eebyo — 11 years ago(July 27, 2014 10:22 AM)

. . . at the time." Spoken twice in this film by different characters in salute to the ephemeral logic of their outrageously risky hijinks, I noticed it at first because it sounds so contemporary. Afterward the line struck me as the filmmakers' last, sad word on the rush to WWI that winds this story's plot springs.
"Last Flight" is at the top of my short list of unjustly forgotten Hollywood movies. The dialogue, with its slow pre-screwball pacing and its almost choral, cocktail-infused call and response rhythms, is worth savoring. So are all the performances. And the camera work and direction of the arcade scene is just masterful - I rewound after watching to the end, and a second look only increased my admiration for the skill and thought that put this sequence together.