Soooo another review coming your way and this one is yet another film from the 1980s which is yet another classic comedy, Airplane! which was a big success on its release in both critical and commercial terms. So let's strap ourselves in and let's give this un a look....
Well we all should know the plot of the film which starts with troubled ex-fighter pilot, Ted Striker (Robert Hays) who suffers from post traumtic stress after his experiences in an unspecified war. Striker tries desparately to win back his ex-girlfriend, Elaine Dickinson (Julie Hagerty) who is now a flight attendant and he nervously boards a Boeing 707 which is flying from Los Angeles to Chicago. While onboard the plane there is an outbreak of food poisoning, which appears to be contracted from fish served on the plane, which affects many of the passengers. It also affects the plane's captain, Clarence Oveur (Peter Graves) and the co-pilot Roger Murdoch (Kareem-Abhul Jabbar) which leaves no one to fly the plane. Elaine then contacts Chicago's control tower and speaks to the supervisor, Steve McCrowskey (Lloyd Bridges) who advises her to activate the ship's automatic pilot, which is a large inflatable doll (named Otto in the credits) but it will not be able to land the plane. Elaine eventually approaches Striker to ask him to fly the plane, but he initially refuses and is then brought around by one of the passengers, Dr Rumack (Leslie Nielsen) who informs of how serious the situation is with the passengers. Striker however soon panics at the helm in the cockpit and decides he can't land the plane and walks out leaving the auto-pilot to take over. Rumack however manages to bring Striker around again as he tells him an inspiring story of his time during the war as a medical officer. After this Striker steps back into the cockpit once again determined to land the plane and save the critically ill passengers in the process....
Airplane! still to this day is an hilarious comedy film and it introduced its own unique style of comedy at the time with its use of visual and verbal puns and gags. The film's comedy in itself is also relentless are there so many gags and jokes in the film and they come so thick and fast that you are bound to laugh at least half of them. The film itself is of course a spoof of the Airport disaster films of the 1970s and its plot was largely based on film Zero Hour! made back in the 1950s. And the writer/director team of Jim Abrahams, David and Jerry Zucker also made the astute choice of casting non-comedic actors in the roles, which helped make the film funnier as the actors took their roles so seriously.
So this leads me into the performance paragraphs and the cast are all perfect in their roles, starting with Robert Hays in the main role as troubled ex-war veteran, Ted Striker, who does a great job as the film's straight man. Hays has quite a few funny moments in the film, and one my favourite early on ones is where he chases after Elaine at the airport at the start, and she rebuffs him and he turns to the camera and says "What a pisser!". Another funny scene is of course the flashback sequence where he first meets Elaine and he watches her on the dance floor for the first time, stunned, he narrates "I had ask the guy next to me to pinch me to make sure I wasn't dreaming!" and as he does in the scene, the man nervously steps away from him. This is then of course followed by the scene where he takes off his US airforce uniform jacket to reveal a Saturday night Fever style suit as he dances with Elaine to the Bee Gees "Stayin Alive". Another funny moment is the flashback scene where he and Elaine visit an African tribe during the war and Ted shows them how to play basketball and they all soon turn our to play like pros and when he first shows American greetings to the tribe leader, he gives the leader a low 10, and the leader knocks him out! And then there is the end of this scene where Ted's relationship with Elaine starts to show cracks and he narrates "It was at that moment I realised that Elaine had doubts about our relationship. And that as much as anything lead to my drinking problem" and Ted proceeds to pour a drink down the left side of his face! Hays also get's the classic line when one of the plane's engines is struck by lightning and Ted says "The oil pressure! I forgot to check the oil pressure! When Kramer hears about this, the shit's gonna hit the fan!" and then we do a cut to the flight tower and we literally see some shit hit the fan! And another funny visual gag later on is when Ted tries to land the plane and the landing gear breaks and the plane skids along the runway and we see buckets of sweat pouring off Ted as he tries to grind the plane to a halt! And lastly another one of my favourite lines of Hays in the film is when Ted first sits down in his seat on the plane and an elderly lady next him asks if he is nervous and he says "Yes" and she asks "First time?" and Ted says "No, I've been nervous lots of times!".
