In the same way John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) didn’t invent the slasher movie but rather popularized it and created the template for a thousand subsequent knife-wielding maniacs, disaster movies existed long before Airport hit the screens. But that film set off a wave of similar films throughout the 1970s and set the template for most of them.
Buy Airport 4K UHDAirport has an all-star cast filled with up-and-comers and classic movie stars a little past their prime (one of the things I love most about these disaster movies is that they gave aging stars prime roles). The first half of the movie is spent introducing and developing its myriad of characters and then prepping the plot for the upcoming disaster. Watching it for the first time, I was surprised about how small-scale the actual disaster is in the original Airport. There is a bit of a snowstorm that derails a plane, and one passenger is carrying a small bomb. What it lacks in epic disaster material, it makes up for in storytelling. It actually takes time developing those characters and making us care what happens to them. In later disaster movies, the disasters get bigger while the character development gets so much smaller.
Airport was a huge success and was followed by dozens of followers, including three sequels. Kino Lorber is now releasing all four films (Airport, Airport 1975, Airport ’77, and The Concorde … Airport ’79) with a new 4K UHD transfers, will be released September 30 on UHD and Blu-ray, and I’ve got your reviews.
While the other films in this series spend a lot more time inside airplanes than in the airports of their titles, this first one actually earns its name. Our hero is airport manager Mel Bakersfield (Burt Lancaster). He’s just about to leave for home (at the insistence of his wife, for there is a party they must attend) but is called back when a plane (blinded by the searing snow) runs off the runway and gets stuck.
He’s secretly in love with customer-relations agent Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg), but he’s a good man and doesn’t pursue it. Pilot Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin) isn’t a good man. He’s married to Bakersfield’s sister but is having an affair with the chief stewardess, Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset). She’s pregnant, and they discuss getting an abortion, but she’s decided to keep it. I mention that detail because you won’t find any of the other disaster movies having a meaningful discussion about something as heavy as abortion.
D. O. Guerrero (Van Heflin) is a down-on-his-luck contractor. He’s also the guy with the bomb. He takes out an insurance policy and figures an explosive death will garner his wife a little more money than he was able to provide her.
The film takes time to introduce a customs agent (Lloyd Nolan) and gives us a scene in which we see how good he is at his job. He’s able to catch someone trying to sneak some goods into the country without claiming them by just the way they walk. He’s the one who recognizes Guerrero is behaving strangely and eventually figures out he’s probably got a bomb.
Tanya Livingston is good at her job too, and we spend a great deal of time watching her deal with Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes), an elderly woman caught as a stowaway. Tanya tries to get her on a flight straight back to her hometown, but Ada masterfully finds a way to slip out and stowaway on another flight. Hayes won an Oscar for her performance.
In the end, Airport is more of an ensemble drama than what you might consider a typical disaster movie. But that’s the thing: it has all the elements of your classic 1970s disaster movie; it just does them really well. It is an actual good movie. As we’ll see, some of the sequels will fail in that regard.
Kino Lorber presents Airport with a new 4K UHD transfer and it looks wonderful. It is packaged with an additional Blu-ray disc. Extras include the following:
DISC 1 (4K UHD):
- Brand New HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of 35mm Inter-positive Reduction Elements
- NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Writer Julie Kirgo and Author/Screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner
- 5.1 Surround and Lossless 2.0
- Triple-Layered UHD100 Disc
- Optional English Subtitles
Disc 2 (Blu-ray)
- Brand New HD Master – From a 4K Scan of 35mm Inter-positive Reduction Elements
- NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Writer Julie Kirgo and Author/Screenwriter C. Courtney Joyner
- Theatrical Trailer (Newly Mastered in 2K)
- 5.1 Surround and Lossless 2.0
- Dual-Layered BD50 Disc
- Optional English Subtitles
It should be noted that Kino Lorber is releasing a boxed set of all four Airport films in October.
