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Pushing Tin Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 19 Reviews)

Fools rush in to push tin
Perfessor Mom Pressfour here, film critic and Jolie fan extraordinaire. *Pushing Tin* (1999) is an odd film that stars John Cusack, Billy Bob Thornton, Cate Blanchett, Angelina Jolie, Vickie Lewis, Jake Weber, Kurt Fuller, Matt Ross, Jerry Grayson and Michael Willis. Mike Newell (*Four Weddings and a Funeral*) directs.

I call it odd because while *Pushing Tin* is technically well-made, and features good acting, and has an interesting, different premise, and starts off well...it begins to go flat a little past the halfway point. By the end--the scene of Nick (Cusack) talking from ground control to his wife Connie (Blanchett) in the cockpit of an airliner--the movie is unwatchable. It's a 2-hour long film that plays half an hour longer than it's worth. I didn't see it in cinema, I know it only from DVD--but it's more than likely that when it played the theaters, many more people were seated for the start of *Pushing Tin* than the finish. John Cusack, the headline star, summed it up: "It wasn't very good."

But still it was a big boost for Angelina Jolie's career. Her last scene, with Cusack in the car on a rainy day, marks the peak of the movie's interest curve. After this, it's all downhill. Thus the better part of *Pushing Tin* is Ms Jolie's part.

She plays Mary Bell, wife of Russel, an air traffic controller. Like many a Jolie character, there's more to Mary than meets the eye. Naturally what meets the eye is very easy to look at. Angelina is absolutely stunning in this movie. In her fifth scene--her return to the Italian restaurant, this time with her husband--she's dressed as the real Angelina Jolie is known to often dress: in leather pants and a snug-fitting dark sleeveless top. Sexy times ten. But Mary is not only a shapely piece of eye candy. She's trained as a social worker but hasn't found work. She feels she could do more with her life. Fond of all kinds of books, Mary likes to read (as does the real Jolie). Growing plants is her hobby. Her husband keeps to himself (IDIOT!), leaves Mary alone at night a lot, and though she doesn't seem to resent him for it, she's lonely. Whether it's just due to loneliness or something else too, Mary drinks. A lot.

I mentioned a couple of Ms Jolie's scenes; I should summarize all six by number. The first is at the house party hosted by one of Russel's colleagues. Mary causes a stir among the crowd of suburban-looking air traffic controllers and their wives by showing up dressed like a biker chick: in a leather coat and a short leopardskin-patterned skirt that flatters her ample chest. ("Think they're real?" asks one wife cattily of another behind Mary's back. "If they are," comes the answer, "we'll have to kill her.") In all of her scenes Mary wears the same garish set of jade jewellry on her neck, wrists and fingers. She speaks softly with a pleasant Southern accent. At the party she's cool, distant, but ever-so-slightly potty, showing little interest in anyone or anything other than her husband and the mixed drinks Nick serves at the outdoor bar. Mary's second scene is in the supermarket where Nick finds her crying. One of her plants died that day, her husband has taken off for the night, and, well, the poor girl is just overcome. More out of pity than anything else, Nick invites her to an Italian restaurant. Mary's dinner with Nick is the third scene. It's my favorite. She loosens up here--as she tells Nick, "I'm not as big a bitch as you think I am"--and shows him just how charming she can be. Mary unleashes this smile that could level a forest! Poor Nick...the sweet sap of his well-intentioned concern for his colleague's unhappy wife ferments into intoxicating lust. The fourth scene is the logical result. Nick and Mary end up in bed together at Russel's house. (Ms Jolie wears a bra throughout this scene, but during the filming it slipped, exposing her nipples. No loss...) It's as this scene closes that Jolie speaks one of her oft-quoted lines: "What's the fewest number of words you can use to get out that door?" The fifth scene is at the restaurant again. Nick feels guilty about the tryst with Mary, so he takes his wife Connie out to dinner. But in the meantime Mary must have told Russel about this nice Italian place, because Nick and Connie walk in to find them there. Nick is mortified. Connie, however, is pleased (she has no idea what happened between her husband and Mary). The two couples end up sharing one table. Russel takes over, becoming the center of attention for both women. This is the first step in an eventual affair between Russel and Connie. The sixth and last Jolie scene is when Nick meets Mary in a rainy parking lot. They talk in her car. She's called him there to let Nick know she's told Russel about their night together. "ARE YOU NUTS?" he shouts at her. Taking a swig from a pocket flask, Mary purrs, "I'm way too sober for this." He bolts from her car, giving it a kick before he runs to his own and roars away.

