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"Flight #90: Disaster On The Potomac" (1984) a relatively good straightforward account of that tragedy, although they didn't dramatize the story of Lenny Skutnik the man who jumped into the river and pulled one of the passengers out, because he thought the project too exploitative (the producer claimed Skutnik wanted too much money). On "Airport" it's important to remember it was a novel first, by Arthur Hailey and it did a very extensive job highlighting the headaches of running modern airport and providing behind-the-scenes insights mixed in with the soapy melodrama. An entire subplot for instance that didn't make it into the film involved the brother of the Burt Lancaster character, an air-traffic controller depressed over the fact that his negligence several years before caused a private plane crash that he wasn't held accountable for, is contemplating suicide. Naturally, he ends up conquering his guilt when he brings in Flight #2 at the end and then can happily quit his job with a clear conscience and get on with his life. The angry Meadowood community fed up with the noise from take-offs also takes up more space in the novel, as Lancaster's character ultimately must give them all a lecture and big discourse on legal history and court decisions on how they haven't a leg to stand on and why their attorney is just a shyster out to try and stiff them of legal fees in filing a lawsuit against the airport they can't win.
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A77 wasn't as good as I remembered it being, and I didn't recall the plane crash and rescue happening so late in the film and so quickly. Lemmon and Gavin gave strong performances. I guess Kennedy just showed up for the paycheck. The other actors, though known, weren't very interesting. Some bad acting all around. The special effects were disgraceful! A75's aerial footage was far better and realistic. Every exterior, in-flight shot of the plane in A77 looked like a die-cast toy. A79...couldn't finish it. Just a lot of boring, idiotic small talk. I fast-forwarded through 80% of it. Nothing interested me at all. The 4-pack has been sent to the landfill, and my final order of preference is: A75 A70 A77 A79 I'm certain someone here would have gladly paid you the price of postage to own this set.
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Stu, I wonder that 20 or 30 years from now, what current films will be remade? : ... Maybe 30 years from now they will take the most popular computer games and make them into films... D.S. 30 years from now? We've already see too many films based on computer games, with just about all of them less entertaining than "Airport."
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I know that AIRPORT had showings in 70mm, but does anyone know if these were reserved seat showings? And did the 70mm showings have an intermission? In Minneapolis AIRPORT played at the Cooper Cinerama and was the first film since the theater opened in 1962 to NOT have reserved seats. The reserved seat policy ended with PAINT YOUR WAGON, the film that preceded AIRPORT at the theater. I did not get to see it at Cooper. I lived in St. Cloud, Minn. where the film played at Cinema 70 in 35mm (big disappointment) and the theater added an intermission after the plane takes off.
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Was reading through this thread, and all I could think of was: how can these guys get so angry over a movie! It's just a movie! I saw it when it first came out (I was 21), and found it sort of entertaining. Even then, I realized it was a calculated crowd pleaser, though it obviously had no aspirations to being great cinema. I got the score lp that was released at the time. (I had some of Newman's scores, but wasn't as devoted to his output then as I am now.) Looking back, knowing it was Newman's last effort, I'm glad it was for an A-list Hollywood product, unlike other major composers, who ended up scoring B-pictures, and worse, in their last years. Whatever your qualms about its quality, AIRPORT is a major score, the final work of a major composer. I'm surprised it's never been expanded, or complete, for CD re-release. (As I recall, Varese released the lp tracks to CD, but that was all.)
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Looking back, knowing it was Newman's last effort, I'm glad it was for an A-list Hollywood product, unlike other major composers, who ended up scoring B-pictures, and worse, in their last years. Good point.
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