Living in the Age of Airplanes
Director: Brian J. Terwillige
Starring: Harrison Ford
47 mins; Class U;
Eden Cinemas release

We take planes for granted. We need to fly somewhere, say to mainland Europe or way beyond? We book our flight online, get to the airport, board, take off, and hours later we have reached our destination.

Every day, around 100,000 flights take off and land transporting people and goods across the world.

Living in the Age of Airplanes, a documentary produced by National Geographic, is in essence an ode to the aeroplane, a timely and visually sumptuous reminder of not only how this means of transport has truly changed the world, and with it our way of life, but also reintroduces audiences to the wonder and beauty of being up in the air.

Living in the Age of Airplanes is produced and directed by Brian J. Terwilliger.

It is narrated with genuine feeling by Harrison Ford – himself a pilot, as is James Horner, the popular Hollywood composer who provides the documentary’s evocative score.

It takes us to a plethora of destinations across the world, with fascinating snippets of information that truly brings home the technological wonder that is the plane.

As the documentary opens, we are reminded that for 195,000 years, walking was mankind’s only means of transport.

That changed somewhat with the invention of the wheel 5,000 years ago, but it was the advent of flight, just over a century ago, that truly revolutionised man’s ability to explore the world – as observed by Ford, we see more in a single glance from a plane that people in the past would see in a lifetime.

A celebration of flying

The documentary also scores high points in its breath-taking photography in high definition, extraordinary colours and lights bursting on screen with scenes of large aircraft travelling majestically to various destinations including Iguazu Falls in Brazil, Angkor Wat in Cambodia and the Grand Canyon.

A sequence following the journey of a consignment of flowers from their source in Kenya to arrive, fresh and beautiful as ever, at their destination in Amsterdam, is a fascinating illustration of what flying has brought to the world.

It certainly presents a postcard-perfect view of the world, yet with its normal, everyday scenes of people greeting their loves ones at the airport, it adds relatable emotion.

It will certainly appeal to aviation aficionados, yet will be appreciated by anyone who has ever been on a plane or yearns to be on one.

Cynics may point to a lack of comment on arguments against the industry – rising fares, fuel consumption, pollution eand so forth.

Yet, as pointed out by Terwilliger in an interview with Air and Space magazine, this is a celebration of flying and that it is a beautiful thing that we are living in the age of airplanes.