The success of 1977's "The Kentucky Fried Movie" opened the door for its director, John Landis, to go on to direct such Hollywood flicks as "Animal House," "An American Werewolf in London," "Coming to America" and Michael Jackson's "Thriller" video. The writing team of Jerry Zucker, Jim Abrahams and David Zucker, on the other hand, decided to use their "KFM" notoriety to make a parody of the popular "Airport" disaster movies from the 1970's as well as a little-known 1957 flick called "Zero Hour." Done on a shoestring budget ($3.5 million) and featuring unknown actors and has-been celebrities playing their roles with the straightest of faces (Ethel Merman, Peter Graves, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Leslie Nielsen, etc.), "Airplane!" was released on July 4th of 1980. 'ZAZ's' rookie directorial effort packed a manic punch that resulted in not only one of the most financially successful comedies of all time, but a movie that's been chosen by the American Film Institute as the 10th funniest movie of all time. Not bad for a comedy with the sophistication level of a Mad Magazine underage reader, and the best (and most laugh-out loud) visual representation of the old saying 'the shit has hit the fan' (Ch.21) since... well, since never! "Airplane!" did it first.
There is a loose attempt at a story strung throughout "Airplane!" involving a Trans American airline stewardess named Elaine (the gorgeous Julie Hagerty) trying to put her past behind by concentrating on her work. That past gets on board Elaine's flight to Chicago in the person of Elaine's ex-boyfriend Ted Striker (Robert Hayes), a cab driver with a severe drinking problem (ahem!) and a troubled history of guilt associated with his previous stint as a pilot during the war. I still can't figure out what war Striker fought on because, despite the obvious delineations to Vietnam, the movie keeps flashing back to World War II and Wright Bros. plane footage when Ted recalls his 'Macho Grande' disaster. But I digress. The pilots of the flight in which Elaine and Ted are patching together their lives (Kareem Abdul-Jabaar and "Mission: Impossible's" Peter Graves as Captain Oveur) fall sick to poisonous food. Elaine and Ted are pushed by circumstances (and a certain Dr. Rumack, played by "The Poseidon Adventure's" Leslie Nielsen) into taking control of the plane in a desperate attempt to save the passengers and not crash the plane. Guiding them from Chicago are experienced ground controller McCroskey ("Sea Hunt's" Lloyd Bridges) and veteran pilot Rex Kramer ("The Untouchable's" Robert Stack). Oh yeah, there's also this annoying guy named Johnny (the incomparable Stephen Stucker) running around, doing faces and uttering the most inane and quotable lines to ever appear in a comedy ('Me John, Big Tree').
This half-hearted cockney of a plot is just an excuse on which 'ZAZ' can hang as many unrelated gags and jokes as possible. From the best parody of "Saturday Night Fever" ever committed to celluloid (Ch.6) to a killer re-enactment of the little sick girl being serenaded by a guitar song in "Airport '75" (Ch.10), the ratio of hits to misses in "Airplane!" is much higher than in any other film the 'ZAZ' guys ever wrote/directed (either together or on their own). Only 1991's "The Naked Gun 2 ½: The Smell of Fear" comes close to matching this masterpiece's breakneck pace and bust-your-gut-from-laughing-so-hard hilarity. There's not a single minute that goes by in this movie in which something isn't happening in the background, someone isn't delivering a pun with a straight face ('... and don't call me Surely') or something comes out of left field to both shock and amuse the uninitiated. Many of "Airplane!'s" jokes are dated by now, but in an innocent and derivate sort of way; you can't say that about stuff like "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World." And one can't help but notice just how dated everything in the movie looks except (a) the wardrobe of the actors (a timeless mix of 50's and late 70's fashions) and (b) Elmer Bernstein's melodramatic interpretation of what a Hollywood soundtrack making fun of B movies sounds like.
