Airport (1970)

One of the first of the big disaster films, this stodgy Hollywood product lumbers and creaks as it tries to sort out the various plot threads of Arthur Hailey's doorstop of a novel. Set at (what else?) a busy metropolitan airport, it details what happens one eventful night when, among other things, a huge blizzard threatens to disrupt air traffic for the airport manager (Burt Lancaster) even as a suicidal bomber (Van Heflin) heads into the air with mayhem on his mind. There's also an impish old lady (Helen Hayes, who won an Oscar for this role) who specializes in sneaking aboard airliners, and the married pilot (Dean Martin) is having an affair with a stewardess (Jacqueline Bisset). An old-fashioned movie that inspired a bunch of sequels, the Airplane spoofs, and a host of other disaster films. --Marshall Fine Amazon.com

IT MAY BE THE FIRST DISASTER, BUT IT'S NOT THE BEST!

Watching 'Airport' after all these years, I found it disappointing to a degree. It's overly long with little action or suspense and it's cast reminded me of a predecessor to the 'Love Boat'. I give it some respect for being the first of many films of this nature, but it's really not as good as I remembered it to be. It's available on a box set with the other 3 Airport films at a bargain price so it your a fan of the series....... July 21, 2008

The Original "Disaster" Movie.

Jean Seberg isn't real convincing, but then again she wasn't that great of an actress. Everyone else; superb. Still 5 stars. May 3, 2008

They don't make them like they used to ...

A great cast, wonderful performances, and most important - more then half the film is dedicated to character and plot development. Not like "action" flicks today.

What a brilliant film! December 7, 2007

DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING

I ORDERED THE VHS TAPE "AIRPORT 70".ON THE COVER AND ON THE TAPE ITSELF IT STATES, FORMAT:COLOR.THE TAPE I RECEIVED IS IN "BLACK & WHITE" FORMAT.THIS WILL JEPORDISE ANY ORDERS IN THE FUTURE. PLEASE RESOLVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE August 23, 2007

Wow. What a surprise!

I have tended to remember the disaster movies of the 1970's as a vein of the action movie genre, the latter being a series of explosions and special effects linked with episodes of sex and violence, and four word sentences. Given my first hand experience with the seventies, I really wouldn't have thought I'd recommend any disaster movie to my worst enemy. Then, a friend insisted we watch Airport. I was so wrong. This is not an action flick, as described. Airport has vestiges of classic Hollywood, in its production values, and it's writing and direction. This is actually a movie! It has a plot, which takes its time to develop (a bit unsettling for anyone who thought they'd pop it in and sort-of pay attention) and there are subplots. There are a lot of characters, some of them young enough to make one realize that they were just starting out. And then of course, there's Dean Martin as a pilot. By the end of the movie you're no longer laughing at that idea.

The story begins with a plane stuck in the snow on a Nebraska runway (Minneapolis airport, actually) and another plane taking off for Rome (from Nebraska, in the seventies?). There's a couple of failing marriages, politicians nervous over plane noise in the suburbs, Helen Hayes as a habitual stowaway, who, of course, stows away on THIS flight, and Dean Martin in love with a stewardess, played by Jacqueline Bisset, who of course is pregnant, and oh yes, there's a guy with a bomb in his brief case; and of course the bomb goes off, and the ONLY place the plane can land, is back in Nebraska. Oh yeah, remember that stuck plane?

We thought the Soviet Union looked gloomy, in the seventies. This film makes America look pretty gloomy. Design seems an afterthought, although Edith Head did all the clothes, so everyone at least looks better than the rooms and terminals. And boy does everyone seem so...adult, so grown up. Such a short time ago, and yet a world away.

This is not a background film. You'll have to dedicate the time, and its about two hours, to watch it. But it's a good film, entertaining, with likeable and mostly believable characters. I gave it three stars because it is a disaster film, and I just can't get myself to accept them as great cinema. But, I do like this film, and if you want action and romance, with a plot worth following, this will do it for you. May 7, 2007

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