Airport 1975 (1974)

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Very very predictable, including the post credit scene !!!

Absolutely brilliant

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The enormous success of the 1970 film version of Arthur Hailey's novel Airport was in no small part responsible for having given birth to the first wave of disaster films which scared their way through movie screens for much of the 1970s. All of them were trying to one-up the competition to see how much peril they could put their casts of all-stars through; and audiences ate it up, while the critics usually threw it back up. Lasting until the box office busts of BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE in 1979, and WHEN TIME RAN OUT in 1980, the disaster film reached its peak of popularity near the end of 1974, with three films that were the apotheosis of the genre. Two of them were THE TOWERING INFERNO and EARTHQUAKE. The third (from Universal, the same studio behind AIRPORT and EARTHQUAKE) was AIRPORT 1975.Since Hailey never repeated himself as a novelist, the subsequent three sequels to AIRPORT hewed only to the formula of people caught up in a mid-air crisis that had been inherent in both the book and the original 1970 film. In the case of AIRPORT 1975 (or AIRPORT '75, for short), this involves a 747 jumbo jet flying from Washington to Los Angeles that, because of heavy fog along the California coastline, is forced to divert to Salt Lake City to allow conditions in L.A. to clear up. But on final approach, the jet is hit at 12,000 feet by an out-of-control Baron whose pilot (Dana Andrews) has suffered a fatal heart attack. The chief pilot (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) is badly injured, and his two crewmen (Roy Thinnes, Erik Estrada) are killed, and thus it is up to the chief stewardess (Karen Black) to somehow keep the plane in flight, despite the extensive damage to the jet's skin and operating systems, until a rescue mission can be coordinated. This is instigated by Charlton Heston, who also happens to be the man Black has been estranged from for some time), and professional troubleshooter Joe Patroni (George Kennedy, reprising his role from the original film, with help from Utah's Hill Air Force Base. One of their pilots (Ed Nelson) attempts to lower himself through the hold in the flight deck torn by the collision, but he gets a belt latch hooked onto a loose piece of metal, and the force of it tears him away and to his death. As a result it is up to Heston, who was a chief instructor of 747-jet pilots, to lower himself in and take charge. With Black's help, he manages to get the plane in line for a landing in Salt Lake City, going through steep mountainous terrain at 400 miles per hour, while the usual gaggle of all-star passengers (including Sid Caesar, Linda Blair, Jerry Stiller, Normal Fell, Myrna Loy, Helen Reddy, Gloria Swanson, and others) watches and waits.As with its predecessor and the two Airport films still to come, AIRPORT '75 has a lot of clichés that would nauseate a whole lot of critics. It is when it is focused on the basic physics of the mid-air collision, Black's ability to keep the plane in flight until rescue arrives, and the rescue and landing itself that AIRPORT '75 is at its most intense. Heston, not surprisingly, does his usual good heroic turn in his role, as does Black in hers, though there seem not to be enough sparks at the beginning of the film to keep their relationship from drifting towards standard disaster film melodrama. Kennedy, as always, does his usual tough thing well in reprising his role as Patroni; and Susan Clark is good in a significant supporting role as his wife, who just happens to be on the plane in peril.Given that any kind of mid-air collision, even with just a small plane, would be enough to bring any other jet down to the ground, both Jack Smight (who directed the 1966 crime classic HARPER) and screenwriter Don Ingalls have to somehow cause the old suspension of disbelief stimuli to kick in with respect to this film's plot line. Although they are not always successful at doing this, and the clichés do at times get in the way, they are successful enough to at least make AIRPORT '75 no worse than any others of its kind. Given this, it is no surprise that the critics should have ratted on this plane-in-peril piece, nor should it have been a surprise that AIRPORT '75's success should have as big as it indeed was.

