Running Head: CRITICAL ANALYSIS PAPER 1

Critical Analysis Paper for Flight

Allison Carlson

Seton Hill University

CRITICAL ANALYSIS PAPER 2

The film Flight staring Denzel Washington concentrates on the two main themes and the

challenges of moral life. This paper will analyze the main character of the movie through the

lenses of conceptual sin including: sin, conscience, and conversion. The movie focuses on

Christian ethics by having the characters show compassion towards one another and by being

self-critical, morally imaginative, consciously deliberative, and hopeful for the change of persons

for the better. The film Flight relates to ideas from the America Magazine article “From

Condemnation to Conversion: Seeking Restorative Justice in the Prison System” and chapter 4 of

The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything in many ways.

The main character of the movie Flight is William “Whip” Whitaker played by Denzel

Washington. Throughout the movie there were many scenes that showed who Whip was as a

person in positive and negative aspects as well as showing how complex and mysterious he was.

Also, we see how his actions were once honorable and destructive. The beginning of the movie

starts with Whip in a hotel room with the flight attendant Katerina Marquez. The scene portrays

Whip and Katerina as people that like to party and have a good time no matter what they have to

do that day. They are both under the influence of drugs and alcohol when Whip receives a call

that they are going to be late for their job. Whip quickly does a line of coke to sober himself up

in order to work that day. He is a pilot flying a plane under the influence which leads us to view

him as a negative person. The scene involving the plane crash shows Whip in a positive aspect

because he takes control of the plane and figures out how to safely land the plane with the result

of a lower amount of fatalities compared to just letting the plane crash. After the crash, while

laying in the hospital bed, Harling Mays comes to visit him. Harling Mays is his best friend who

is also his drug supplier. As Whip wakes up, Harling starts to hand him alcohol and drugs.

Whip refuses and says that he is done with that because of what occurred with the plane. At first
CRITICAL ANALYSIS PAPER 3

we start to believe that Whip is changing for the better because once he returned home he

dumped out all of his alcohol and threw the bottles away. His actions in this scene were

honorable because he was throwing out all of the negativity in his life. But as time went on,

Whip became destructive relying on alcohol yet again; drinking while driving, drinking before

important meetings, and drinking just because he had nothing better to do. Whip never really

changes until he is sitting in prison thinking about what his mistakes have caused him.

Throughout the movie the concept of sin is seen in Whip’s life and in the lives of the

people that surround him. The simple definition of sin is the estrangement or alienation from

God. The Jesuit Guide helps us understand why Whip needs to find God in his life. Whip

experienced one main personal struggle that led to the turning away from God. His personal

struggle was not being able to admit that he had a problem before things got out of control.

Whip relied solely on alcohol for everything and would not take the time to realize that he was

destroying his life. After flying the plane in the rough storm, he quickly approached from the

cockpit to take a drink of vodka to make it through the rest of the flight. In the middle of the

movie, Whip finally admits to Nicole that he has a problem but he does not act on it. If he were

to reflect on his sinfulness during his struggling as a person, he would have realized that what he

was feeling was guilt. He was feeling guilty for the plane crash and for the lives that were lost.

Whip also experienced an external struggle that made him realize that he needed help.

The external struggle that controlled Whip’s life was his substance abuse causing his

relationships and job to be destroyed. The people that he ruined relationships with are his ex

wife, his son, Nicole and Margaret. Whip drove his ex wife and his son away by lying about

drinking and coming home strung out. He spent his time and focus on drinking and not on his

family. His wife left him to create a better environment for their son. The son only contacts him
CRITICAL ANALYSIS PAPER 4

when he is in need of something. Whip did not help his case with his family by showing up at

the ex wife’s house drunk and yelling. During Whip’s time at the hospital he met a lady named

Nicole who had recently overdosed. He cared for her greatly as time went on. Nicole moved in

with Whip on his family farm and dealt with his drinking in a way that no recovering drug addict

should have to deal with. Nicole realized that Whip was self-destructing and decided to leave

before she was brought back to a life revolving around life damaging substances. The last

person that he ruined a relationship with was his friend Margaret from the flight crew. After

Katerina’s funeral, Whip approached Margaret and asked her to lie to the federal agents about his

drinking the night before, the morning of and during the flight. This caused a shift in their

relationship because she knew it was wrong and told him she would do no such thing but as he

continued to beg she gave in because she knew that her son only had his mother because of him.

