Airplane! (1980)
Good comedy will make you feel a little uncomfortable.
Sitting in the cheap seats of the 21st century it is hard to look at a forty-year old movie objectively. That is especially true when it is a movie you - and a lot your generation - have fond memories of. And man, did this movie make me laugh as a kid.
“What’s the vector, Victor?”
“Roger, Roger.”
“I speak Jive.”
“Have you ever seen a grown man naked?”
Watching Airplane! as a teen it was hard to appreciate just how far this movie pushed past the limits of its time. It was Lenny Bruce in a world of Jerry Seinfelds: profane, over the top, irreverent, and hilarious. The only other movie of the era to compare was Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles, but if BS took a baseball bat to the sensitivities of the day, Airplane was a 500 pound bullet hitting you square in the funny bone.
I wasn’t sure what to expect watching the movie as an adult - and not at all in over 35 years.
The Good:
As a kid, my friends and I would memorize long passages from the movie. Watching it I went in thinking “I’ve totally got this…I saw this dozens of times when I was a teenager…this is for fun…I won’t learn anything new.” Wow - was I wrong.
All the classic scenes I remembered were there - but there were a ton I’d completely forgotten. A barfight / dance throw down to the Bee Gees, the girl needing the heart transplant, many of the great fourth wall breaking scenes with Kareem Abdul Jabbar…even the opening with the music from Jaws and the airplane’s tail fin cutting through the clouds. If you think you know this movie, watch it again. I guarantee you’ll see something new - and almost certainly funny.
The historian in me also loved the callbacks to an earlier time. I had, to be honest, forgotten how much air travel has changed in the last few decades. Smoking on a plane? “I’d like a ticket right now…no bags.” “Would you like the steak?” Families dressing up in suites and their Sunday Best for the event of flying? And little boys being invited to come up to the cockpit … Ok…let’s set aside the little boy thing for now but just say that even if it was not a comedy the film would be fun to watch simply for the insight into a world now long gone.
And there are parts of the film that remain hilarious. A lot of what was funny, if gratuitous, when I was a kid took on a different meaning as an adult. Don’t get me wrong. Most of it remains gratuitous and Airplane isn’t Casablanca, but many parts of the film become even funnier when viewed in your fifties than when you are fifteen.
The Bad:
A part of me doesn’t even want to address this, but this is a forty year old movie that was meant to make people uncomfortable. And if you watch it today some parts will make you feel that way.
“Have you ever seen a grown man naked?”
Hilarious in 1980, especially when delivered by the terminally stuffy (in a cool way) Peter Graves. A pedophile hitting on a young boy in 2020? Not so much.
The historical callbacks to an earlier age of flying? Great - but in a post-911 world they can generate some unexpected feelings.
Running jokes about PTSD? Tougher in a country that has been at war for 20 years.
None of these are reasons to not watch Airplane. The movie was meant to knock people out of their comfort zones. You just need to know that if you watch with your kids (or parents) you may have to talk about terrorism, mental illness, oral sex (Otto saves the day!), racial stereotypes, substance abuse, and why so many people wore polyester.
Should you watch it now?
Yes.
Airplane remains pound for pound one of the funniest films ever made. Many of its lines have become part of the lexicon of our culture and Airplane! - for good or bad - has become part of America.
Now, I do understand that some of you may think I’m being hyperbolic. Some are perhaps even inclined to say “Surely you can’t be serious?”
I am serious. And stop calling me Shirley.
Airplane! is available on a variety of platforms. You can catch it on Amazon HERE. When I watched you had the option of viewing for free if you agreed to view with commercials.
Four out of Five Inflatable Auto Pilots.
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What did you think or Airplane!? Drop us a comment and let us know!
Bonus!
Airplane! Trivia -
Gunderson, the guy who checks the radar and finds a turkey cooking, is played by the stoic tough guy Mike of Better Call Saul and Breaking Bad.