The other reason this movie is odd for me is that Russel, the husband of Jolie's character, is played by Billy Bob Thornton. This was the start of their much-publicized real-life romance and marriage, a phase of Ms Jolie's life that in hindsight is embarrassing. You can't watch *Pushing Tin* without remembering them kissing and feeling one another up before the press...the "Billy Bob" tats on Jolie's right shoulder and another part of her anatomy...the insistent declarations of love until death...the phials of blood...

Ah well, everybody makes mistakes no matter how well they do in life. That's the central theme of *Pushing Tin*. A quotation from an air-traffic controller starts the movie: *You land a million planes safely, then you have one little mid-air and you never hear the end of it."




Great comedic drama; all-star cast
The cast in this movie is terrific: Cusak and Thorton are at the top of their game as adrenaline junkies competing to be the best air traffic controller, the best at any casual sport, and the best with their friends and the ladies. Anglelina Jolie and Cate Blanchett also put on terrific performances as the love interested of Thornton and Cusak, respectively. It's interesting to watch the two of them a little earlier in their careers.

The movie has a great setting in the high-paced, high-stress job of air traffic controllers. I learned a lot about the job and seeing the aviation shots (like standing behind a 747 blast) was amazing. The love web/ego competition plot would have been nothing without the terrific setting in the world of air traffic control.

Check this out to see some terrific peformances by the greats of American modern cinema.

Zen And The Art Of Air Traffic Control
Nick Falzone (John Cusack) is at the top of his profession, the number one air traffic controller servicing one of the busiest airports in the U.S.A. Nicknamed "the zone" he is the epitomy of focus and control. This need to be the best is not restricted to the control tower, but permeates every aspect of his life. At first it appears that Nick is the master of his own destiny, unbeatable in everything he puts his mind to. That is until a fellow employee breaks down on the job and Russell Bell (Billy Bob Thornton) is hired to replace him.

Russell may be new to this particular airport, but he has a reputatiion amongst fellow air traffic controllers that has reached almost 'urban legend' proportions. Known as a maverick, a headcase, a lunatic, but also a brilliant air traffic controller, rumor has it that Russell was fired from his last job for laying on a runway in front of an oncoming 747. Whether truth or fable, Russell is given a second chance and his reputation as a highly skilled controller is evident from his first day on the job. Nick realizes his position at the top of the heap may be in imminent danger.

Hoping to study his new rival in a different setting, Nick invites Russell and his wife to his home for a company party. Up until now Nick's wife Connie (Cate Blanchett) had been considered the prettiest wife amongst co-workers. However when Russell's wife Mary (Angelina Jolie) arrives at the party it becomes immediately obvious that a new consensus of opinion has been reached. Now the competition really begins.

Nick's obsession for outdoing Russell escalates. Russell on the other hand plays along with the pretense of competition while remaining unattached and emotionally undivested in what the outcome may be. You see Russell has already passed through his own "dark night of the soul" and has overcome his inner demons. He has no further need or desire to prove anything to anyone. That of course is what bothers Nick most of all. For a man like Nick one of the major benefits to winning and being number one is the acknowledgement of defeat from your opponent. For Russell there is no defeat, for there was no competition.

As Nicks' life disintergrates around him Connie moves out after learning he slept with Mary. He eventually suffers a nervous breakdown and is given a leave of absence from his job. Alone and emotionally shattered, his once famous ability to focus and control every situation has been called into question. His only hope now is Russell, someone who has already been there. Russell shows him the folly of his obsession and points him towards a new perspective of reality. To fully embrace this new way of life a rite of passage is required, one that demands trust and bravery. With reckless abandon and an almost religious fervor, they throw caution to the wind and lay prostrate on an airport runway anxiously awaiting the next departing 747.

Marvelous script, extraordinary cast with great chemistry (Billy Bob and Angelina married shortly after completing this film) and witty dialogue. A movie to be enjoyed over and over again.

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