There is an old adage that names have to be changed to protect the innocent – but in the case of a new documentary focusing on the wild times of a long-haul pilot, perhaps it should apply to the not-so-innocent.
Whoever ‘Christian’ is, the subject of DTF – and we only know amidst the pixellation of his facial features and auto-corrected voice that he originates from Scandinavia – methinks there might just be an internal investigation across the board from nervous executives in the flight and travel industry who are pretty much suffering enough with COVID-19 impacting on travel around the world, knocking on the effect of income to valuable tourist centres.
It’s a very frank discussion he has at one point with film-maker Al Bailey about the pressures and the release and satisfaction he gets from sex addiction whenever and wherever stops – and we get a bit of context during his visits filmed at the likes of places like Hong Kong, Las Vegas, LA and San Diego amongst others.
However, the film-makers had one intention and objective – to address ‘Christian’ and his desire to find love through Tinder. Pretty soon, however, it is revealed that Christian’s overwhelming desire to get drunk at any cost – and on this occasion roping Al into his exploits – turns the documentary on its’ head with very amusing and entertaining outcomes – and on occasion veers into semi-BORAT / HANGOVER territory after an incident in a lap club in Vegas, all the more funnier because it is played out in reality.
It is also fair play to the production team that they have allowed their own embarrassing experiences in the company of ‘Christian’ to stay within the final edit – making the point that this is what the documentary should represent in terms of the honest truth of what these pilots get up to when they have cleared to land.
Bailey deserves plaudits for his work here and his efforts to keep the subject under control in a film that is purely for adults-only in terms of his context and language at times, which is very crude. ‘Christian’ clearly has far deeper problems – and whoever he is and wherever he is, we wish him well. As to the pilot community, surely we are serious enough to accept and embrace them as good responsible pilots (apologies for the AIRPLANE reference!).
DTF is hugely enlightening and revealing – and one of the best documentaries of 2020
