Skyjacked (1972)

"Well, one good thing: all drinks are on the airline for everyone.", 27 July 2007

A flight bound for Minnesota is hijacked and diverted to Anchorage with Moscow as its ultimate destination. Between terrible weather and zero visibility over Alaska and the possibility of being shot down my Russian fighters, it's going to be a harrowing journey. And that doesn't even take into account the unknown, crazed hijacker with a bomb who is somewhere on the plane!

I'll be honest – Skyjacked probably doesn't deserve the rating (7/10) I've given it. But I had such a good time watching it that I couldn't bring myself to rate it any lower. The situations may be predictable to anyone who has seen more than a handful of 70s disaster-style movies, but that doesn't make it any less enjoyable. My only real complaint is that the movie never goes far enough in the way of over-the-top camp or cheesy clichés. Much of Skyjacked is played too straight forward for its own good.

Old square-jawed Charlton Heston is the pilot. His Captain O'Hara is the same no-nonsense character who spits lines like nails and has the look on his face of someone who has been constipated for a couple of weeks that Heston always played. But boy is he good at it. I love watching the guy work! The rest of the cast takes the notion of two-dimensional characters to new heights. There's Rosey Grier as the gregarious black musician, Jeanne Crain as the middle-aged woman in the midst of some mysterious crisis, Walter Pidgeon as the old Senator who knows more than his share of national secrets, Susan Dey as the hippie who couldn't possibly afford to sit in first class, Mariette Hartley as the pregnant woman on the verge of going into labor, and Claude Akins as the only man who could give Heston a run for his money in the no-nonsense department. Even James Brolin, who outstanding as the crazed hijacker, isn't fleshed-out beyond a couple of ridiculous, but quite funny, flashbacks. They may be a predictable bunch, but they make Skyjacked a lot of fun.

One of my favorite parts of Skyjacked is the way director John Guillermin tries to make a mystery out of the hijacker's identity. First, I can't imagine anyone actually found it difficult to spot him. It's pretty obvious – he's the one acting nuttier than a fruitcake. (Not to mention that the new DVD gives away his identity on the back cover – good going guys!) Second, I love the way Guillermin tries to throw suspicion on a number of characters. For example, the only clue to the hijacker's identity we have is a tube of red lipstick. There's no way you can miss it – Guillermin zooms in on it about a dozen times. Then, a couple of scenes later, we see Jeanne Crain applying . . are you ready for this . . . red lipstick! I had to laugh! How in the world could anyone possibly imagine Jeanne Crain as a hijacker? Too funny!

7/10