The Flight of the Phoenix/Headscratchers

1965 Film

• That lame camel left behind by the Bedouin. I know the idea is gross, and the one who shot the camel was frustrated and acting in anger, but that camel must have had GALLONS of blood in it. Drain its blood (drag up halfway up a dune to get a gravity assist and a bucket under it), set up a still, capture the water as it evaporates - they could have lasted longer or increased their water ration as they worked.
  • Not only the water, but the meat. I don't think I'd want to eat camel meat, but if all I've been eating for a while is canned peaches, I bet camel would be pretty appealing.

In the remake:

• None of these guys have any sort of survival instincts. A few examples:
  • When it rains, no one bothers to attempt to catch any of the water after they've been doing nothing but rationing water the whole time. It doesn't even occur to anyone at any point.
  • Horrible storm ahead? No problem. Fly directly into it.
  • When the one guy is saying he'll walk out of the dessert, everyone else convinces him that he'll wander around and get lost very easily and no one mentions the possibility of using a compass (which the plane would have aboard if no one else had one). Sure, the better choice would be to stay put rather than walk out into the desert, but it seems the writers were set on defeating the argument rather quickly.