Airplane! Review

MPAA Rating: PG
Released: 1980

Voted among the top ten funniest films of all time by the American Film Institute, Airplane launched the careers of Jerry and David Zucker, two brothers who went on to produce other memorable and outrageous comedies. All too often when critics place a film on such a high pedestal, the result is a film that proves to be an inevitable letdown. So does Airplane deserve the applause it receives, or is it another overrated movie?

The movie begins with the Jaws theme rolling ominously in the background, a blanket of clouds visible on the screen. Suddenly an airplane's tailfin pierces the clouds and swims back and forth until the main body finally erupts from the cloud in the same manner as the shark's depiction on the Jaws' movie posters. At this point one suspects that Airplane might prove to be an interesting spoof.

The credits begin to roll while we are subjected to various scenes of inanity within an airport. Travelers squabble, Buddhists and various other groups beg for donations, a man with a metal arm and leg removes them to pass through the metal detector… and that's just the start! At this point we know we're going to be in for one heck of a fun ride.

Jerry and David Zucker, who crafted this ingenious gem with Jim Abrahams, subscribed to the spaghetti theory of comedy… toss enough jokes against the wall and surely some will stick. Well, so many jokes succeed that the wall is no longer visible before you're even halfway into the movie! The jokes fly at us at a rapid-fire rate, never allowing us to rest for long, and they cover a wide spectrum of types such as outright slapstick to subtle sarcasm.

In fact if you do not pay close attention to Airplane at all times you will miss a great deal of the subtler jokes prevalent throughout the film. For example, during the credits intro I mentioned in the second paragraph, attentive viewers will also have detected a male and a female PA arguing back and forth over the airport's public intercom as to whether the white zone or the red zone is forbidden from unloading passengers… an entertaining argument that becomes more ludicrous as it moves along until it finally moves into an argument about an abortion! Pay attention to everything in this movie – jokes are imbedded into everything ranging from common background noise to magazine covers.

The brilliance of the Zucker brothers alone could not create such a memorable film; the actors were flawlessly selected for their roles, and not one of them disappointed. Peter Graves plays Lawrence Oveur, the captain of the airplane that possesses pedophiliac tendencies ("Jimmy, have you ever seen a man naked?"). Leslie Nielsen has made a career of playing offbeat characters, and never has he been better in his performance as Dr. Rumack, while Robert Hays (who plays Ted Striker) and Julie Hagerty (who plays Elaine Dickinson) perfectly slip into their roles as a squabbling couple that inevitably are charged with the welfare of the plane and the lives of all within.

The above stars are only the tip of the iceberg, for you'll also be delighted with Lloyd Bridges as a flustered air controller with an addiction to caffeine, cigarettes, glue sniffing, cocaine and more! Other celebrities play small roles within the film, such as basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar who plays the co-pilot of the airplane and Barbara Billingsley (yes, the one and only Mrs. Cleaver), who acts as a translator for two jive-talking passengers.

Words or reviews just cannot do justice to comedies, for it is incredibly difficult to express just how humorous certain scenes are. The adage "you had to be there" certainly holds true with this gem, for everything from the sly humor that ambushes you unexpectedly to the obvious sight gags just cannot be described adequately without having seen them.

Throughout the movie you'll find the envelope of good taste constantly being pushed, yet never has sexual or racial humor been handled in such a carefree and fun manner. Even the child actors aren't spared, as evidenced in a scene where a boy that appears about 8 years of age politely offers some coffee to a girl of the same age. He asks her if she would like milk in her coffee and she responds that she prefers it black, just like her men. The manner in which the exchange takes place, as well as the boy's reaction to her declaration, is priceless.

Somehow the film managed to shun all forms of political correctness while also remaining a PG film the whole family can enjoy. Just don't be surprised if some of the jokes are so clever they fly over the heads of children.

If you have never watched Airplane then you have done yourself a disservice, and the only way to remedy it is to go out and snatch this movie. Now. Truly, it's that good. Perfection is a near-impossible goal to obtain with anything - even more so with comedy movies. Yet if perfection was to have been finally achieved, I do believe Airplane would have been the result. As such, it deserves a perfect score.

Movie rating: 10 stars

If you enjoyed Airplane! you may also find the following films to be of interest: