I believe it was Lee and Herring who posited the idea of a sitcom based on the experiences of Brian Keenan and John McCarthy. Trivialising what for them was a massive ordeal obviously did not go down well at the BBC and hence it was never made. Instead we now have Blind Flight, the official film. The true story of two completely different men, stuck in a series of manky cells in Lebanon. Based on Keenan’s book An Evil Cradling, Blind Flight was written by the director, and Keenan. But John McCarthy was a script consultant. So do not expect any bombshells about their relationship.
Much has been made about the difference between the men. The film struggles to find it. The film struggles to do much but prop up the idea of two quite brave blokes in a difficult situation helping each other through it. It is almost a self penned love letter to themselves. I am not saying that they do not deserve it, but the whole affair seems so toothless. There is not contextualisation of the situation in Lebanon, no real discussion of the politics involved. Two boil down a four year relationship into seventy minutes of representative conversation and experience is fine, its just that what is representative is so dull here.
Despite great work by Ian Hart and Linus Roach, it feels that this dramatisation was the wrong way to go. The model displayed by Touching The Void, talking heads with wordless dramatisation, might have worked much better, especially considering how loquacious both Keenan and McCarthy are. This hagiography makes its point in fits and starts. Frankly any film coming out after the Passion Of The Christ will have trouble convincing us that having your beard shaved off is really torture, but Blind Flight also manages to under sell the whole issue of time. An experience lasting four years comes across as a long weekend in Bangor.
The sitcom idea was perhaps inappropriate, but sitcoms do understand time. There should be moments in Blind Flight where the futility should resemble Waiting For Godot. Instead as the time whips by at a fortnight a minute, we just get the edited highlights. As for the rendition of We Gotta Get Out Of This Place, you are not surprised when their captors up the pain. Too much respect left me without much to return.