The alcohol is flowing in this second installment of the "Airport!" series, where Myrna Loy knocks boiler makers and the trio of Norman Fell, Conrad Janis and Jerry Stiller keep their livers working overtime as well. A nervous woman begs the stewardess to keep her filled up, while Gloria Swanson's assistant sophisticatedly orders a martini. Miss Swanson sticks to her tea, complaining about the poisonous food that she refuses to touch.Fans of "Airplane!" will go nuts counting all of the references spoofed in that modern comedy classic, especially the presence of Linda Blair as a young girl in need of a kidney transplant. Try not to think of the passenger's reactions to Lorna Patterson singing when nun Helen Reddy borrows Blair's guitar and breaks out into a folk song. Gloria Swanson's "Sunset Boulevard" co-star Nancy Olson plays Blair's overly concerned mother.The basic storyline has private plane pilot Dana Andrews crashing into the huge two storied passenger plane, killing the pilots and leaving only stewardess Karen Black to frantically fly the plane. While the crash is horrific, I couldn't help but chuckle at the sight of a passenger sliding down the circular staircase towards the plane's bar as if he was heading down a pool slide. The only help of landing the plane is Charleton Heston as Black's non-committal boyfriend, and if course, George Kennedy.With this huge cast of veteran and future stars from every medium, including Martha Scott as the older nun who responds to Reddy's inquiry if Swanson is a Hollywood actress with a very judgmental "Or worse!" Sid Caesar adds more subtle comedy than the trio of drunks as the man sitting next to Loy, subtly commenting on her love for bourbon with a beer back chaser. Familiar faces such as Beverly Garland, Terry Lester, Susan Clark, Larry Storch, Ed Nelson and Roy Thinnes pop in and out, with a young Erik Estrada as one of the pilots. When he looks directly at the camera and gives a big goofy grin a la the blonde pilot in "Airplane!", I had my biggest Danny Thomas spit-take in years! Brian Morrison, of TV's " Maude", plays the young son of Susan Clark whose character is ironically married to series perennial George Kennedy! Alice Nunn, memorable in her cameo in "Pee Wee Herman's Big Adventure", is funny in a bit as a passenger hiding her dog in her purse.Take away the unintentional comedy of the film, and you will find a magnificently wonderful bail biter. This is a good old fashioned Hollywood crowd pleaser, reminding the audience of all the wonderful talents they had. One thing that is unbelievable is the big hole in the cockpit not consumed with wind pressure, making it unbelievable that anybody entering would not quickly be sucked out as one of the pilots was earlier. Yes, it gets extremely corny at times, even removing the thoughts of everything that was spoofed, but that hardly matters. I will definitely be adding this to my collection at some point because there were so many little details to pick that you would be bound to miss a few.

The pilot of a small private plane has a heart attack and crashes into the cockpit of a Boeing 747. Captain Stacy is blinded while the rest of the flight crew is sucked out. Chief Stewardess Nancy Pryor (Karen Black) is forced to take over. Captain Al Murdock (Charlton Heston) is the chief instructor for the plane and happens to be Pryor's boyfriend. With mounting problems, they realize that a pilot has to be transferred onto the plane.The problem is that it takes too long to get to the heart of the movie. It's 40 minutes of boring conversations and stories before the disaster actually starts. It's simply too long even for an older movie. The disaster needs more action scenes. Believability like the flight crew goes out the window as in all movies of this type. I would suggest skipping the first 30 minutes and fast forwarding anything with passengers. Also Heston has to stop calling her Honey. The condescending tone gets very annoying.

This is the first airport's airplane movie. The authentic version of the plane's disaster movie of the 1970s. And the best of the whole airport series.The 1970 movie was an unusual day in a life of an airport. This round the new formula is clear and solid : A plane in calamity. Many different characters, mostly viewers. Attempts to rescue lead to a climax with a happy end. Afterwards, they tried to clone Airport 75 in the 1977 movie, then deform it in the 1979 one ! 3 matters did bother me. Firstly the list of cameos / the passengers didn't do anything but the relief, whereas there is no drama but the plane's drama, and anything else it is a triviality.Secondly, the way how the script skips several ways to make more thrilling moments that could have made the atmosphere hotter. To instance : the fuel is leaking and "we don't have enough", you see the lead's wife and son on the very plane however no special danger they suffer other than the main danger, the girl who needs a liver; there is no subsidiary thrill with her line; as if "her status is unstable, she requires immediate medical care", scared drunks on board with nothing to do but being scared; they could have done anything to threaten the peace inside the plane, the media's importunity does nothing but bugging (George Kennedy) and that's about it ?!,.. etc. Certainly, exploding situations like that, in the most exaggerated illogical yet entertaining ways, you can watch after 16 years in Die Hard 2 (1990), which makes Airport 75 more rational and believable in a way.Thirdly, the climactic moment wasn't done very well. I couldn't understand what the trouble in getting the plane on land was? I even couldn't get how (Charlton Heston) stopped it (that moment had been overstepped unfairly). All what he did was swerving it to turn it away from its headway; which is obviously so easy to an extent makes it unfit as a climax for all the excitement before it.(Heston) was so masculine and charismatic. He seemed cool with those shades. Originally, god gifted him with that look of "whatever hard I'll beat it utterly", he makes other guys like Tom Cruise perfect sissies. I suppose the 1970s were the last time to see 50-something-year-old lead in an action movie. (Karen Black) wasn't less charismatic. Aside from being a beauty (always believed that she's French-born), she managed to be convincing and serious. Something I miss with the beautiful dolls of today's movies as well. On the other hand, (Gloria Swanson) as (Gloria Swanson) was wrong, if not pathetic ! The movie is technically competent. I loved its amusing music, good editing, and fine directing. It has a reason to be distinct forever, among its fellow plane's disaster movies, which is the idea of the explosion of the cockpit with everyone in it. However, and despite the clever total tension of it, the movie is generally empty, and a bit poor when it comes to utilize rich areas it already has. Yes, it's the best airport's airplane-in-calamity movie to date, but, one way or another, it has the main lesion of not the plane's movies, rather the whole disaster movies : the script.