Synopsis
AIRPLANE! tells the story of an ex-fighter pilot who takes control of an airliner when the crew is incapacitated—and skewers airplane disaster flicks, religious zealots, television commercials and everything else in its path along the way.
This is the king of parodies. Hands down and it’s not even close. Airplane! was the highest point of Jim Abrahams, and David and Jerry Zucker’s directorial and writing careers. They wrote some of the best tongue-in-cheek dialogue that people still quote today. I’m simply amazed on how well this 1980 film has held up over the years, as the writing still contains this rich humor that is easily overlooked, and more importantly easily discovered with each viewing. The longevity of their creation is one of the truly amazing parts of this film. Of course, none of this could worked without a cast dedicated to delivering lines like this with the utmost seriousness:
Ted Striker: Surely you can’t be serious?
Dr. Rumack: I am serious, and don’t call me Shirley.
They got an amazing cast together for an Airport 1975 parody, which featured the talents of Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty and the great Lloyd Bridges. The three directors sold the actors into playing their respective roles as serious as possible, which in turn heightened the effectiveness of the comedy. It all paid off, as the audience simply won’t be able to anticipate the comedy coming, which is pretty much the point of what they wanted to do. The acting and the writing really do make the film special, as both went hand and hand. Again, probably one of the best casting jobs done for a comedy.
All of this together really makes Airplane! a tough movie to dislike.
With that said, are there any flaws to the film? Well, once in a while the comedy will get a bit too goofy. It’s doesn’t happen a lot, but it does happen on occasion. The late Stephen Stucker had some of the best moments in the film as Johnny, who is one of the managers of the control tower in the film. Many people know him by his quick-witted responses. For example:
Reporter: Johnny, can you tell us about the plane!?
Johnny: Well, it’s big and white, and it looks like a big Tylenol.
Regretfully, as funny as that is there are moments where Stucker’s character just makes really bad comedic delivery. For example, when he’s screaming, “It’s a twister! It’s a twister!” as the plane is trying to land at the airport; that is a bit goofy and non-effective. You can’t blame Stucker for such bad comedy, but you can blame the creators for allowing the script to contain such petty humor in what is mostly a well-written film.
Anyway, the film is still funny as can be. It still will make you laugh constantly, and that’s really all you can ask for from it. Simply put, it’s a classic in every sense of the word.
Now, what about the Blu-ray? Well, the Blu-ray is in the middle of the road when it comes to quality. The transfer for the film was good, but certainly not close to great. There is a lot of graininess in the picture, but no real artifacts. You can blame the dim lighting or the early 80s for this, but honestly I’ve seen older films that looked a lot cleaner than Airplane!. Breakfast at Tiffany’s really showed how well Paramount Pictures can clean up a classic and put it into HD. That’s a super old film and that looked superb on Blu-ray. Airplane! has its moments when there is heavy reds, yellows and blacks. As soon as those colors fade out of the scene then it reverts to graininess. For example, when Ted Striker is running down the airport hallway to talk to Elaine, the hallway just looks dreadful. The small tiles and the darker lighting really hurt the HD quality. The bright spot is that the film contains no color banding on the nighttime scenes. Overall, it’s better than the DVD visually, but not by much.
The audio is a different story, as it’s mastered in 5.1 DTS-HD. It sounds damn good and it works really well. For audio freaks out there you’re going to be happy.
As for features, here’s what you’re getting:
– Commentary by producer Jon Davison and Writers/Directors Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker
– Deleted Scenes
– Interviews
– Theatrical Trailers
(and more)
There’s a lot here for those who have never seen the DVDs. I think that the commentary is probably the best part of this release. Hearing the creators talk about this work is just absolutely priceless. A good set of features.
