Airport - Starring Burt Lancaster
18/09/2020The original disaster movie
I suddenly had a hankering for a disaster movie and this was the one that came to mind, even though I had to pay for it on Amazon.
In my mind it was a disaster movie but, in reality, it was a pretty well-rounded film about life in an airport. I've since bought the book and see that this was what was intended from the back cover.
In the days before Britain's Busiest Airport and similar behind the scenes documentaries, Arthur Hailey's Airport was the next best thing. A well researched block buster giving a look behind the curtain of an area of life that was still fairly new for most and only seen in passing.
From my first glance at the book, it seems the film was a very faithful adaptation.
It's a movie that conveys the business of the airport, and the disaster element is more of an ingredient than the main dish. It's the dramatisation of a very bad day, but we enjoy the personal dramas going on between the characters and the various other routine work such as catching stowaways.
It's all nicely knitted together with some of the 70s great leading men - George Kennedy chewing cigars everywhere he goes, Dean Martin playing it straight, Burt Lancaster being all-American. The women are solid, Jean Seberg portraying her work life very well, but more in supporting roles, though Ada Quonsett manages to steal much of the show as a stowaway.
And there is the glory of split screen, something not used often these days, but feels like it showed up in the 70s a lot.
This was a much better film that I was expecting...I held off from buying any of the other Airport films, as I suspect they will be cashing in on the disaster element and doing little else.