My Favourite Airport Movie ! - The Concorde... Airport '79 (1979) Discussion

They should make another one when the Airbus A380 starts flying

"Prepare yourselves for the hunt!"

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[–] garthom 19 years ago

I recall in the early '80s there was going to be another Airport film... this time they were going to be abducted by aliens. I guess they wanted to cash in on the science fiction craze of the time. Barbara Stanwick was approached to be in it... then "Airplane" / "Flying High" came along and that squashed the series. In my opinion, "The Concorde: Airport 79" is not as good as the other films in the genre, but it has some sick fascinations about it:

(1) George Kennedy's character is now a concorde pilot?!?
(2) The tacky SPFX model work is direct from a Cornflakes packet (Albert Whitlock's work is far superior in "Airport '77")!
(3) Robert Wagner sporting a polo neck jumper is very 80s!
(4) The toilet gag with old lady is very base, too.
(5) The cast, in general, is of lower voltage compared to the previous movies.

If you look at the movie trailer in the Terminal Pack, you could see the studio wasn't taking the promotion very seriously.

Gosh.

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[–] chunkylover66 19 years ago

I thought this was okay. A movie where I could rest my brain from politics, morals, and satire. BTW - I am an aviatioholic.

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[–] sued1971 18 years ago

Hi garthom. I hope that when you say

"The cast, in general, is of lower voltage..."

you are excepting the wonderful Alain Delon?? What on earth he was thinking of I will never know!!

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[–] apburton 18 years ago

yes, its sooo bad its great, i was in stitches. my fave bits are:

* when that guy is hanging out of a CONCORDE trying to shoot the flair
* the scene near the end before that dude shoots himself.. when he watches the news, i'm almost certain he is just sitting behind that wooden panel with the front of a TV glued in front of him.. check it out

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[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] nfischer89 17 years ago

have to be my 3rd favorite airplane movie

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[–] slbp_99 17 years ago

I thought this was the best of the Airport movies.

The first one bored me to death. The second one was alright. The third was better, but this one ranks as my favorite.

-Shoot the film first, ask questions later.-
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[–] cluvonj 15 years ago

This is the order they were good, THe 1st one, THe 3rd one, THe 2nd one and this one last.

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[–] phillindholm 13 years ago

Susan Blakely and Cicely Tyson were the best actors in it. Blakely was very believable (stupid or not). Tyson also did well, even with her son's Doctor following her all over the plane, with the box marked ''HEART''.And though Martha Raye was the only one onscreen with a ''bladder control problem''I'll bet there were plenty in the audience when this was shown in theaters.

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[–] cluvonj 13 years ago

I watched parts of this one again because I forgot JOhn Davidson was in it and he was a favorite of mine when I was a kid and I was going to see a show he was doing near me recently. I even got to meet him but I didnt mention this movie to him.

I like all of them to some degree or another. I dont know how someone can say the first one is boring. The last one was moreso yet I still found parts of it entertaining but the first one has a different mood and feel to it. The snowstorm adds a lot and there is this feeling of impending danger about to happen. There are a lot of great characters in it. I dont know how someone can miss all the great stuff in the movie. I love the romance between Dean and Jacqueline's Characters. Helen Hayes is just a hoot. There are so many great classic actors in it. The list just goes on with it. I first saw it as a child and loved it then and still love it.

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[–] Josef_Schweik 10 years ago

I recently watched all four in a marathon session, and for good measure "Airplane!" as well. :) Watching it back in the 80s, I thought it was pretty good. Now, the story seems silly, the special effects terrible. There are some good lines in the movie I.e. "The toilet is broken" or "For 2000 Francs she should be". But really, the only good things are the flying sequenced with the actual aircraft, and Alain Delon, my all-time favorite actor.

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[–] zkpip 12 years ago

It's MY favorite, too, because I was an extra in the movie. I played one of the Russian athletes. It was great fun, but we would have frozen if it weren't for the heaters in the tents on a mountaintop at the ski resort of Alta,Utah! I DID get to see George Kennedy, and he was very popular with the female extras, because several of them kissed his cheek. I was SO jealous! I was also an extra in the movie "Harry In Your Pocket" starring James Coburn, one of the best actors of all time. None of my coworkers believed I was a movie extra, they thought I was lying!

