Airport is a 1970 American drama film starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin, directed and written by George Seaton, and based on Arthur Hailey's 1968 novel of the same name. It originated the 1970s disaster film genre, establishing the convention of "microcosmic melodrama combined with catastrophe-oriented adventure."
Produced on a $10 million budget, it earned nearly $100 million. It is about an airport manager trying to keep his airport open during a snow storm, while a suicidal bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 airliner in flight. It takes place at fictional Lincoln International Airport near Chicago, Illinois. The film was a critical success and surpassed Spartacus as Universal Pictures' biggest moneymaker. The movie won Helen Hayes an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as an elderly stowaway and was nominated for nine more Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design for renowned Hollywood designer Edith Head.
Ernest Laszlo photographed it in 70Â mm Todd-AO. It is the last film scored by Alfred Newman and the last film roles for Van Heflin and Jessie Royce Landis.
Plot
This film was based on the novel by Arthur Hailey. With attention to the detail of day-to-day airport and airline operations, the plot concerns the response to a paralyzing snowstorm, environmental concerns over noise pollution, and an attempt to blow up an airliner.
Demolition expert D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin), down on his luck and with a history of mental illness, buys life insurance with the intent of committing suicide by blowing up Trans Global Airlines Flight 2, known as The Golden Argosy, a Rome-bound Boeing 707 intercontinental jet, from a snowbound Chicago-area airport. He plans to set off a bomb in an attaché case while over the Atlantic with the intent that his wife, Inez (Maureen Stapleton), will collect the insurance money of $225,000.
When the Golden Argosy crew is made aware of Guerrero's presence and possible intentions, Captain Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin), acting as a check pilot to evaluate Captain Anson Harris (Barry Nelson), goes back into the passenger cabin and tries to persuade Guerrero not to trigger the bomb, informing him that his insurance policy had been cancelled. Meanwhile, airport manager Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) deals with personal, weather, runway and stowaway problems from the ground.
When confronted by Captain Demerest, Guerrero briefly considers giving the attaché containing the bomb until a male passenger yells out to a passenger exiting the lavatory that Guerrero has a bomb. Guerrero, holding the case close to him, runs into the lavatory at the rear of the aircraft and triggers the bomb. The detonation blows out a hole in the wall of the lavatory and Guerrero with it. Chief Stewardess Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), who is having an affair with the married Demerest and is pregnant with Demerest's child, is injured in the explosion and subsequent rapid decompression. With all airports east of Chicago unusable due to bad weather, the plane returns to Lincoln International for an emergency landing, even though another airliner stuck in snow has closed the primary runway. TWA (Trans World Airlines, an actual airline of the time) chief mechanic at Lincoln, Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) is enlisted by Bakersfeld to lead the efforts to move the stuck aircraft, another Boeing 707, even though it belongs to a different airline, TGA (Trans Global Airlines, a fictional airline and the parent company of the film's Golden Argosy jet) Patroni, who is "taxi-qualified" on Boeing 707s, is trying to move the stuck aircraft in time for Demerest's damaged aircraft to land. By exceeding the Boeing 707 flight manual's engine operating parameters, Patroni frees the stuck jet, allowing Lincoln International's primary runway to be reopened just in time to permit the crippled Golden Argosy to land.
The film is characterized by personal stories intertwining while decisions are made minute-by-minute by the airport and airline staffs, operations and maintenance crews, flight crews, and Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers.
Cast
- Burt Lancaster as Mel Bakersfeld, airport manager at Lincoln International Airport in nearby Chicago, Illinois
- Dean Martin as Vernon Demerest, checkride captain (only for Flight Two) for Trans Global Airlines (TGA)
- Jean Seberg as Tanya Livingston, customer relations agent for TGA
- Jacqueline Bisset as Gwen Meighen, chief stewardess for TGA's "Golden Argosy"
- George Kennedy as Joe Patroni, chief mechanic for Trans World Airlines at Lincoln International, on loan to TGA
- Helen Hayes as Mrs. Ada Quonsett, stowaway
- Van Heflin as D. O. Guerrero, failed contractor, and bomber of The Golden Argosy (Heflin's final film role)
- Maureen Stapleton as Inez Guerrero, wife of D.O. Guerrero
- Barry Nelson as Anson Harris, TGA line captain
- Dana Wynter as Cindy Bakersfeld, wife of Mel Bakersfeld
- Lloyd Nolan as Standish, head of the U.S. Customs Service at the airport
- Barbara Hale as Sarah Demerest (sister of Mel Bakersfeld, wife of Vern Demerest)
- Gary Collins as Cy Jordan, second officer/flight engineer
- Dort Clark as Dr. Henry Bron (Bron, M.D. - passenger)
- Eve McVeagh as Mrs. Henry Bron (wife of Bron, M.D. - passenger)
- Jodean Russo as Marie Patroni, wife of Joe Patroni
- Larry Gates as Commissioner Ackerman
- Jessie Royce Landis as Mrs. Mossman
Production
Most of the filming was at Minneapolisâ€"Saint Paul International Airport. A display in the terminal, with stills from the field and the film, says: "Minnesota's legendary winters attracted Hollywood here in 1969, when portions of the film Airport were shot in the terminal and on the field. The weather remained stubbornly clear, however, forcing the director to use plastic 'snow' to create the appropriate effect."
