User Reviews

Was just up there & remembered seeing this movie. Trying to find it again to watch.

How ridiculous to make people add MORE text than is needed !

Review too short Review too short Review too short Review too short.

This movie was one of the first few US movies authorized to be shown in China after the establishment of foreign diplomatic relationship between the People's Republic of China and the United States in 1979, after a three-decade long hostility between the two countries.

The movie was really an eye-opener for the Chinese audience, as well as the Chinese movie industry, mainly because of the way some scenes were shot. In particular, the scene where the characters were falling down was filmed in the way that it appears the filming crew was falling with the characters, thus creating a realistic impression of point of view from the characters themselves. As a result, there was a few Chinese audience with heart problems had to be carried out from movie theaters after they passed out, resulting from seeing these tense falling scenes. After several incidents like this occurred when this film was shown in China, some Chinese theaters banned patients with known heart problems from seeing this film, for fearing that they might have heart attack again.

I picked this very boring movie up for less than a buck on VHS . . . and I paid too much for it!! David Janssen, Tony Musante & Dorian Harewood are all decent actors -- and they try very hard here -- but this made-for-TV film is just excruciating to watch. The rest of the cast is horrible -- especially the "actors" who get stranded on the mountain -- and half the footage is helicopters just hovering around. Horribly dated and completely useless flashbacks do nothing except add to the film's running time, a very long 97 minutes. Pretty terrible direction and even worse editing just sink this production.

The Vestron Video VHS print (which this was) might be a theatrical version of the film: there's brief nudity during the flashbacks. (The nudity doesn't help add any interest either!)

Thank God for the fast forward button on my remote.

I lived in the small town when they made this movie. The name of the town is Darrington Washington. They filmed the mountain scenes in our high school gym. I met all the actors it was great. The movie was a good movie. Now of course with all of the technology we have it seems to be old school. I loved it though. I would like to get a copy of this movie because we did not get one when it was released. The little boy was great but after meeting the actors in this movie it was awesome to see them in the movie. I lived a few houses down for where the kept the helicopter after it was blown up. I hope more people enjoyed the movie as much as I did.

Keeps you totally involved. Top disaster-rescue. Musante plays his military role especially well. Top performances by Janssen, the lady doctor and the helicopter pilot as well. All kinds of different permutations arise in the rescue process so that's what keeps you very attentive and involved. The filming of this movie looked dangerous because of the intense mountain climbing and helicopter maneuvers being performed. There is some psychological/character study/sentimental angle covered which is necessary to humanize the whole thing, but it is the drama of the rescue itself that you are mainly involved with. Very impressive.

It was a pretty good way to while away 2 hours on the tube, especially after having participated a little in its production: the UH-1 Iroquois helo which crashed in the mountains was assembled in, staged at & delivered from Green Valley Airport in Granite Falls, WA where I lived...not very far from michellegreen_6, another reviewer here. I got to meet none of the talent but Dad and I did get to help a bit with assembly. And then off it went, to its fiery theatrical doom, which I witnessed several months later on TV. It was the biggest thrill this town got since they filmed "Joyride" there in '76-'77. It was the talk of the town the day after the movie showed. Mostly good reviews, very few negative ones.

While this movie is wonderful on its own, nothing can compare to the performance of Zack Lewis, the 5 year old boy who played Glenco MacDonald. His performance stunned me and inspired me to perform myself. The fact that he is not listed in the IMDB credits is a crime. Watch this movie and look closely for little Zack...you'll have to look closely, but I promise that it's worth it! Wherever you are Zack, thank you for this moving and timeless performance.