Yet, despite its many imperfections, few comedies hold as well to repeat viewings 21 years after their theatrical release as "Airplane!" This is a movie so crammed with wall-to-wall jokes and silly gags that me and my friend Michael (both hardcore fans of 'ZAZ's' film work) are still finding jokes that flew over our heads the 32,876,409 previous times we had seen it. It's amazing the stuff one overlooks when the jokes fly as thick and fast as they do in "Airplane!" I remember first seeing "Airplane!" when I was eight years old in a crowded movie theater in my home country of El Salvador dubbed in Spanish (no joke!). Half the jokes went over my head at the time, but the grown-up attendees I saw the movie with were laughing so hard at stuff I didn't understand as a kid. Now a thirtysomething guy with plenty of life experience behind me, I can finally understand why Otto the automatic pilot nodded his head approvingly when Elaine blows his... inflatable valve (Ch.13). Or just how wrong it was to see a woman calmly sleeping in bed with a horse (Ch.19). Whether future generations will be able to fully register "Airplane!'s" impact in pop culture (me and my friend Michael can quote whole scenes from the movie verbatim) depends on how well they take to this DVD.
The Disc:
"Airplane!" comes to us on DVD via a Widescreen Anamorphic (1:85:1) Video Transfer that both hurts and expands the movie's enjoyment. It expands the enjoyment because small little details that were previously unseen in the full screen version aired on TV (like the crew guy pulling camera cables at the start of Ch.2, or the wires lifting a heart in the same chapter) are now more visible than ever, and make a loony movie seem even crazier! The quality of the video transfer also hurts when viewing it because "Airplane!" looks every bit like the low-budget 22 year-old movie that it is. Print damages (grain, specs of dirt, etc.) become a perpetual eyesore, as do the faded colors from a print that gives the skin tones of the actors a sickly look. Blame the low quality on the Metrocolor film stock used back in the late 70's/early 80's for this project, which also isn't well-photographed (bad shadows everywhere). Short of someone at Paramount Home Video growing a conscience and commissioning a cleaner and more expensive video transfer though, this is as good as "Airplane!" is going to look for the foreseeable future.
The remixed English Dolby 5.1 Soundtrack is a step up from the Mono soundtrack we're all familiar with, but it won't impress or turn on the ears of jaded DTS-spoiled listeners. Voices are clear and audible (as are the handful of musical interludes like Ch.6's 'Staying Alive' parody), and in a comedy so reliant on visual puns and gags that is more than enough. There's also a French Dolby 2.0 Mono soundtrack that is actually quite hilarious for non-French listeners like myself (!), which makes the inclusion of English Subtitles a worthy alternative for viewers other than the hearing impaired people it was obviously made for.
Extras are skimpy and not up to the standard of a comedy that's so highly-regarded by moviegoers the world over: a lengthy Theatrical Trailer (3:30 min.) that gives away some of "Airplane!'s" best jokes, and an underwhelming Group Commentary Track with producer Jon Davidson and writers/directors Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker. You'd think guys that create comedies as hilarious as "Airplane!" would have a ton of interesting anecdotes and jokes to share with listeners, but sadly these four men seem to be uninterested and bored by their own masterpiece. When they aren't quietly watching the movie alongside us they share only a handful of stories (like their claim to have never seen "Airplane II: The Sequel") and some sporadic chuckles at the idiocy of the blockbuster that made them Hollywood players. BTW, would it have been so hard for Paramount or 'ZAZ' to include in this DVD the cheesy B disaster movie (1957's "Zero Hour") that inspired the creation of "Airplane!" to begin with? It would have made watching both films a surreal experience.
bottom line:
One of the funniest movies ever made (the tenth according to the American Film Institute) gets a mediocre-to-acceptable DVD treatment. We get skimpy extras (theatrical trailer and boring group commentary), a passable video transfer (wires) and barely-implemented Dolby Digital 5.1 sound mixing. But what's most important when rating a DVD: the quality of the transfer/features or the movie/TV show/music video/etc. itself? Regardless of its many technical shortcomings, "Airplane!" is a DVD no comedy connoisseur can afford to be without.
By - J.M. Vargas
