If there’s anything you know about John Travolta beyond his acting career, it’s his passion for flying. He has pilot’s licenses and can even navigate passenger planes such as a Boeing 707. He personally owns several aircraft and even has a residence on a private airport with a direct taxiway to the house. He was also recognized as a special aviation culture ambassador. The “Pulp Fiction” star has been fascinated by flying since his childhood, when he grew up near the airport in New Jersey.
When the “Grease” legend now releases his first directorial work at the age of 72, it can of course only have one theme: “Night Flight to LA” shows the immense love and enthusiasm for flying every second – and that’s exactly what distinguishes the film, which is just one hour long. Based on his own childhood memories, which he published as a children’s book “Propeller One-Way Night Coach” in 1997, the superstar has not only published a very personal debut, but also one that, despite all its flaws, is heartfelt.
Jeff will fulfill his dream of flying!
On December 28, 1962, eight-year-old Jeff (Clark Shotwell) begins the adventure of his life. He moves from New York to Los Angeles with his mother Helen (Kelly Eviston-Quinnett) because, despite being 49 years old, she still hopes to have a late acting career there. And for the trip, the boy, who has studied the departure schedules of the nearest airport, is allowed to board a plane for the first time in his life.
And things couldn’t be going better. Because direct flights with one of the modern jets are out of the question for cost reasons, the journey is undertaken in an old TWA propeller plane, which makes half a dozen stops from the east coast to the west coast. Jeff not only experiences a lot on these on his magical adventure, but above all in the plane itself. Not only will the stewardesses (Olga Hoffmann and Ella Bleu Travolta) enchant him there, but the food will also provide haunting memories.
This is how an eight-year-old sees the world
You can pick apart some aspects of Night Flight to LA. The fact that John Travolta was given the opportunity to film in the TWA Flight Center, which now serves as a hotel, but then did not take advantage of the special features of one of the most architecturally impressive places in the world seems like an omission. And when the actor can be heard throughout as the voice-over of the adaptation of his own children’s book, one sometimes thinks that he has an illustrated audio book in front of him and wonders several times why we are being told what we are also seeing ourselves. But all of this fits into this project, which is not a classic narrative feature film, but more of a memory through childhood eyes.
It’s only logical that the impressive airport is only given a few shots. Because even if aspects of it, such as the loudspeaker announcements, excite Jeff, this place is still just a necessary transit stop to board his beloved plane. The fact that the little boy and his mother are all alone in the large departure lounge is – in contrast to some really bad CGI images – not because Travolta, who financed the project out of his own pocket, was saving money. For him, who remembers his first flight with the story, there were simply no other people back then.
Jeff meets a pilot – and we know him…
Travolta originally wrote the story for his own children – and this is how he now understands his role as narrator. Even if the event is only partially autobiographical, it is a reminiscence of a beautiful experience from childhood. And of course this is romanticized a bit with a distance of several decades. The “Face/Off” cult actor explicitly incorporates this as his film gradually becomes more and more of a fairy tale. He even lets a giant perform – even if Jeff has no eyes for him. Meanwhile, the stewardesses seem like fairies who fulfill mother and son’s very special wishes.
Over everything there is a cozy cloak of nostalgia and the right pinch of humor. With a wink, Travolta looks back on a time when, after a successful start, the first thing anyone did was light up a cigarette. The running gag about chicken cordon bleu or the different views of the narrator Travolta and little Jeff on the mother’s amorous adventures ensure constant laughter. Even a brief tonal break with a concentration camp survival narrative, which could easily seem out of place, does not disrupt the narrative’s flow. You can simply see how personally important it was to Travolta to keep this childhood memory.
Conclusion: You shouldn’t expect a typical feature film from “Night Flight to LA”, but rather a fairytale-like, transfigured childhood memory of John Travolta. But she is so full of heart that she knows how to touch you.
We saw Night Flight to LA at the Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere in the Cannes Premiere section.