Cast:
Alain Delon (Capt. Paul Metrand), Susan Blakely (Maggie Whelan), Robert Wagner (Kevin Harrison), Sylvia Kristel (Isabelle), George Kennedy (Capt. Joseph "Joe" Patroni), Eddie Albert (Eli Sands), Bibi Andersson (Francine), Charo (Margarita), Pierre Jalbert (Henri), John Davidson (Robert Palmer), Andrea Marcovicci (Alicia Rogov), Martha Raye (Loretta), Cicely Tyson (Elaine), Jimmie Walker (Boise), David Warner (Peter O'Neill), Mercedes McCambridge (Nelli), Avery Schreiber (Russian coach Markov), and Sybil Danning (Amy) Directed by David Lowell Rich.
Review:
"We believe that Concorde is a magical star that people will go to see in a good motion picture." - Jennings Lang
You remember the Airport movies, I am sure. Based on the novel of the same name by Arthur Hailey, Airport (1970) was an all-star dud. The sequel Airport 1975 (1974) was more of the same. Airport '77 (1977) can be described aptly: "no better and no worse than the previous two features in terms of mediocrity. Sure, there are probably a few more things to make fun of here, but it is the same kind of blah movie from before that made money in a time where people were ripe for seeing these kinds of movies." The screenplay was done by Eric Roth, but Jennings Lang was behind the story along with serving as producer. Lang had produced the last two Airport films, but he also was a producer on films such as Play Misty for Me (1971) and Earthquake (1974), but this was the only script that Lang ever did. Roth got his start with film scripts such as The Nickel Ride (1974), but he would go on to better work in later years: he wrote films such as Forrest Gump (1994)...and The Postman (1997). The movie was made on a budget of $14 million. It actually made $65 million, making over 75% of its money in audiences not in America or Canada. Keep in mind, the cast is a bit more international this time around, owing to the fact that the Concorde was a plane manufactured by France and British developers. The supersonic airliner plane had its first flight in 1969 before being retired from service in 2003, three years after the only fatal incident of the plane, which by horrible coincidence was the plane utilized for this film. Air France and Aerospatiale (the French national airline and the makers of the plane, respectively) allowed permission to use the Concorde after a few modifications to the script, such as pilots behaving right in the cockpit (so yeah, they could drink off duty and romance, but discussions weren't cool); amusingly, the movie talks about the impending 1980 Olympic Games, for which the summer edition was hosted in Moscow, one that saw America boycott the Games. Of course, the reviews in contemporary times were even more negative than the last three films. The effects used here involve blue screen that deal with primer and paint to help with possible blending. As for Rich, he was the 1978 winner of the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Limited or Anthology Series or Movie, but he did get plenty of work from 1950 to 1987, such as Madame X (1966).
Imagine having the guy from Good Times, the title character from Emmanuelle (1974), a French matinee idol, and George Kennedy in the same movie. Oh, and a plane that deals with obstacles such as air balloons, an attack drone, an evil jet fighter pilot, and bomb sabotage with most of the passengers on board to experience more terror than making the rounds for Christmas shopping. So yes, this is the first one of these films with a cleanly set villain in terms of multi-phased terror, namely because of how overly complicated they make it in the art of trying to take down one person (the first film had a bomb and the third film had a hijacker, but neither had a Plan B). Far be it from just having an assassin take them down (aside from the guy they take down right in front of her), nah, you have to launch a drone at them. Only the power of firing a flare gun out the cockpit window and doing a roll can stop drone power. Hell, the climax of the film involves the plane having to land on a snowy mountain and freeing the passengers before the damn thing explodes! You know, if the Airport movies were meant to be bizarro propaganda against flying, this one is probably the peak of anti-flying entertainment: enjoy the Concorde in the title, just watch out for the possible chance of pilots that either fire flare guns to prevent terrorism or explosions. The stories of the people don't mean diddly poo, since one cares even less than they did before with boring people meeting disaster planes.
Kennedy played a mechanic in the first film, then he played an airline vice president, then he played a aero expert/technical advisor, and now he plays a pilot of the Concorde who gets to have an escapade with the plane and a hooker played by Andersson. Truly, some actors get all the luck (imagine being a reliable character presence and having an Academy Award), even if his performance is more of a gruff sleepwalk more than anything. Delon apparently made this film as his last shot at breaking into American notice, since being a French star wasn't enough - it did not end well, although at least Delon ended up just fine back in his native country where he could get a script worth acting. The fact that he is acting opposite Kristel in bland overtones is especially sad. Blakely can't make any headway into being noticeable among all the cheese, because who cares about people being targeted for murder when the preposterous Robert Wagner is acting opposite you? To say nothing of the middling attempts at comic relief of Walker or Albert (or worse yet, Charo having only one scene to do schtick). 113 minutes of pure unintentional humor is a weird price to pay, but anyone who has seen their way through Dean Martin trying to play a pilot or Gloria Swanson play Gloria Swanson or Bermuda Triangle bullshit will surely have no problem with a movie that practically starts with its head in the sand.
Remember, this was the last of these crappy movies. Of course, this film was released in the same year that saw the Italian thriller Concorde Affaire '79, but the real nail in even thinking about doing another Airport movie probably came with Airplane! (1980), the spoof to end all spoofs with airplanes. If you like crappy movies with recognizable names, this may be up your alley. It may be the worst of the bunch, but those with a sicko committee desire to see how low crappy airplane/big cast movies can go will surely have a ball here.
Overall, I give it 4 out of 10 stars.
Next Time: Saving Christmas.