Julie Hagerty is also really good in her role as the sweet, well meaning and rather highly strung Elaine Dickinson, who was Ted's former girlfriend. Julie also has some funny scenes in the film where she plays Elaine's slight air headed qualities to perfection. One such scene is after Dr Rumack tells her not to cause panic but try and find out if anyone can fly a plane, she announces on the PA system "By the way, is there anyone on board who knows how to fly a plane??" which is then followed by all the passengers going bananas, and the inexplicable but far from unwelcome visage of a topless girl running infront of the camera, which a rather nice chest! Also there the flasback scene where Elaine visits Ted in a psychiatric hospital and she says to him "You got a letter from headquarters this morning." and Ted asks "What is it?" and she says "Its a big building where generals meet, but that's not important". And as Ted sits wallowing in self pity over his failure in the leading the air raid he was involved in, he says "Because of my mistake, six men didn't return from that raid" and Elaine says "Seven men, Lieutenant Zip died this morning" and Ted suddenly spits out his drink in surprise over her! Also in the scene where Rex Kramer (played by Robert Stack) a current airline pilot, who arrives to control the crisis and help Striker land the plane, there is a funny moment where Elaine relays Ted's words to Rex over the radio. And as Ted says "Its a damn good thing he doesn't know how much I hate his guts!" Elaine without thinking repeats "Its a damn good he doesn't how much he hates your guts!".
Leslie Nielsen, who up to this point had no experience in comedy films is priceless in his role as Dr Rumack, the buttoned down doctor onboard the plane, who tries his best to help save the passengers who have been poisoned. Nielsen has quite a few highlights in the film such as in the scene where he asks Elaine what everyone had to eat tonight and Elaine says "We had steak or fish" and Rumack says "Yes yes, I remember, I had lasagne!". The film has its moments where the dialogue is played on a comedy of misunderstandings as in one scene Rumack speaks with Captain Oveur and he says to him "How soon can you land?" and Oveur says "I can't tell" and Rumack says "You can tell me, I'm a doctor". And Rumack asks "Can't you take a guess" and Oveur says "Well not for another two hours" and Rumack says "You can't take a guess for another two hours?!". Another hilarious moment is where Rumack starts to describe the effects of the food posioning, as we see that the pilot, Ouver had fish as well and he starts to feel the symptoms as Rumack describes them. "It starts with a slight fever and a dryness of the throat. When the virus penetrates the red blood cells, the victim becomes dizzy, begins to experience an itchy rash, then the poison goes to work on the central nervous system, severe muscle spasm followed by the inevitable drooling. At this point, the entire digestive system collapses accompanied by uncontrollable flatulence. Until the poor bastard is reduced to a quivering wasted piece of jelly!". And at this point Oveur collapses! And of course there is the classic line where Ted says to Rumack "Surely you can't be serious!" and Rumack says "Of course I'm serious. And stop calling me Shirley!".
Lloyd Bridges is also great in his role as the Chicago control tower supervisor, Steve McCrowskey, who becomes increasingly unhinged as the film goes on. Bridges has some great moments in the film such as the scene where he arrives at the airport tower and dishes out orders left, right and centre and then stands behind his desk and we see a photograph of himself on the wall behind adopting the exact same stance! Also as the crisis worsens on the plane, McCrowskey choice of stress relief get's more and more edgier, as he starts by saying "Guess I picked the wrong week to stop smoking!" which is then followed by whisky, amphetimines and then glue! And after sniffing glue we see McCrowskey hanging upside down, high as a kite and later he comes down to Earth and as the plane hurtles out of control and nears the tower, McCrowskey yells out "Its coming straight for us!" and he dives out the window!
Peter Graves is also hilarious in his role as the pilot Clarence Oveur and he has some amusing moments. The first one that springs to mind is when the young boy, Joey is brought up to the cockpit by Elaine to see it and Oveur asks him some increasingly perverted questions, which start off as "You ever seen a grown man naked?" followed by "Joey, do you like films about Gladiators?" and then "Joey, have you ever been in a Turkish prison?". Another funny moment is when Oveur at the start of the film picks up the wrong courtesy phone and the operator says "No, the white phone!" and he takes a call from a doctor from the Mayo clinic. And then the operator cuts in and says "Excuse me, Captain, but I have an emergency call from Mr Hamm on five" and Oveur says "OK, get me Hamm on five and hold the Mayo!". Robert Stack is also really good in the film also as Rex Kramer, a former war pilot who flew with Striker and now is held in contempt by Striker. Stack has some funny moments such as the first scene he appears in at Kramer's house, where it looks like he is looking at himself in a mirror, but then he steps through what appears to be the mirror instead! Another fun moment is where he hurriedly rushes through the airport lobbies and is pestered by different religious preachers trying to promote their believes to him and he ends up beating them all up! And Stack's best line in the film for me is the scene where Kramer and the others go up to the tower and one of the men has a finger in their ear and Kramer looks at him and says "And get that finger out of your ear! You don't know where that finger has been!".