Whip lost his job due to the toxicology report coming back with an alcohol level of .24 and

showing that he had cocaine in his system. Even though he landed the plane safely, it is the duty

of a pilot to make sure that all of the passengers on board are safe and by him being high every

single person on that plane was in danger the moment his foot stepped on board. Whip’s

external struggle made him realize that he had not given God a chance and thanked him for his

life like the other pilot did in the hospital. Whip’s alienation from God connects to The Jesuit

Guide because he was given many chances to do good and notice God but he overlooked

everyone. The Jesuit Guide talks about one who looks around for a chance to believe in God will

easily see God at work in their life. By the end of the movie, Whip understood that he did

something terribly wrong and pushed to make amends with his loved one. One of the last scenes

in the movie shows that Whip finally made amends with his loved ones and stopped his drinking
CRITICAL ANALYSIS PAPER 5

at the very end of the movie when his pictures with Nicole and his son are displayed on his cell

wall. Every individual struggles with sin and must seek for forgiveness in the world.

During the movie, the concept of conscience is observed throughout Whip’s life.

Conscience is the intimate and internal mechanism by which Christians are informed by God as

they struggle to make morally sound decisions. The scenes that show Whip was struggling with

conscience are: the crash, the meeting with Ken Evans in the hospital room, and the trial. The

crash shows that Whip was dealing with the concept of conscience when he decided to invert the

plane. He made a conscious decision to try to save lives and he is applauded for that in the end

but that did not rule out the fact that he was drunk and high when doing so. Whip being under

the influence was definitely not a good thing when in came to flying the plane full of passengers

but in the end he saved the plane with only a few fatalities and his act was heroic. Conscience

deals with the formation of character and personhood. Whip’s personhood is centered around

alcohol and drugs. As a person he is is greedy, he only thinks about his drinking and not how his

actions harm others. At times his conscience would tell him to quit drinking and make things

right again but as the days got harder he turned to more and more alcohol to get him through.

His personal ideals come in question with the morals of society and the federal government.

According to Heidegger’s views, society will judge and hold certain expectations for every

individual. The scene that best relates to this is were Whip goes to the hospital to talk to his co-

pilot Ken Evans about what he thought happened. Ken starts off by telling Whip that the plane

was doomed as soon as he walked into the cockpit because he smelt like stale gin from the night

before. Ken informs Whip that God has a higher plan for him. As he is telling Whip what he

believes happened it is Whip’s conscience setting in that he made a mistake and is not living up

to who he ought to be. The very last part of the trial after Whip had finished all of his lies, he
CRITICAL ANALYSIS PAPER 6

listened to conscience and made the morally right decision to tell the truth. He told the federal

government that he had been drinking and was still drunk form the night before when he flew the

plane. He decided to tell the truth because he did not want to put the blame on his deceased

lover Katerina. Whip invoked his conscience by bringing subject to his moral truth and by

making a practical judgment of what to do in light of that truth. Whip will have his whole life to

properly form his conscience because it is a lifelong task.

The concept of conversion is seen in one main scene from the movie. Conversion is a

turning towards God and the good. The scene that shows Whip’s conversion is him telling the

truth at the trial and being put in jail for his mistakes. Whip turns towards God at the end of the

trail by stopping all of his lies and telling the truth. He states how he was drunk the night before

the accident and the day of. Whip explains why he did what he did in front of the jury and he is

found guilty in the end because he put his passengers in danger. The final scene of the movie is

Whip’s emotional speech about reaching his life long limit of lies and if he told one more lie he

could have walked away from that whole mess. If he would’ve told just one more lie he would

have been holding on to his false sense of pride and that is not what God is looking for in a

person, he wants a true person with real pride. Whip lost the publics’ trust and was stripped of

his flying license and he understands that his actions resulted in fair consequences and him not

denying what he did is a turning towards God. He accepts his mistakes and by doing so he wrote

letters to his loved ones that tried to help him along the way, the families that were involved in

the crash and most importantly his ex wife and his son. Whip says that he understands that

families will never forgive him for what he did but at least he is sober and he thanks God for

that. For the first time in his life he is free and he is becoming a follower of God.
CRITICAL ANALYSIS PAPER 7

I believe the scenes that were most apparent during Whip’s defining and substantive

conversion experience were the trial and his speech in jail. The trail woke him up and made him

realize that the lies he had been telling were not going to get him anywhere in life. The lies

made him a smaller person and for him to grow into who he strived to be he had to start by

telling the truth. The speech allows him to own up to his mistakes in a group confession and

allows him to say that he thanks God for making him sober. After reading the American

Magazine article, I saw connections between the movie and the article regarding the concept of

conversion. God has not risen to call the righteous but to call the sinners. Recognizing the basic

human dignity of a sinner can lead to hope for a positive change focusing on conversion.

The ethical analysis of Whip Whitaker provided insight on my own moral life by, leading

me to always tell the truth no matter what the consequences may be. Telling the truth will help

with sinning, conscience, and conversion. If I was on the witness stand I would have owned up

to my mistakes and would have accepted what was given to me.