Aviation in Cinema – Part 1

DALLAS Hollywood's love affair with commercial aviation began with Zero Hour!, a 1957 American drama film directed by Hall Bartlett and based on a screenplay by Bartlett, Arthur Hailey and John Champion.

H Hour! was a remake of the Canadian television play Flight into Danger, which served as the basis for the classic 1974 parody film we all know.

The following list covers a wide range of genres, from disaster movies and thrillers to comedies and aviation dramas. These films appeal to our natural fascination with flight, the allure of aviators, and our interest in the inner workings of the aviation industry.

From the 1970s to today, Hollywood has produced about thirty films whose themes revolve around commercial aviation. We need to segment this aviation list into five articles covering the 1970s-80s, the 1990s, the 2000s, the 2010s and the 2020s.

1. Airport (1970)

Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin star in George Seaton's 1970 American drama film Airport. Based on Arthur Hailey's 1968 novel, the film spawned the 1970s disaster film genre and is the first of four installments in the Airport film series. Despite a budget of $10 million, the film grossed nearly $128 million.

In the film, a suicide bomber plans to blow up a Boeing 707 in flight, while an airport manager struggles to keep his airport operational in the middle of a snowstorm. The scene is set at the fictional Lincoln International Airport near Chicago. The film became Universal Pictures' highest-grossing film, surpassing even Spartacus.

The story revolves around dealing with a crippling snowstorm, concerns about environmental noise pollution, and an attempt to blow up a passenger plane, all while paying close attention to the details of the airport and airline's day-to-day operations.

The film features interwoven personal stories as minute-by-minute decisions are made between flight crews, Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) air traffic controllers, airport and airline employees, and operations and maintenance teams.

2. Airport 1975 (1974)

Airport 1975 (sometimes referred to as Airport '75) is the first in a series of sequels to the 1970 hit film Airport. Don Ingalls wrote the screenplay, Jack Smight directed, William Frye produced, and Jennings Lang served as executive producer.

The story revolves around the dramatic events that occur inside a Boeing 747 in flight when a small plane crashes into the cockpit, killing the senior members of the crew and blinding the pilot, leaving no one on board with the skills to take the controls.

The film was the seventh highest-grossing film at the American and Canadian box office in 1974.

3. Airport '77 (1977)

Airport '77 is the third film in the Airport series. The film stars a cast of veteran actors, including Olivia de Havilland, Brenda Vaccaro, James Stewart, Jack Lemmon and Joseph Cotten, as well as the return of George Kennedy from the previous two Airport films.

The plot revolves around a private Boeing 747 carrying VIPs and valuable art that is hijacked and crashes into the water in the Bermuda Triangle, sparking a desperate fight for survival among the survivors. Despite mixed reviews from critics, Airport '77 was a box office success, grossing $91.1 million worldwide. It received two Academy Award nominations.

A Navy official who worked on the film commented on YouTube that his favorite line, which didn't make it into the final cut, was when Joseph Cotten tells Olivia, “You look like shit, dear.” They had to keep throwing buckets of water on her to make her look like she'd been rescued (she dried off between takes).

4. The Concorde… Airport '79 (1979)

The fourth and final film in the Airport series, The Concorde… Airport '79, was retitled Airport '80: The Concorde in the United Kingdom a year later. Despite negative reviews from critics and little revenue in North America, the film was a commercial success elsewhere, grossing $65 million against its $14 million budget.

The film was directed by David Lowell Rich. The star-studded cast includes Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner and George Kennedy, who starred in all four Airport films. Martha Raye and Mercedes McCambridge also make appearances.

The story centers on Kevin Harrison, a corrupt arms dealer who, after learning that one of the passengers, journalist Maggie Whelan, knows he sold weapons to communist countries during the Cold War, attempts to blow up an American-owned Concorde on its maiden flight.

Departing from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, the Concorde turns around as environmental protesters deliberately fly a hot air balloon into its approach path. It lands at Dulles Airport, near Washington, D.C.

5. The plane! (1980)

In 1980, Jon Davison produced the American disaster comedy Airplane? (also known as Flying High!), written and directed by Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers, who were making their directorial debuts. Alongside Leslie Nielsen, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges, Peter Graves, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Lorna Patterson, the film stars Robert Hays and Julie Hagerty.

The film is a parody of Zero Hour!, from which it borrows some of the lines, the main characters' backstories, and the narrative. Additionally, it draws heavily from Airport 1975 and the aforementioned Airport films. Its use of fast-paced slapstick and surreal humor, as well as running gags, running jokes, gag visuals, and dark humor have made it a classic.

With a budget of $3.5 million, the film was a critical and commercial success, grossing $171 million worldwide. In addition to being nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Screenplay and the Golden Globe Award for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy, the film's creators were honored with the Writers Guild of America Award for Best Adapted Comedy.

Since its release, its reputation has grown considerably. It was voted sixth among Bravo's 100 Funniest Movies. In a 2007 survey by Channel 4 in the United Kingdom, it was ranked second only to Monty Python's Life of Brian as the greatest comedy ever made. Empire magazine named it one of the “500 Greatest Films of All Time” in 2008, and it was ranked No. 1 in the 50 Funniest Comedies of All Time in 2012. The Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the United States National Film Registry in 2010 as “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.”

Two years later, Airplane II: The Sequel was released to mixed reviews from critics. It was a commercial failure, grossing $27.2 million on a budget of $15 million. However, the writers and directors of the original Airplane! film were not involved in this sequel. A third film in the parody franchise was teased in the post-credits scene of Airplane II, but it was never made.

Stay tuned for part two where we'll look at eight films that were phenomenally successful in the 1990s.