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Must See Movie...

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

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.

Airport 1975 starts off slow and incredibly weird. I thought I was going to turn it off until the crash happened. That's where everything got incredibly interesting. Stewardess, Nancy, must fly the plane over top of a tall mountain range despite having limited knowledge of airplanes and no experience with ever flying one. This movie will have you on the edge of your seat. Will this plane land safely or will they all crash and burn?

All-star sequel to the classic disaster movie Airport. Hilariously campy, ridiculous, and silly, but also undeniably fun. This one's the primary basis for the spoof movie, "Airplane!". The leads this time are Charlton Heston and Karen Black. But the real star of any Airport movie is George Kennedy as Joe Patroni. He gets all the best lines. In addition to a job promotion in this film, he gets a younger and prettier wife, too. Among the other cast members are Myrna Loy, Linda Blair, Erik Estrada, Gloria Swanson, Sid Caesar, Norman Fell, Helen Reddy (as a singing nun), and Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. This was Swanson's last movie. All of her scenes invite mockery. Every line of dialogue she utters is about herself. Every time someone in the movie talks about her, it's about how great she is. Charlton Heston's Planet of the Apes costar Linda Harrison is also in this, although the two share no scenes. 'Large Marge' from Pee Wee's Big Adventure has a bit part as a passenger who brings a dog on board the plane. Just like the first movie, this one's message is that movie stars of yesteryear are dangerous to air travel. Last time it was Van Heflin; this time it's Dana Andrews.I really like the Aiport movies. They aren't high art but they're great cheesy fun. It's a good series that could do with a revival today, although the cast would probably be made up of the likes of the Kardashians. I shudder at the thought. Anyway, set your brain on auto-pilot for awhile and enjoy this entertaining disaster flick. I doubt you'll regret it.

Compared to the original version of Airport and later aviation films (The Crash Landing of Flight 243, Flight 93) the sequels to Airport all ranged from silly to terrible - for all their faults perhaps one good thing of films today is that, like Flight 93, they are much more realistic...The acting in this sequel to the 1970 version of Airport was poor to fair - even the acting of George Kennedy, as dependable an actor as he's been, seemed to be automatic, in a sense - his 1970 role of Joe Patroni being the best...Swearing was absent in the 1970 film but not in the sequels - why screenwriters always believe that swearing is essential escapes me - the best television programs and films often "managed" to write award-winning scripts without the need for breaking one of the 10 Commandments - apparently Charlton Heston forgot what was told to him in his role as Moses...Helen Reddy's role as a singing nun (Julie Andrews had nothing to worry about) was ironic, considering she was the author and singer of the highly controversial "I am woman" just one year earlier...The only bright spot was perhaps the comedic acting of Sid Cesar and other comedians of their time, in their role as nervous passengers...Over all, a film not worth the Oscar that the 1970 film earned...