‘Flight’ was a truly remarkable movie portraying an alcoholic airline pilot named Whip Whitaker, played by Denzel Washington. The movie mainly focuses on character development, which is why Denzel Washington was the shining star for this movie. However, the cast also included impressive actors like Don Cheadle, who plays Whip’s attorney, as well as John Goodman, whose purpose is to act as the comic relief. Whip is obviously the main focus in this movie, but Cheadle and Goodman serve as spectacular supporting actors who help make the movie such a success.

What made the movie a success was Denzel Washington’s emotional portrayal of Whip. He clearly portrayed Whip’s aggression, charisma, flaws, and extreme alcoholism; he causes the audience to develop a love/hate relationship with Whip. The fact that the audience could not make up their mind about whether to like Whip was also an added element that made the movie interesting; most times, the protagonists in movies are either loved or hated, but Whip was both. Whip was definitely a hero, but he was also an intense alcoholic whose illness put others in danger several times and should really be in jail. However, despite Whip’s poor choices and obvious flaws, the audience cannot help connecting to him and ultimately rooting for him to succeed.

The main mystery behind ‘Flight’ was how Whip was able to land a plan and save nearly all of its passengers. The truth is that nobody should have been able to save them. After the crash, simulators were developed for other airline pilots to try to “save” the plane like Whip did, but everybody failed the simulator test. As the investigations unravel, Whip’s alcoholic tendency emerges to the surface and investigators suspect he was under the influence when he landed the plane. Interestingly enough, even though this definitely has some adrenaline pumping moments, mystery, and intrigue, it is not an action movie. The action and suspenseful moments take a sideline to the true purpose of the movie: to portray the life of an alcoholic hero.

Despite the fact that Denzel Washington did a superb job at playing Whip, it was disappointing that the movie was based more on following the life of an alcoholic rather than having more pulse-pounding action sequences. The audience was definitely able to connect with Whip, but it would have been nice to see more action throughout the movie. The movie was also a bit too long when it did not need to be. Despite these minor complaints about the movie, it is still worth seeing because of Denzel Washington’s brilliant performance.

4/5

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A new, less invasive scanner has been installed in airports around the United States.

With controversy still surrounding the Transportation Security Administration’s decision to install airport scanners that allow TSA employees to see through the clothing of individual passengers, the new scanner has been installed in airports in Salt Lake City, Utah, Miami International Airport, and a number of other airports around the country.

It is believed that this new scanner will help assuage the numerous complaints that have been voiced since the original scanners were installed in March of last year.

Rather than showing the body specifics of any particular individual, this new scanner simply shows an avatar of a human. If there is any suspected weaponry or dangerous materials on the passenger, the locations of these objects are shown on the screen as small yellow boxes using an Automated Target Recognition program.

For instance, if a passenger had a suspicious object in his or her pants pocket, a yellow box would show on the screen in the same area. If anything suspicious shows up on the screen the suspected area is searched and the passenger is subject to a pat down. If there is nothing of note detected by the scanner, the screen shows “Ok” and the passenger is free to go.

The original airport scanner was introduced amid concerns by a number of individuals about the safety and privacy of travellers. Many complaints were directed at the use of an x-ray machine on such a wide number of people. Concerns were raised that the radiation produced by the x-rays could pose a number of health concerns.

However, TSA had done testing on the machines before installation and when they were first introduced the assistant administrator for security operations stated that the level of radiation emitted by these scanners “is equivalent to the amount of radiation that a passenger would receive in two minutes of flight.”

Despite assurances that the radiation levels were safe for the majority of passengers, concerns remained. The most controversial aspect to the original scanners was the fact that the image shown on the scanners revealed the nude body of the person being scanned.

The TSA tried to maintain the anonymity of the individual being scanned by having one TSA employee with the person being scanned, and another TSA employee viewing the image of the passenger. Despite the efforts by TSA to maintain an individual’s privacy to the extent that they could, many people still objected to the invasive nature of the scanners.

For individuals who are still not comfortable with the new scanners, or who are pregnant or concerned about the low levels of radiation admitted, they can still choose to have a pat down instead of going through the machine.

Now that these new scanners have a more generic picture for passengers, it helps to preserve the anonymity of the individual being scanned. It also saves costs for TSA since the image no longer needs to be screened in a separate location by a different TSA employee.

This less invasive procedure, if adopted more widely, will help to preserve the privacy of travellers, while still ensuring that their trip is safe for all involved.

Image Courtesy of  http://www.flickr.com/photos/33671002@N00/

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