AIRPLANE!: The Craft Behind The Machine Gun Lunacy
Airplane! is one of those films we all take for granted. It has been imitated so often and its parody-at-a-machine-gun-pace formula has become so commonplace in the world of comedy that it's all too easy to forget how revolutionary it once was. That said, the lessening of the surprise factor allows one to concentrate on the quality of the film itself... and there's much more to the wackiness than meets the eye.
For anyone who hasn't seen it, Airplane! is essentially a MadMagazine movie parody brought to life in cinematic form. Drawing its inspiration from the Airport series and a lesser-known 1957film called Zero Hour, it tells thestory of a commercial flight stricken with a massive case of food poisoningthat has taken out its pilots. Theflight's only hope is Ted Stryker (Robert Hays), an ex-fighter pilot who boughta last-minute ticket on the flight in hopes of patching up his relationshipwith his stewardess ex, Elaine (Julie Haggerty).
This sets the stage for melodrama galore as Tedstruggles to overcome his wartime traumas to save the flight and an on-groundcrew led by airplane pro (and Ted's ex-superior officer) Kramer (Robert Stack)tries to get them landed safely. Also onhand are Leslie Nielsen as Dr. Rumack, the plane's irony-free doctor, and LloydBridges as McCroskey, an airport chief who deals with the crisis while tryingto kick umpteen addictions.
As the synopsis indicates, it's a solid plot and couldhave served as the basis for an Airportinstallment. However, all this plot isbackgrounded in Airplane! aswriting/directing triumvirate Jerry Zucker, David Zucker and Jim Abrahams go ona ruthless search-and-destroy mission for laughs. This trio developed a madcap, slash-and-burnstyle of parody through a homegrown comedic troupe called the Kentucky FriedTheater (which also spawned the cult fave KentuckyFried Movie) and that style translates beautifully to a film format.
In the best MadMagazine style, they cram jokes of all kinds into every nook and cranny:sight gags, slapstick, wordplay, funny sounds, funny faces, anachronisms,visual/verbal non-sequiturs and the ever-popular breaking of the fourth wallare all deployed at a rat-a-tat-tat pace designed to throttle the laughs rightout of you. Nearly 40 years later, this style has lost the element ofsurprise. The Zuckers revisited it timeand again in films that ranged from very good (Top Secret) to dear-lord-what-were-they-thinking (Jane Austen's Mafia) and countlessimitators lifted their gag-a-minute parody format for scads of lesserfilms.
However, this lessening of the novelty level allows theviewer to focus on what a well-crafted film Airplane! is. For a low-endstudio effort made by first-time filmmakers, it has surprising polish. The pacing is tight thanks to sharp editingby Patrick Kennedy and the photography by regular Robert Aldrich cameramanJoseph Biroc gives it the perfect bland-yet-stylish sheen necessary toconvincingly recreate the look of the Airportseries. However, the film's stylisticsecret weapon is the Elmer Bernstein score, which sets all the clichés oforchestral movie score writing on their ears to achieve a comedic effect thatreinforces the film's deadpan-yet-outrageous tone.
The final element that lifts Airplane! to classic level is the performances. The major kudos has always gone to LeslieNielsen, Robert Stack and Lloyd Bridges, and deservedly so: each man took subversivejoy in giving their leading-man personas a Viking funeral and achieved a newpostmodern hipness in the process. However, one shouldn't forget the performances of Hays and Hagerty asthe film's troubled romantic leads. Eachtakes a personalized path into the film's anarchic/comedic style and each makesit pay dividends: Hays gives his role afourth wall-breaking sense of sly wit while Hagerty plays out every situationwith an eerie, deadpan straight face that amplifies the humor in its own way.
All in all, Airplane! deserves its place in history. No number of retreads can erase the joyful, well-crafted comedic style on display here. It might look like lunacy but there's a lot of talent expended in making that illusion possible.