Sunday, August 10, 2008

Island in the Sky (Warner Bros. 1953)

You're down.

You're cold.

You're alone.

You're scared.

Now...how will you survive?

The Edge Conservative Movie of the Week, Island in the Sky starring John Wayne and James Arness is a true story about survival, courage, friendship and faith!

This has to be one of the best unknown John Wayne films of all time, and there's a reason. John Wayne, in this movie, is not John Wayne! Now, I'm not gonna explain any further. I'll just leave it at that, but you have to watch the film to find out what I mean, and trust me it will be worth it! He's still the hero, he still gets it done, but just watch! This may be John Wayne's best acting job!
Here's the plot from IMDb!

A simple group of commercial flyers, post WWII, one plane is downed in uncharted Canadian tundra, dead of winter, wicked cold. Limited resources. Other pilots start a search. Simple, huh? Remember...No GPS, No Radar, Limited radio and supplies! And that relentless bitter cold! But wait. These aren't ordinary commercial pilots. We soon learn these guys have some real history, military types, probably in WWII. They're tight, driven and fearless, and they're gonna find and rescue The Duke and his crew if it kills them! Like a fine wine, what starts out as a simple story draws us into the lives of these fine men, and their families as well. Before you know it, your heart is racing, and the tears are flowing! Perhaps an overused cliche, but truly, they just don't make films like this anymore! What's more, you get to see James Arness cry! Real men, these.

It's the Duke vs. Mother Nature, and folks...Mother Nature's REALLY pissed!

Here's the trailer from the movie!

22 comments:

Z said...

IMagine "Thank you, God Almighty" with heads bowed TODAY in a film?
wonderful moment, all bowing heads in relief and gratitude (not to give the scene away, of course!).

that radio frequency 790 is LA's big conservative talk radio frequency......I thought "this IS a conservative movie!"

great find, Edge.....now I'll have to see if Netflix's got it.

EDGE said...

Z,

It's hard to imagine a scene like that today isn't? Unfortunately, for everybody on that plane this was only the beginning! Think you'll really like this one!

kevin said...

We knew that if anyone could land the plane, it would be John Wayne!

Btw, was this movie the inspiration for Flight of the Phoenix?

EDGE said...

You know Kev I don't know. Certainly the two films are alike at the beginning, but are totally different stories at the end. Great observation, unfortunately I could not find anything on the web.

ASM826 said...

I've seen this movie. East Coast Music has it on VHS. Yea, it's a good one, worth finding.

EDGE said...

ASM826,

Thanks for the post. I find it intersting that so few people have heard of this film. The first time I saw it was sometime last year!

Right Truth said...

I'll have to forward this to hubby. I don't think he has seen this one, I've never heard of it.

Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth

EDGE said...

It's good Deb! You'll like it!

WomanHonorThyself said...

wow youre really goin in to da archives dude..woohoo!..thanks for your comment today..made me smile heh

EDGE said...

Angel,
;O)
Glad to do it as always!

MightyMom said...

hhmmm, the 91 million dollar question....does it have subtitles?? If so I may just have to pick this one up for Subvet..that birthday is getting close!!

Anonymous said...

they don't make em like the Duke anymore do they!

EDGE said...

Mighty Mom,

Not sure about subtitles, but it may be available in other languages if that helps.

DD2,

Nope they don't John Wayne's anymore...too bad! He was the best!

elmers brother said...

I have it on DVD, one of my favorite John Wayne flicks. I own about 86 of them.

kevin said...

Movie and popcorn at EB's house!

Brooke said...

The Duke rawks!

Cappy said...

Pretty darn good.

nanc said...

wish i could say i'm a big john wayne fan, hell, i'm not even a little john wayne fan. quite possibly the worst actor since kevin costner.

sorry, edge - just cannot get behind the "duke" line of fanatics.

come to think of it, i'm just not a very good fan at all.

we did, however, watch the movie about john mccain last night and pop loved it - it was far too fragmented for my tastes, but i did appreciate what i did see.

won't see it again like my favorite movies.

nanc said...

p.s. - am off to netflix to see if they have the lee marvin edition of "monte walsh" - love the tom selleck version.

MightyMom said...

nope, only other language we need is close captioned for the hearing impaired. some of the old movies have been captioned and some haven't. You never know.

EDGE said...

Elm,

You own 86 JW movies on DVD? Dayyyymmmn!

Kev,

It's a party!


Brooke,

The Duke is kewl!


Thanks Cap!


Nanc,

Rent Quigley Down Under, you might like that!

Mightymom,

Maybe Netflix can tell you before you rent it.

nanc said...

edge - we own quigley down under - love that movie - you just cannot ruin tom selleck no matter how hard you try - he is one of the underrated. have you seen "monte walsh" with him in it? the best i tell you.