Verdict
Summary
A massive box office smash hit when it was released, Airport kickstarted the disaster film that became the rage in the 1970s with titles such as The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, and of course three more Airport movies. This first film is incredibly overlong at 137 minutes, and it spends an awful lot of time on dragging out the events before the disaster with lots of melodrama, too many characters, micro-disasters, and annoying subplots that go nowhere. When the disaster does happen, the film drags a bit with a lack of suspense leading up to a mostly satisfactory finale, but at the time when it was produced, it must’ve been a corker.
Plot:
A bomber is aboard a passenger airliner, and it becomes imperative to land the plane safely before everyone is killed.
Review:
In the middle of a blizzard, a packed and busy airport faces a slew of crises at once. The manager of the airport (Burt Lancaster) is totally overloaded with tasks, including fielding his completely dissatisfied wife who complains that he’s never there for her, meanwhile she’s been cheating on him, and demanding he come home for silly parties that he simply doesn’t have time for. His staff is overloaded with keeping everyone safe, and when a harried housewife (Maureen Stapleton) comes into the airport with a hunch that her husband is aboard a plane that just took off, she comes forward with this juicy tidbit: He’s got a package full of dynamite with him, and he’s going to set it off and kill himself and everyone aboard the plane! On board the plane is the pilot (Dean Martin) who is having an affair with a stewardess (Jacqueline Bisset), and there’s a lot of other drama on the plane as well. An elderly woman (Helen Hayes) has perfected the art of stowing away on planes (impossible these days), and she’s sitting next to the guy with the dynamite, which gets complicated when he – out of fear of being discovered – sets off, severely damaging the plane and putting everyone aboard at risk of being killed. A rescue mission must happen and right away, but down below at the airport, an icy runway must be cleared with bulldozers ASAP, or disaster will be imminent!
A massive box office smash hit when it was released, Airport kickstarted the disaster film that became the rage in the 1970s with titles such as The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, and of course three more Airport movies. This first film is incredibly overlong at 137 minutes, and it spends an awful lot of time on dragging out the events before the disaster with lots of melodrama, too many characters, micro-disasters, and annoying subplots that go nowhere. When the disaster does happen, the film drags a bit with a lack of suspense leading up to a mostly satisfactory finale, but at the time when it was produced, it must’ve been a corker. Seen in today’s light, the film is woefully outdated, which has its charm, but it simply can’t fly on star power alone. Speaking of stars, the movie is full of them, and yet no one in the movie is really all that invested in the simulation of the disaster, and characters react almost in slow motion to what has happened. Despite its lackluster pacing, the movie was nominated for Best Picture and other awards, and remains a template for many disaster films that followed in its trend-setting wake. From director George Seaton.
Kino Lorber brings Airport to 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray in a two-disc edition, looking quite fine in sparking 4K. All previous edition are put to shame by this deluxe treatment, and it comes with an audio commentary by two film historians, plus the trailer and a slipcover.
