MovieChat Forums > The Flight of the Phoenix (1965) Discussion > Paul Mantz

Paul Mantz

posted 20 years ago by CmdrCody
2 replies | jump to latest

The great Paul Mantz, who was killed filming this movie, also shot the aerial sequences in another great Jimmy Stewart flying movie: "Strategic Air Command."

In "SAC," Mantz was able to capture the beauty of a flight of B-47s leaving McDill AFB near Tampa: climbing and banking away from the camera in formation against some beautiful cumulus clouds. Mantz loved cloud scenes. He loved airplanes.

Think about his creativity and art with a camera in the air filming REAL aircraft for which he gave his life, and then consider the fake, digital "flying" in movies like "Pearl Harbor," where the simulated Zeros are flying about the screen like gnats.

Losing Mantz was a real pity.

Thanks for reading my remarks.

[–] Starbucks_gal 20 years ago

Thank you for your kind remarks.

The grand-daughter in-law of the late Paul Mantz.

[–] CmdrCody 20 years ago

What a great feeling to read your reply. I suppose it was Paul Mantz as much as anyone else who inspired me as a kid growing up in Cleveland and watching his movies to become what he created on the screen: a professional pilot, looking for adventure. While I had been groomed to go to law school, I took one flying lesson back in 1976 and that was that!!! I just knew what I was to do with my life. I'm currently a Captain on the A-320 Airbus for US Airways with 14,000 hours....all because of Paul Mantz' imagination with airplanes and the camera.

What a great guy he must have been! What a keen eye he had for perspective, setting and visual drama. What we are talking about is his ability to stir deep, memorable feeling while filming the ballet of airplanes and the clouds.

I'm very grateful to your great-father in-law.

Thank you.