Airport 1975 (1974)
When an in-flight collision incapacitates the pilots of an airplane bound for Los Angeles, stewardess Nancy Pryor is forced to take over the controls. From the ground, her boyfriend Alan Murdock, a retired test pilot, tries to talk her through piloting and landing the 747 aircraft. Worse yet, the anxious passengers — among which are a noisy nun and a cranky man — are aggravating the already tense atmosphere.
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Really Surprised!
Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Mostly, the movie is committed to the value of a good time.
The enormous success of the 1970 film version of Arthur Hailey's novel Airport was in no small part responsible for having given birth to the first wave of disaster films which scared their way through movie screens for much of the 1970s. All of them were trying to one-up the competition to see how much peril they could put their casts of all-stars through; and audiences ate it up, while the critics usually threw it back up. Lasting until the box office busts of BEYOND THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE in 1979, and WHEN TIME RAN OUT in 1980, the disaster film reached its peak of popularity near the end of 1974, with three films that were the apotheosis of the genre. Two of them were THE TOWERING INFERNO and EARTHQUAKE. The third (from Universal, the same studio behind AIRPORT and EARTHQUAKE) was AIRPORT 1975.Since Hailey never repeated himself as a novelist, the subsequent three sequels to AIRPORT hewed only to the formula of people caught up in a mid-air crisis that had been inherent in both the book and the original 1970 film. In the case of AIRPORT 1975 (or AIRPORT '75, for short), this involves a 747 jumbo jet flying from Washington to Los Angeles that, because of heavy fog along the California coastline, is forced to divert to Salt Lake City to allow conditions in L.A. to clear up. But on final approach, the jet is hit at 12,000 feet by an out-of-control Baron whose pilot (Dana Andrews) has suffered a fatal heart attack. The chief pilot (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) is badly injured, and his two crewmen (Roy Thinnes, Erik Estrada) are killed, and thus it is up to the chief stewardess (Karen Black) to somehow keep the plane in flight, despite the extensive damage to the jet's skin and operating systems, until a rescue mission can be coordinated. This is instigated by Charlton Heston, who also happens to be the man Black has been estranged from for some time), and professional troubleshooter Joe Patroni (George Kennedy, reprising his role from the original film, with help from Utah's Hill Air Force Base. One of their pilots (Ed Nelson) attempts to lower himself through the hold in the flight deck torn by the collision, but he gets a belt latch hooked onto a loose piece of metal, and the force of it tears him away and to his death. As a result it is up to Heston, who was a chief instructor of 747-jet pilots, to lower himself in and take charge. With Black's help, he manages to get the plane in line for a landing in Salt Lake City, going through steep mountainous terrain at 400 miles per hour, while the usual gaggle of all-star passengers (including Sid Caesar, Linda Blair, Jerry Stiller, Normal Fell, Myrna Loy, Helen Reddy, Gloria Swanson, and others) watches and waits.As with its predecessor and the two Airport films still to come, AIRPORT '75 has a lot of clichés that would nauseate a whole lot of critics. It is when it is focused on the basic physics of the mid-air collision, Black's ability to keep the plane in flight until rescue arrives, and the rescue and landing itself that AIRPORT '75 is at its most intense. Heston, not surprisingly, does his usual good heroic turn in his role, as does Black in hers, though there seem not to be enough sparks at the beginning of the film to keep their relationship from drifting towards standard disaster film melodrama. Kennedy, as always, does his usual tough thing well in reprising his role as Patroni; and Susan Clark is good in a significant supporting role as his wife, who just happens to be on the plane in peril.Given that any kind of mid-air collision, even with just a small plane, would be enough to bring any other jet down to the ground, both Jack Smight (who directed the 1966 crime classic HARPER) and screenwriter Don Ingalls have to somehow cause the old suspension of disbelief stimuli to kick in with respect to this film's plot line. Although they are not always successful at doing this, and the clichés do at times get in the way, they are successful enough to at least make AIRPORT '75 no worse than any others of its kind. Given this, it is no surprise that the critics should have ratted on this plane-in-peril piece, nor should it have been a surprise that AIRPORT '75's success should have as big as it indeed was.
It is true that the "Airport" films are mere guilty pleasures where everything can be taken at face value. This second one out of four, is probably the most tolerable. The budget seems to have been put to better use than in the previous "Airport" film from 1970. Charlton Heston is cashing in on his He-Man image and only has to turn up to save the day. The rest of the cast - apart from George Kennedy - hardly get a look in which is what I expected. There is entertainment value in small doses but don't expect any surprises or twists to the tale.
Grown up in full slasher era and the disaster flicks this is one I still remember. And after seen it again (40 years later) I liked it even more then the first entry into this franchise. Karen Black (Nancy Pryor) do takes the lead here as an air hostess trying to rescue a 747. Again, but less here, as in the original Airport it's a big commercial for Boeing. But they don't say it that much as in the first one. Nevertheless, it's still worth picking up even as many doesn't like this flick because what we do see can't happen. It didn't bother me at all, it's funny to see Erik Estrada (Julio) coming from CHIPS and Linda Blair (Janice Abbott) in a small part. Charlton Heston (Alan Murdock) is the hero after all. And George Kennedy returns as Joe Patroni the man with technical advice. But not only the flick itself is worth seeing after all those years, again, the way they do fly back then. The commander smoking cigars in full air. Turnable chairs in first class, free booze even if you are drunk. The effects are a bit outdated, just see the impact with the small airplane as a POV from the cockpit. That doesn't work at all but hey, it's a flick from the seventies, full with coming stars and well known faces from that era.Gore 0/5 Nudity 0/5 Effects 2/5 Story 3/5 Comedy 0/5
Unintentionally funny sequel to "Airport" is set(as the helpful subtitle tells us!) in 1975, where a Boeing 747 is disabled when a private airplane crashes into the cockpit(the pilot had a stroke), killing the flight crew and blinding one pilot, forcing a stewardess(Karen Black) to fly the plane, though her boyfriend(also a pilot, played by Charlton Heston) who is helicoptered into the cockpit, and tries desperately to resume control of the plane, before it crashes.Cast also includes returning character Joe Patroni(George Kennedy) along with Susan Clark, Gloria Swanson, Sid Caesar, Myrna Loy, Linda Blair, and Helen Reddy as a singing nun. Unlike the first film, which does hold up, this doesn't, crippled by a contrived plot and laughable scenes(whole film was effectively spoofed later on) that make it an unworthy entry, though there would be more...