very much in the same vein as that film and its sequels. I see IMDb gives away the identity of the hijacker in their summary which is weird since the first 40 minutes of the movie is about that mystery. No spoilers here though.

Full of the stereotypical cast you might expect from an Airport movie: the pilot and stewardess who used to have a thing (Charlton Heston, Yvette Mimieux), aging stars (Walter Pidgeon, Jeanne Crain), up-and-coming youngsters (Susan Dey and future Spider-Man Nicholas Hammond), professional athlete (Rosie Greer), pregnant lady (Mariette Hartley), and a troubled soldier (James Brolin). The tension aboard the plane is pretty good but the dated flashback sequences are silly. Not bad of its type. First 45 minutes or so is best. If you like the Airport movies you'll surely like this.

Routine airline flight, piloted by none other than Charlton Heston, is beset with hijack warnings via notes left on the lavatory mirror. Could the psycho-on-board be musician Roosevelt "Rosie" Grier? Sweaty soldier James Brolin? Hippie Susan Dey or boy toy Nicholas Hammond? What about distraught stewardess Yvette Mimieux--has she cracked under pressure? Genre disaster flick slipped into theaters in between 1970's "Airport" and its many sequels, and actually was quite a hit at the box-office (but in this era, what Charlton Heston movie wasn't?). Unfortunately, once all is revealed--in rather anticlimactic fashion--the last reel is extremely dire. Still, for the first three-quarters of its length, "Skyjacked" provides just the kind of silly thrills you'd expect from a movie with that title and cast. Speaking of titles, "Skyjacked" was RE-TITLED "Sky Terror" once it premiered on network television. No sense frightening anyone into thinking this might be a documentary. ** from ****

"Skyjacked" is an okay, if somewhat dated, watch. It's not much of a whodunnit because anyone who is paying attention can figure out who the villain is in about ten minutes. That doesn't really matter because the movie is pretty suspenseful most of the way through. "Skyjacked" does run out of gas towards the end but it's not a deal breaker. The movie is a little dated. It has a few too many flashbacks but that was not uncommon is the early 1970s. The cover of the DVD of "Skyjacked" that I own tried selling the movie as a "camp classic". This movie may be a little corny at times but it is not campy. For the most part, "Skyjacked" is a well made, exciting movie.