"Flightplan" and Jodie Are Grounded
Well, it was on my list to see and I'm a Jodie Foster fan but "Flightplan" is now off my list. Apparently, the thriller does not portray flight attendants in a very nice light so, as you may have heard, the three major flight attendants' unions have called for a boycott of the film. Here's a Reuters story about it. Anyone seen the film yet and have an opinion on what the flight attendants are saying?
Reuters
Sep. 29, 2005 -
Labor unions representing most of the nation's 90,000 flight attendants have urged their members to boycott a new Jodie Foster film that portrays a flight attendant and a U.S. air marshal as terrorists.
They said that casting cabin crew members as villains in the movie "Flightplan" was irresponsible in light of heightened security concerns since the September 11, 2001 attacks, in which suicide hijackers used airliners as guided missiles.
The Walt Disney Co. film, which was the No. 1 release at the North American box office last weekend, stars Foster as an airline passenger who awakens from an in-flight nap to find her young daughter missing. It turns out that one of the flight attendants aboard is involved in a terrorist plot hatched by the plane's air marshal.
A union statement issued on Tuesday also complained that other flight attendants in the film are shown as being "rude, unhelpful and uncaring."
"This depiction of flight attendants is an outrage," said Association of Flight Attendants (AFA) International President Patricia Friend. "Flight attendants continue to be the first line of defense on an aircraft and put their lives on the line day after day for the safety of passengers."
An AFA spokeswoman in Washington said the unions worry that moviegoers will take away impressions that will make it more difficult for flight attendants to "earn the trust and respect of passengers."
"It's just so irresponsible," the spokeswoman, Corey Caldwell, told Reuters on Wednesday.
She said the portrayal of airline cabin crew members as evil-doers adds further insult to long-standing Hollywood stereotypes that have depicted flight attendants as sexualized bubble heads or as harsh, humorless disciplinarians.
A Disney spokesman said that in making "Flightplan," which grossed nearly $25 million last weekend, "there was absolutely no intention on the part of the studio or filmmakers to create anything but a great action thriller."
"We are confident the public will be able to discern the difference between fiction and the incredible job real-life flight attendants do on a daily basis," the spokesman said.
The AFA called for the boycott along with two sister unions -- the Association of Professional Flight Attendants (APFA) and the Transport Workers Union Local 556, which represent cabin crew members from American Airlines and Southwest Airlines, respectively. The three unions together represent 80,000 of the 90,000 flight attendants who work for U.S. carriers.
END STORY
Comments
no offense to flight attendants, but this is the dumbest protest I ever heard of. i know right-wing radio is already having a field day with it. this doesn't help unions with their image problem; it reinforces the view of them as whiners who don't really do anything productive for their members or the public.
I guess I'll have to swear off all crooked-cop movies from now on too.
Carl
Good lord.
You know, Halle Berry played a flight attendent who foils a terrorist plot not that long ago. I don't remember these unions lining up to promote a film that actually makes their profession look fabulous.
What I don't like about this is that it seems to think that filmgoers are pretty stupid (and I'm a filmgoer) and that because one of villans in a thriller set on an airplane is part of the flight crew that whenever I get on an airplane I'm going to be suspicious of and hostile to the cabin crew.
And if we absolutely must call attention to something that cabin crews see as a pattern of hostile and/or mis-representation by the major media, can't we do it using humor and satire, rather than a bunch of dour whining?
And really, don't we have other things to do, like fight NWA's concession demands or organize JetBlue?
Has anyone seen those "It must be football season" Southwest airlines commercials? There is one where a grocery store checker exclaims "I'm open" and proceeds to get hit in the face by a flying pineapple thrown at him by a customer.
Well I am completely outraged! I may now have to dodge flying pineapples at the supermarket on a daily basis.
I call on the UFCW for an immediate boycott of Southwest Airlines.
