Review of Airport (1970) by Blake P — 29 Sep 2011

"Airport" is in no-doubt one of the best disaster movies of the '70's, and keeps you glued to the screen the entire duration. What happens when there's a blizzard and a mad-man with a bomb making a flight go nuts? You get "Airport".

This is a campy, but very fun thriller that hasn't aged that great. You can say the hairstyles and clothes might have contributed, but when you watch '70's movies, what do you expect? Oh well, in order to enjoy the film, you have to let that go, because in depth, it's a great movie.

Instead of having the disaster take place right away, there's almost an hour and fifteen minutes of character development, so when the actual disaster happens you care about what happens to most of them, because you actually feel as if you know them.

I think it was a smart move, and may have contributed to all the Academy Award nominations it got (I don't know why they aren't listed here). Then of course, we have the awesome cast (to name a few: Burt Lancaster, Jean Seberg, Dean Martin, Jacqueline Bisset, Helen Hayes, George Kennedy, Van Heflin, Maureen Stapleton, and Lloyd Nolan) who all excel in their roles, especially Hayes as the elderly stowaway (who steals the show).

After that, I guess, the disaster itself it pretty good, and the director does a good job adding comic effect, because if there wasn't any, it would be harder to take the movie seriously. Anyways, "Airport" is an entertaining two hours that shouldn't be confined to the pits of Play Instantly.