Sundance Film Festival movie review: 'Downfall: The Case Against Boeing'
The riveting and infuriating documentary 'Downfall: The Case Against Boeing' (premiering at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and streaming on Netflix on Feb. 18) draws a straight line between blind profit motive and two deadly commercial airplane crashes.
In short: In the aftermath of two deadly Boeing aircraft crashes in 2019, an investigation unearths the technical and cultural causes of these man-made disasters.
Director Rory Kennedy methodically, carefully lays out the a damning indictment against the entire aviation corporate culture, seemingly blinded by one company's reputation. It's impossible to not be shaken to the core by this deliberate, persuasive and lean 90-minute teardown of apparent corruption driven by greed and enabled by a pristine brand legacy. In just 90 minutes, Kennedy succeeds in not just explaining the technical flaws that ended hundreds of live across two separate crashes, but her documentary also makes the argument that the horrific events were not only foreseeable - they were preventable and covered up.
This documentary explains complex aeronautics and a rotten corporate environment, but 'Downfall' never lets the audience forget that some degree of either conspiracy or outright negligence led to the death of almost 350 men, women and children. The film's first move taps into a pretty universal assumption in the early 21st century: that airline crashes almost never occur. 'Flying is safer than driving in a car' isn't merely some trite saying people share - it's basically true. 'Downfall' examines the machine and human elements that that caused two 737-MAX aircraft to fall out of the sky.
'Downfall' clearly breaks down the incredibly complicated mechanical failures that caused two catastrophic crashes. The documentary elegantly explains how the most advanced machines in the world failed its passengers and crew. These clinical post-mortems alone would be ruinous for Boeing - but this documentary's true focus how a once respected leader in aviation became a soulless husk of its formerly dutiful self. So even as disturbing as this film's claims of conspiracy and corruption, 'Downfall' also has an air of disappointment and fall from grace while recounting Boeing's once sterling history.
Oddly, 'Downfall' brings to mind the 'Recall Coordinator' scene in 'Fight Club,' wherein the narrator coldly explains the callous calculation that decides whether lawsuits will justify the financial hit of a recall. Yet, even the seemingly hyperbolic and cynical 'Fight Club' scene doesn't come close to the indifference voiced in unearthed Boeing memos. Kennedy's film illustrates a scenario where tragic crashes, like the 2018-2019 737 MAX events, almost seem inevitable, if not calculated into the cost of doing business.
Final verdict: 'Downfall' is a jaw-dropping explainer that shatters the pristine image of the world's top airplane manufacturer - revealing the root cause of two crashes was the pursuit of maximized profit by any means necessary.
Score: 4.5/5
'Downfall: The Case Against Boeing' screens at the 2022 Sundance Film Festival and streams on Netflix starting Feb. 18. This documentary is rated PG-13 for some strong language and has a running time of 89 minutes.