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[–] don-lockwood 12 years ago

This is one of the most underrated/unappreciated movies I've ever seen. Of course it's (somewhat/mostly) ridiculous, but it's IN ON THE JOKE. I don't understand how someone could watch Airplane! - which I love - and give that a high rating and give this a low one. This was basically the precursor to Airplane! and was just as funny and outrageous in spots.

The lady with the bladder problem (Martha Raye) is clearly meant to be funny. If she weren't, then I could understand finding this to be a bad movie. But when something is intentionally funny while still racking up some modicum of dramatic tension, then it works.

Then George Kennedy appears to have fallen in love with the sweet French lady, given ridiculous coincidences. But we learn she was really a prostitute hired by Alain Delon -- and Kennedy is still grateful! This kind of tongue-in-cheek humor was very funny to me, and clearly this is where Airplane! got a lot of it from.

I found the first Airport terribly boring. No, it wasn't over-the-top or completely unbelievable, and sure, Helen Hayes and Maureen Stapleton were very good in it. But it was definitely not Oscar-worthy in any category. It took itself too seriously and needed to be trimmed down. It was no great drama or suspense flick.

I haven't seen the middle two Airport movies, though I've seen some of Airport '75, with sick Linda Blair, singing nun Helen Reddy, and Karen Black landing the plane. It was more of the same -- a stuffy attempt at melodrama. If anything, Airport '75 is the clunker in the series because of its serious tone and the number of elements that would later be mocked in Airplane! Again, at least The Concorde: Airport '79 knew it was presenting something funny and over-the-top, just like Airplane!

I'm not saying The Concorde: Airport '79 is Oscar-worthy (though Martha Raye was hilarious). But airplane disaster movies are inherently funny -- they're not Titanic or The Poseidon Adventure -- so for this final Airport movie to be so clearly in on the joke, and funny too, I think it deserves more appreciation!

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[–] bradford-1 12 years ago

Why is Alain Delon in this movie???
DELON'S AGENT (sometime in 1978): Al, baby, you said you wanna get a higher profile in the American market and you wanna grab hold of those big American bucks. Well, Universal is about to make another one of those "Airport" flicks and they're going all-star again. I hear they've already lined up George Kennedy, Cicely Tyson, Bob Wagner, even Mercedes McCambridge!
DELON: Is zere a screept I can see?
AGENT: Well, they're still workin' on it. But do you think all those big names would sign up for a lemon? I'm talkin' Jimmy "Dyno-mite" Walker, fer crissake!
DELON: (after a pause) Okay, tell Universal I'll do it. How could I go wrong?
(Several months later, between takes of the film)
DELON (on phone): Sacre bleu! What kind of %#@** have you got me into? Flying upside down, shooting flares out za cockpeet window?? I'll **$#@ strangle you!!

"May I bone your kipper, Mademoiselle?"

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[–] phillindholm 11 years ago

Great comment-I'm STILL laughing!.

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[–] markedjuan 11 years ago

No contest; the first Airport is the best. Its screenwriters tried to be faithful to the novel. It adheres to the Grand Hotel formula of Arthur Hailey,whose original novel focused on an airport in crisis. The protagonists in the story are going through their own personal problems as well. It wasn't really a disaster movie, which was a genre that hadn't been coined in 1970.

The other movies that followed simply cashed in on the Airport name. They were produced to emulate the success of two earlier movies: the first Airport installment and The Poseidon Adventure. The Airport movies that followed veered closer to Poseidon Adventure and they had nothing to do with airports at all.

None of the newer Airports could come close to the success of the original. Still, each film had its own assets. Airport 1975's aerial photography is excellent. The shots of the real plane flying over the mountains of Utah are breathtaking. Ditto with the interior shots of Dulles airport during the opening credits. The climactic landing at Salt Lake airport is also well done. The movie looks very authentic because of this.

As for Airport'77, Jack Lemmon makes it seem better than it really is. The budget must have been lower since most of the exterior shots of the plane were merely stock footage from Airport 1975. It's not a cinematic experience

Airport '79: Alain Delon, Martha Raye and Bibi Anderson in a movie with Sylvia Kristel, Sybil Danning and Charo. What other movie can boast of such an eclectic cast? Yet it does have the most romantic scene: When Alain Delon tells Sylvia Kristel for the first time that he loves her. It had to take a Frenchman to make any romance in this Airport series seem real.

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