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Author
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Topic: Airplane 1980
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Graham Ritchie
Film God
Posts: 4001
From: New Zealand
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted July 25, 2007 06:07 PM
Cast Robert Hays
Julie Hagerty
Lioyd Bridges
Leslie Nielson
Robert Stack
Peter Graves
What a cast in this "take off" excuse the pun of all the Airport disaster films you can think of,I dont think Universal were game to make another one after this film was released.
From the opening scene of a mis-guided 747 crashing through the terminal we move into the story if you could call it that, of Ted Striker "Hays" an X fighter pilot who has a phobia of flying trying to make up to his girlfriend a air-hostess "Hagerty" during her flight, and while she is looking after the passengers Hays is quite literally boring to death his fellow passengers recounting his past. We are then taken back to a seedy night club where he first met her, there we encounter two girl guides fighting with each other and with a sudden impact on the jukebox causing it to play Beegees "Staying Alive" Hays reveals his white coat and does superb send-up of Travolta Saturday Night Fever.
Back on the aircraft disaster is about to strike as the passengers and crew slowly become violently ill from food poisoning "its the fish" one passenger comments I've never felt this awful since we saw that Ronald Reagan film, well its now down to the air-hostess to fly the plane, and with the help of ground control "Robert Stack and Lioyd Bridges" they get her to engage the auto-pilot a life-size inflatable man-doll, everything seems to be going well until he begins to deflate, she is then instructed that she must blow him up, with this act the aircraft levels from its desent, the auto-pilot now has a ![[Smile]](smile.gif) Hays now takes control and with sweat pouring down his face we are subjected to the longest landing in history, in the terminal you here gate 7 gate 8 gate 9 etc etc it goes on forever, Hays saves the day and lands the aircraft makes up with his girlfriend, the passengers are safe, and the film finishes with the aircraft again taking of under the control of the auto-pilot and this time has his girlfriend another "blow up doll" and with a ![[Wink]](wink.gif) he flies of into the sunset.
This film is a roller coaster ride of gags, they come thick and fast, from the scene of the passengers watching the in flight movie showing a 707 crashing and bursting into flames to the comment that the S--- is about to hit the fan which it literally does. Airplane might not appeal to everyones sence of humor, its a 70s look film and I wonder if it was made today would they get away with some of it, for myself I thoroughly enjoyed it, Marketing films 3/400ft well edited with very good colour and sound its a film I would highly recomend.
Graham.
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted July 25, 2007 10:39 PM
"I Picked a fine time to give up smoking ... "
This was an excellent comedy!! This same team made the "Naked Gun" series ...
"I Picked a fine time to stop drinking"
... as well as the "Hot Shot" movies ...
"I picked a fine time to stop sniffing glue"
the "Police Squad TV show, the recent movie "Rat Race"
"I picked a fine time to stop taking ametaphetamines"
and are hands down the funniest writers and directors of the last 30 years on film, consistently funny.
This 3X400ft version is really good, as the original feature was only a little over 80 minutes long.
The magic of these guys is that they make movies that you really have to WATCH, as there are gags, visual and verbal, going on all the time!
I'd love to get ahold of this release!
--------------------
"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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Gordon G. Ellis
Junior
Posts: 10
From: Brooklyn, NY, USA
Registered: Jan 2015
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posted February 24, 2016 03:21 PM
I'm late to this particular party, but why not join in?
Rejuvenating my relatively modest Super 8 hobby, I’ve finally gotten around to screening my copy of the 3 x 400’ Airplane. And, holy cow, what a treat. I’ve always found Super 8 cutdowns to be interesting curios. This one does a remarkable job of presenting the whole story, and is as wonderful a digest as one could want.
As discussed above, the thinner polyester stock allows the film to easily mount on an 800’ reel. Colors in my print are okay. A few striking blues pop from the screen, especially in the neon-lit nightclub scene in the first reel.
The edit gives a very complete sense of the film, with enough time for character’s backstories and running gags. Of course, in the service of telling the whole story, there are some omissions. And, although one shouldn't really complain about such a well-edited and fun digest, the omissions include (SPOILER ALERT) a few of the films most famous scenes. These include:
— Barbara Billingsley’s “Stewardess, I speak jive” scene. The original scene plays out in barely a minute, and would seem to have fit smoothly into the digest edit.
— Joey’s visit to the cockpit (“Joey, have you ever seen a grown man naked?”). In the original, this sequence plays out over a few minutes — probably too much footage to include at length, but a few of the key gag-lines could have been cleanly edited into the flow.
— A curious and slightly disappointing omission is the very first (and most famous) instance of Leslie Nielsen’s “Don’t call me Shirley.” This running-gag line is repeated later in the film, so it is represented in the digest. But, the original instance could have fit seamlessly into the flow of the digest, and again would have required only about 15 ft of additional footage.
Graham above mentions a 50 minute running time. By my clock, the digest runs closer to 47 minutes (~950 feet). That’s ample, but again it seems that there should have been room to retain a few of those relatively short gag scenes mentioned above. (Maybe those moments weren't as iconic at the time, and were simply cut with a focus on moving the story forward.)
In any event, I’m thrilled to own a copy. It will definitely be at the top of my replay list.
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