THE blurb writers have a wonderful way with understatement. The synopsis that accompanies A Thousand Heroes (Pearl, 9.30pm) says that when one of his aircraft's engines explodes, destroying all the hydraulics for good measure, airline pilot Charlton Heston is ''shocked''. He must also have been perplexed, even a little worried. He probably spilled his coffee.
Heston (The Ten Commandments, The Agony and the Ecstasy, The National Rifle Association) plays Al Haynes, pilot of United Airlines Flight 232 from Denver to Chicago, which crashed into an Iowa cornfield in 1989 and erupted into a ball of flames.
But this film is less a disaster movie and more an aftermath movie. It depicts how a city mobilised its citizens, resulting in the near-miraculous survival of 184 of the 296 passengers on board the plane.
Richard Thomas, who once featured in the classic American soap opera The Waltons, is the smalltown politician whose dream is to form the Woodbury County Disaster Committee, just in case a United Airlines plane should crash into a Woodbury County cornfield and erupt into a ball of flames.
He does so by merging the Civil Defense Force, the rescue services and the medical services, and insists on constant drilling to make sure they are prepared for an eventuality (such as a United Airlines plane . . .) When their big moment arrives things run as smoothly as clockwork. From the second a shocked Heston radios for emergency clearance to land - at 3.21pm on July 19, 1989 - Thomas' committee is in action. The paramedics, fire services and army guards are at the scene almost before the plane is. One hundred and twelve passengers died in the crash, but 184 got out alive.
THE low-budget horror flick Remote Control (World, 9.40pm) turned out better than anyone dared to hope.