They Were High and Mighty

摘要

It all started with an email from my good friend and fellow aviation artist Rick Broome in Colorado. Rick and I are proud members of the same generation - those 1950's kids who sat glued to the TV watching Sky King, Steve Canyon, or Whirleybirds, and dreaming of someday having a career in aviation. One other aspect of this youthful exuberance was the aviation movie, and one special film that Rick and I often talked about was the great Ernie Gann thriller, The High and the Mighty, starring John Wayne and Robert Stack. Forever known as the grandfather of all modern disaster movies, this wonderful Paramount epic took the viewer inside the minds of airline pilots frantically fighting to save their aircraft and the 22 souls on board, and much like watching Titanic, or Apollo 13 over and over again today, even though you know how it ends, it still holds you firmly on the edge of your seat.