Airport

It's time to start looking at the films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar from 50 years ago. As usual for the time, 1970 had some cutting edge movies nominated, but also Hollywood schlock. I've already written about M*A*S*H, so I'll tackle the other four over the ensuing months in alphabetical order.

That means I start with Airport, which is notable for being the prototype for the disaster movie. There had been films about peril on a passenger plane before, especially The High And The Mighty, but Airport ushered in an era where numerous stars were put in danger, with their small photos cluttering the poster.

Based on a fat novel by Arthur Hailey, Airport, as you might imagine, concerns one night at an airport, a fictional one in Chicago. It's snowing something fierce, a plane gets stuck in the snow on a runway, and a man gets on a plane to Rome with a bomb in his briefcase. There are numerous subplots, making this really a soap opera.

The stars are plentiful. Burt Lancaster is the airport's general manager, Dean Martin is the plane's captain (along with Barry Nelson), Jean Seberg is customer services specialist for the airline, Jacqueline Bisset is a stewardess, pregnant with Martin's baby, George Kennedy is the tough as nails mechanic, Van Heflin (in his last role) plays the mad bomber, Maureen Stapleton is his wife (an Oscar nominee) and most notably is Helen Hayes, who did win an Oscar as an old lady who specializes in stowing away on flights. She was the first performer to win an Oscar in the lead and supporting categories, as she had won one 38 years earlier for The Sin Of Madeline Claudet.

It occurred to me while watching this that disaster movies are really about people doing their jobs. I think we take comfort in knowing that should calamity strike, there are people who know what they are doing. Lancaster, Martin, and Kennedy all exhibit tremendous cool under fire. This would extend to pictures like The Towering Inferno and Earthquake.

Of course, much of this film is silly. Even in that era, when there was smoking on planes and no X-ray machines to stop a man from carrying dynamite onto a plane, there is no way Hayes could get on an international flight without showing her passport. The film also serves as a commercial for Boeing, as the 707 is frequently touted as the best built plane there is. It was Lancaster's biggest hit, but he called it a piece of junk.

But I had a good time watching it, even getting a little emotional, which surprised the hell out of me. Maybe it was watching people pitch in to do the right thing by other people, which is what we're going through now.