OK, let's see now. The airlines are dumping pensions right and left, declaring bankrupcy every other day, asking for huge concessions from employees and these flight attendants are boycoting a MOVIE?
I believe this is the DUMBEST thing I have heard all week. I'd say their union officials should get their priorities straight.
Everyone wonders why the union movement is in trouble?
YIKES!
Well, I didn't say it was a smart thing. But, just curious, this does raise the issue: do you boycott it even if you think the idea is dumb?
Well, in general, I'd say you honor the call of the workers, but I have to say that I find calling for a boycott of a movie to be far less compelling than calling for the boycott of a company.
Especially when the first is based on sending a message about image and is completely divorced from any strategic long-term attempt change that image that involved a movie component.
I mean, they don't call for an e-mail campaign expressing outrage, they don't call for letter to the editor, they don't make any attempt to link this to a campaign. They just say, "this movie sucks because a flight attendent is a terrorist - don't spend money to go see it!"
And I should honor this because why? Because you think that people like me are too stupid to understand it's a movie and therefore may not necessarily be representative of what happens in reality? (Note that I am NOT saying that movies do not help shape viewer's perceptions of reality.)
Ultimately an individual has to make the decision for him or herself about honoring a boycott and I think people use different standards. I'm naturally inclined to honor a boycott, but this specific case is something I just can't see myself taking into account as I make my movie-watching decisions.
If it makes the unions feel any better, I probably won't see it anyway, especially after having just dropped $10 to see "Serenity", which is probably the best movie I've seen in the theaters this year. From a thiller perspective I don't think it can compete.
Why in the world would you boycott something just because a union asks you to? Shouldn't you think for yourself and make your own judgment? A dumb idea is a dumb idea, no matter who states it, and intelligent people shouldn't reflexively follow those with dumb ideas.
You have got to be kidding me, I love Jodie Foster......
John Foster
GCC/IBT Local 4C
This boycott story is a joke, right?
And, Jonathan, why don't you put "Spoiler Alert" at the top of this post for those of us who might want to see the movie anyway. You do give away the plot with no warning.
Oppppsss...sorry, since I never review films, I didn't think to put a "spoiler" alert up. My goof. Never again.
But, no, the boycott story is not a joke.
I saw the movie on opening night, before the boycott was announced. I have to say that if I were to object to anything in the movie, it would be the stereotypical portrayal of Middle Eastern travelers. But perhaps that makes the plotline more plausible, in the world we now live in.
I thought the boycott idea was silly. As someone pointed out, does this mean that any time there's a negative portrayal of a unionized worker in a movie, that a boycott should be called for? And there are certainly more significant worries for any airline worker in this day and age.
Unions always seem to get it backward and only act when motivated by the negative. Where were the airline unions the day after everyone in America watched the Jet Blue landing at LAX on live TV carried by CNN and other cable news networks. The safe landing was a tribue the the flight crew in the cockpit and the cabin...they should have been airing commercials the next day drawing attention to the value of a well trained crew that is prepared for the kind of emergency we witnessed last night where hundreds of lives were at stake. ...A crew that can't be paid enough or revered enough given how we depend upon them for our air safety.
this is America, where we feel it is our God-given right to get insulted over everything little thing and bitch and moan. I'm sure you don't have to look far to see one group or another protesting something or calling for a boycott of this or that.
note to union: it's a movie, you idiots! lighten up. someone has to be a bad guy. how many movies are there were x character representing x occupation is a bad guy? when there is something genuinely wrong with a movie, I'll be among the first to get up and write a nasty review on IMDB. THIS IS A MOVIE. it has no impact on my perception of the air staff.
and I agree with one of the posters who said airline companies are bad. even with government bailouts year after year, they can't kept afloat. simple idiotic bad management. Why is it that other countries don't have this problem? and there are many examples of independent airlines that are profitable in the US. I respect the hard work of flight attendents, their managment is a different story. But when I fly internationally and I don't even get a free beer, I get upset. Service gets worse and worse every year.