The other day I was searching for something to watch on Netflix. Lo and behold, there they were. 3 of the 4 Airport movies from the 1970's. Now kids today have not experienced the NBC, ABC, CBS movies of the week. Those movies that ran in theaters and then years later popped up on network tv. That was my first experience in watching these movies. Whether upstairs with my parents or in the basement watching them on the black and white tv (yes, we still had a black and white as our second tv in the 80's).
The first is, of course, Airport (the sequels are denotated by the year made). The story deals with a Chicago based airport that is experiencing copious amounts of snowfall that is making the runways slick as they melt the ice and snow. This causes a landing plane to skid off the runway and block it. The runway is also the longest runway at the airport.
If the heavy snowfall isn't enough, the airport manager is dealing with the politics of his job. The nearby neighborhood complaining of the noise late at night, his brother-in-law (a pilot} writing to the Board of Directors criticizing his performance as Airport Manager and doing his best just to try and keep his job. Ohhhh and his marriage is hangingbyathread.
With the Being 707 blocking the main runway, our pilot grudgingly leaves off the alternate runway, after telling his brother-in-law how unhappy he is with the situation. Aboard the flight is the pilot's stewardess mistress who is pregnant with his baby and an unemployed Down on his luck demolition expert with a history of mental illness. The demo expert purchases a $225,000 life insurance policy before boarding the plane with a homemade bomb in his briefcase.
For some comedic relief, we are privy to the (mis)adventures of an elderly woman who is a professional stowaway. She explains her tactics of of boarding a plane without paying for a ticket. Her reasoning? The airlines wouldn't enjoy the bad press of prosecuting an elderly woman for just wanting to see her daughter and grandchildren in New York.
For the time, Airport has a star-studded cast. Dean Martin, Maureen Stapleton, Burt Lancaster, Jacquline Bissett, Helen Hayes, and George Kennedy to name a few. The movie was also based on Alex Haley's 1968 novel of the same name.
I found the film to be enjoyable. True the action is mostly in the third act, however the time it takes to introduce the key players, what is happening to them professionally and personally, and how they are delaying with their circumstances, gives us well rounded characters that we are invested in. They are well rounded characters that are neither good or bad but they are human dealing with human faults.
It leaves Netflix at the end of the month, so you better hurry and stream it before it departs on the 31st of August.
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