Lincoln
International Airport near Chicago and snow is falling heavily. A
Trans-Global Airlines flight gets stuck in the snow while taxiing and
blocks the airport's main runway, leaving only the smaller second
runway open. Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) faces
a problem - this runway flies over some local residental areas, and the
residents are not happy when it suddenly doubles in usage - and by
staying at the airport all night to fix the problem, he enrages his
wife and endangers their already shaky marriage. Meanwhile his
brother-in-law Capt. Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin) is preparing to
fly the The Golden Argosy, TGA's
over-night flight to Rome, but shortly before take-off, his
"favourite air stewardess" Gwen Meighen informs him that she is
pregnant with his child. Also on the flight is the elderly Ada
Quonsett (Helen Hayes) who happens to be a frequent stow-away,
and D.
O. Guerrero (Van Heflin), a heavily depressed figure, planning to blow
himself, and the plane up with a suitcase bomb so that his wife will
receive payout from the life insurance he has just taken out...
Based on Arthur Hailey's very popular book
Airport (1968), which he wrote after the sucess of his ealier script for the Canadian television film
Flight into Danger (1956)
,
Aiport
(1970) was the forerunner to the all star disaster movies of the 1970s,
although in contast to their often generic, paper thin characters, it
boasts a very strong script. The film all revolves around the
Golden Argosy flight, but it does not actually take off until well over an hour into the film (this is a strong contrast to
Airport's
three sequels, all of which see take-off within 20 minutes) and instead
we get extensive detail both on the running of the airport and on the
film's main characters. Despite fears, these sequences never drag on,
or come off as gratuitous, but instead help to create some well rounded
characters that we actually care about and understand. Similarly,
plenty of minor characters pop up throughout to help flesh out the
story, and their dialogue is always well written. Of particular
interest is the character of D.
O. Guerrero - he is genuinely acting in, what he believes to be, a
completely selfless manner and is in such a desperate situation that he
does not even consider the negative consequences of his actions - a
much more rounded character than in many similar films (interestingly
this entire sub-plot is based on a real life incident, the destruction
of Continental Airlines Flight 11 in 1962, by a man with similar
motives). The Ada Quonsett character is obviously intended as a light
comic relief, but fortunately is very well written into the plot and
certainly a contrast to the rather forced comic relief that has
destroyed many a fine film.
In
keeping with Hailey's novel (which the script remains relatively
faithful too throughout, with some minor changes due to time
constraints) the film provides a lot of detail on the day-to-day
operation of a major international airport; from the conflicts between
pilots and ground operators, to the problems of local residents and the
effects of snow - of couse this very modern film at the time, is very
dated now (note the massive buzzing pagers and handset telephones in the call centres) but it still stands as an
interesting time capsule of a by-gone era. The sequences on board the
plane, including the crew's dialogue and actions, are very well
researched and realistic and helps to give a strong backing to the
film, avoiding it becoming a work of fantasy like many disaster movies.
Helping this is the relatively understated level of the 'disaster' -
many later films would pile problem on problem to keep the suspence up
throughout, instead
Airport
keeps the tension high by slowly building up for over half the run
time, and relying on the effective characters to keep the viewers
interested in whether or not they would survive. The ending is also
worthy of note, suitably wrapping up all the important plot strands,
but without dragging on too long.
Director George Seaton does
good work behind the camera - a lot of use is made of split-screen
shots, which although generally derided these days, works very well
here, and a lengthy PoV shot from the stewardess' perspective is very
impressive. The real airport locations (with extensive and very
realistic looking fake snow) and the sets are all very well used and
there is a large cast of extras to add some more realism. There are
very few mid-air shots during the flight, but those that are shot, use
some good looking models, while the ground shots were filmed with a
real Boeing 707. Nine time Oscar winner Alfred Newman provides his final
score here, and shows that he has lost none of his touch - the solid
and exciting orchestral score helps to add tension to the dramatic
scenes and gives the film one of the best openings in cinema.
Burt
Lancaster leads the all star cast, alongside Dean Martin and both give
stand-out performances. 1930s film star Helen Hayes returns to the
big screen after 14 years in a superb, and Oscar winning performance
as Ada Quonsett, showing off some perfect comic timing. Old
Western star Van Helfin is a standout as D.
O. Guerrero and he really helps to make the character almost
sympathetic despite his actions in the film. The very
attractive Jacqueline Bisset and Jean Seberg give strong
performances as do the rest of the cast, while a young looking George
Kennedy as Joe Patroni would go on to appear in all three of the
sequels.
Although its reputation has become rather tarnished by the comparatively sloppy sequels,
Airport
(1970) remains a surprisingly strong and effective film thanks to an
impeccably researched and written script that has enough
characterisation to fill a mini-series. Eschewing over-the-top action
scenes, the film remains realistic throughout and thus boasts a lot
more tension than many of the later disaster movies. With its accurate
depiction of airport proceedures in the 1970s,
Airport
is highly recommended to plane/aviation fans, and as a forerunner to
the big disaster movies of the 1970s, it should prove of interest to
fans of these too. Generally recommended for anyone who wants some
good, cleverly written entertainment and doesn't need mile-a-minute
action scenes.
