Sole Survivor - Film Review

This story is loosely based on the discovery of the B-24 "Liberator" bomber the "Lady Be Good" that was found in the Libyan desert after the crew got lost on a bombing mission to Italy with eight of the nine crew found dead after trying to walk to safety.

First, I must say I have been looking for this made for TV movie years I couldn’t remember whom it stared in it or the name but while checking out Star Trek and William Shatner there with a picture of him and straight away, I knew it was a shot of the film, Sole Survivor (1970). I remember seeing it one afternoon in the mid-eighties and phoning my late mum in the evening and she was so excited about it she loved it but was upset with the films ending.

A bomber believed to have crashed in the ocean 17 years earlier is found in the Libyan Desert is the thrust of the film. The crew are just hanging around waiting for rescue but it is not that simple. When the wreck is discovered, a team from the USA are sent to survey the wreck and with them is the only crewmember to survive the crash. However, he stated that all the crew like him jumped over water so why is the plane in the desert 700miles from where he claimed it should have been.

When they arrive at the crash site, the crew line up, but it is soon apparent the crew are ghosts. One of the crew says "We are really dead", "it looks like" is friend replies. Their former crewmate is a general and it is soon obvious to the crew he is lying about the events of the night 17 years earlier. Think that is a big enough spoiler so no more. There are two links at the bottom of this blog, which will take you to the full film on YouTube, which is free.

Performances by all involved are great, and your sympathy for the doomed crewmembers grows with the film. Richard Basehart does an excellent job as the haunted crewmember whose lies enhanced his own status, but whose conscience has never been clear since the accident so many years ago.

William Shatner's character is a bit over the top, but Vince Edwards acts as a stabilizing presence, and whose respect for the history of the plane lends compassion to the fate of those who died in the wreckage. It is through his presence that much of the humanity in the film is made clear and kept constant.

Link Here