The other cast members are also funny such as Stephen Stucker who appears as the air traffic controller with a manic sense of humour. Stucker's camp delivery allows for some funny moments where his character interjects at some inappropriate moments or says something pretty insensitive or just plain silly. A funny example of this is in the scene where Captain Oveur's wife arrives at the tower and McCrowskey tells her "Your husband's OK but he's unconscious." and Johnny adds "Just like Gerald Ford!". And in another scene one of the controller's in the tower says "The fog is getting thicker" and Johnny pounces up to an overweight controller and rolls his belly and says "And Leon is getting larrrgeeerrrrrr!". Also as Oveur's wife is distraught at her husband's condition Johnny looks sympathetically at her, but then he starts to look at what she is wearing and exclaims in disgust "Where did you get that dress, its awful, and those shoes and that coat! Jeez!!". And when they head to the upper part of the tower, Johnny follows them prancing away "The tower! Tower!! Rapunzel! Rapunzel!!". And one of Stucker's funniest lines comes when McCrowskey and the other men look at the headlines over the crisis with flight and they list different ones and Johnny looks at the paper and says "There's a sale at Penney's!".
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the famous basketball player also makes a funny cameo as the airline co-pilot, Roger Murdock who has a funny scene where the young boy, Joey is let into the cockpit and he spots straight away who he really is. And when the boy mentions his shortcomings as a player, Kareem grabs the boy and says "Listen, kid, I've been hearing that crap ever since I've been at UCLA! I'm out there busting my buns every night! Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lainer up and down the court for 48 minutes!". Al White is also funny in the film as the jive dude who suffers from food poisoning as well, and in a funny scene one of the ladies on board speaks Jive to him and he insults her for it as he speaks fluent Jive (never English) and she walks off saying "Jive ass dude got no brains anyhow!". And lastly Lorna Patterson who is also pretty good (and pretty) in her role as the flight attendant Randy, who has a couple of funny moments, one where she plays the guitar for a sick girl onboard the flight, and she accidentally knocks out the girl's drip wire, who goes into shock, while Randy gleefully sings "There's only one river" oblivious to it all! The other is where she breaks down in tears and regrets how shes "26 and still not married!" and one of the married women comes in to ask Rumack, who is with Randy when will they land and asks how she is and the woman says "Oh terrified, but at least I have a husband" and Randy continues to sob.
As for the Zuckers and Abraham in their directorial roles they have done a great with Airplane! here as they nail the serious comedic tone of the film perfectly well and they let the gags come thick and fast and the films move at such a pace it never lags. The film's music score is also very worthy of note as it was composed by the great Elmer Bernstein, who did alot of the American comedy films of that period, and the film's main theme is still a very memorable one as well and the score suits the film's quasi serious tone to perfection.
So Airplane! Flaws????? Well hmmmmmmm yeah OK one thing that did bother about the film was it never was disclosed what war Ted Striker flew in, as the film footage suggests it was the World War II. And throughout the film that's the war that is suggested however since that Ted Striker appears only to be in his early 30's and not any older than that and Robert Hays himself was only 32 years old at the time of filming (born in 1947 and it was filmed in late 1979) its extremely unlikely he would have flown in WWII as he wouldn't have even been born before it ended! So we have to assume it was another war although which war who can say and in the end I guess we just need to suspend disbelief once more. But its another timeline issue which remains thoroughly unresolved in the film, not unless Ted and Elaine are much older than they appear and they've been taking embalming fluid or something to preserve themselves or some such stuff as that! (well OK that is pretty stupid in itself!).
But that aside Airplane! remains one of the funniest and in its own way most influential spoof comedy films in modern American cinema.
So on that note I shall say tara there and hope you all have a good Easter! :-)
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