Only one Boeing 707 was used: N324F, a 707-349C leased from Flying Tiger Line. It sported an El Al cheatline over its bare metal finish, with the fictional Trans Global Airlines (TGA) titles and tail. This aircraft later crashed during a landing while in service with Transbrasil, killing three crew members and 22 persons on the ground.
Reception
Box office
Airport was released on March 5, 1970. It made $100,489,151, and adjusted for inflation this was equivalent to $558 million in 2010, the 42nd highest-grossing film of all time.
Reviews
Variety magazine wrote: "Based on the novel by Arthur Hailey, over-produced by Ross Hunter with a cast of stars as long as a jet runway, and adapted and directed by George Seaton in a glossy, slick style, Airport is a handsome, often dramatically involving $10 million epitaph to a bygone brand of filmmaking" but added that the film "does not create suspense because the audience knows how it's going to end."
Modern critics have mostly panned it, with the most generous reviews complimenting the film's influence on the disaster genre and its "camp value."
Burt Lancaster himself dismissed the film as "the biggest piece of junk ever made".
Awards and nominations
Awards
- Academy Awards
- Best Supporting Actress: Helen Hayes
- Golden Globe Awards (1971):
- Best Supporting Actress â€" Motion Picture: Maureen Stapleton (Tied with Karen Black for Five Easy Pieces)
- Laurel Awards (1971)
- Golden Laurel â€" Best Supporting Female Performance: Helen Hayes
- Motion Picture Sound Editors (1971):
- Golden Reel Award â€" Best Sound Editing
Nominations
- Grammy Awards (1971):
- Best Score Soundtrack for Visual Media: Alfred Newman
- Golden Globe Awards (1971):
- Best Motion Picture â€" Drama
- Best Original Score: Alfred Newman
- Best Supporting Actor â€" Motion Picture: George Kennedy
- Academy Awards (1971):
- Best Supporting Actress: Maureen Stapleton
- Best Production Design
- Best Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo
- Best Costume Design: Edith Head
- Best Film Editing: Stuart Gilmore
- Best Original Score: Alfred Newman
- Best Picture: Ross Hunter
- Best Sound Mixing: Ronald Pierce and David H. Moriarty
- Best Writing (Adapted Screenplay): George Seaton
- American Cinema Editors Awards (1971):
- Eddie Award â€" Best Edited Feature Film: Stuart Gilmore
- British Academy Film Awards (1971):
- Best Actress in a Supporting Role: Maureen Stapleton
- Laurel Awards (1971):
- Golden Laurel â€" Best Composer: Alfred Newman
- Golden Laurel â€" Best Supporting Male Performance: George Kennedy
- Golden Laurel â€" Best Picture
- Writers Guild of America Awards (1971):
- WGA Screen Award â€" Best Drama Adapted from Another Medium: George Seaton
Score
This film was the final project for composer Alfred Newman. His health was failing and he was unable to conduct the sessions for his music's recording. The job was handled by Stanley Wilson, although the cover of the 1993 Varèse Sarabande CD issue credits Newman. Newman did conduct the music heard in the film. He died before the film's release. Newman received his 45th Academy Award nomination posthumously for this film, the most received by a composer at that time.
Soundtrack
- From the soundtrack, the instrumental, "Airport Love Theme" by Vincent Bell peaked at number thirty-one on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and number two for three weeks on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart.
Soundtrack album listing:
- Airport (Main Title) (3:11)
- Airport Love Theme (3:30)
- Inez' Theme (1:29)
- Guerrero's Goodbye (2:37)
- Ada Quonsett, Stowaway (1:26)
- Mel And Tanya (2:27)
- Airport Love Theme #2 (2:40)
- Joe Patroni Plane Or Plows? (2:22)
- Triangle! (3:50)
- Inez-Lost Forever (1:45)
- Emergency Landing! (1:38)
- Airport (End Title) (2:36)
Sequels
Airport spawned three sequels, the first two of which were hits.
- Airport 1975
- Airport '77
- The Concorde ... Airport '79 (titled Airport '80: The Concorde in the U.K.)
The only actor in all four films is George Kennedy as Joe Patroni. Patroni's character evolves and he goes from a chief mechanic in Airport to a vice president of operations in Airport 1975, a consultant in Airport '77, and an experienced pilot in The Concorde ... Airport '79.
See also
- Airplane! - a parody of Airport and its sequels (as well as Hailey's predecessor story, Flight into Danger)
References
External links
- Airport at the Internet Movie Database
- Airport at the TCM Movie Database
- Airport at Rotten Tomatoes
- Airport at AllMovie
- Airliners.net Photos of the aircraft used in the movie