Aeroporto 79: O Concorde

I remember walking out of an Australian movie theatre in 1980 and saying to my brother..."That was a disaster movie but what was the disaster?". Granted, I was a child at the time.

This Airport movie is different to the other three, no big sea dive or big collision, Airport '79 just seemed to be all over the place! However, the film has improved with age and two recent viewings have been very much enjoyed. It has a touch of The Towering Inferno (1974) with Robert Wagner still being up to no good, the miniature effects work of the Concorde itself is pleasing to my eyes and the film starts with a very uplifting Lalo Schifrin theme tune.

Perhaps Schifrin was trying to be the new disaster movie composer as in 1980 he would score Irwin Allen's When Time Ran Out as well.

There was to be a 5th Airport movie but the poor box office takings for Airport '79 put an end to all that. Too bad as all four Airport films are a special part of the 1970s and still survive repeat viewings to this day.

One year before the hilarious Airplane! this film was released on an unsuspecting public. Its easy to see what fueled the Zucker brothers to lampoon the Airport series so shamelessly. Let's look at the cast: George Kennedy, Alain Delon, Robert Wagner, Susan Blakely..not bad so far. Not so fast, because in come the supporting cast: Mercedes McCaimbridge (as a Russian gym instructor), Martha Raye, Jimmie Walker (!), Sylvia Krystel ( as a stewardess ), Avery Schreiber, and Bibi Andersson (as a prostitute). The plot has pot holes that would do Ed Wood proud. It is so bad dramatically that it plays like a comedy. And funny it it...very very funny. Watch this on a double bill with Airplane!

This old-fashioned , disconcerting catastrophe picture contains thriller , suspense , drama , moderate tension and being entertaining but with lots of flaws and gaps . All clichéd , incredibly far-fetched non-sense , the result is a very superior hokum . The movie is another jetliner epic with heroes as Alain Delon and George Kennedy playing two valiant pilots . Plenty of stock roles with regurgitation of all usual stereotypical situations from disaster films , including a fairly moronic screenplay . This is the four of four movies in the "Airport" series adapted from the Arthur Hailey novel . It's embarrassing and amusing as well as full clichés and stereotypes , including the unavoidable accident , with below average acting by all-star-cast . As the Concorde takes off several threads of the plot are already in motion . American based Federation World Airlines has just acquired a Concorde jet , which will make its inaugural commercial flight from Washington D.C to Paris and subsequently Moscow , in the former Soviet Unión . It is captained by Alain Delon who muses : ¨It's still amazing to me , only three and half hours ago we were in Paris ¨ . And another captain , co-pilot Patroni yells ¨I'd love to see what my horoscope said for the morning¨ . The film is detailing hectic flighty piloted by Alain Delon/George Kennedy and the relationship among passengers . As the Concorde is chased by missiles when the nasty Robert Wagner , who runs an arms plant , has been caught selling weapons to the bad guys of the world , and his journalist-mistress -Susan Blakely- is the woman with the evidence . Then , villain Robert launches an attack missile against the Concorde . As the captain pilot Delon banks to avoid two of Wagner's fighter aircrafts . At the end takes places a crashing in the Alps . If you've seen the original ¨Airport¨ by George Seaton based on the Arthur Hailey's novel 'the daddy of them all' , you have seen them all .

It is an insincere , slick attempt to find box-office magic again , but this time didn't achieved hit smash . As the film was a critical and commercial failure at the box-office with the lowest financial take of the four "Airport" movies . Unflagging pace , plastic acting , hilarious dialogue and stock characters recounting a hectic flight in Concorde . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series is wasted by lousy acting embarrassing special effects and non-sense plot . The screenplay develops into ¨Coyote and The Road Runner¨ stuff and one can visualize Robert Wagner jumping up and down with rage as each new attempt fail .When American audiences greeted the film with derisive laughter, Universal decided to market it as a comedy, with the Tagline : "Fasten your seat belts, the thrills are terrific and so are the laughs!" . The movie was made and released around the time of another Concorde film, Concorde Affaire '79 (1979) , the two films both had French cast and French story elements , even their titles were similar . Look quickly to Eddie Albert , Bibi Andersson , Charo , Andrea Marcovicci , Cicely Tyson , David Warner, Mercedes McCambridge , Jimmie Walker , Sybil Danning , Jon Cedar , Ed Begley Jr , final feature film of actress Martha Raye, among others . In addition , George Kennedy and Monica Lewis are the only returning actors from the "Airport" movie series to appear in the movie ; Kennedy's continuing character of Joe Patroni appeared in all four "Airport" pictures . The motion picture was ridiculously directed by David Lowell Rich , habitual TV director and occasionally for movie theater . It's an inoffensive diversion but is sometimes tediously unspooled . The flick won't appeal to disaster genre enthusiasts .

This sagas belongs the following films : the first was ¨Airport¨ (1970) , unanimously deemed the best , it paved the way for many lesser flicks including its many sequels , being directed by George Seaton with Burt Lancaster , Jean Seberg , Dean Martin , Van Heflin ; ¨Airport 75¨ (1974) by Jack Smight with Charlton Heston , Karen Black and Gloria Swanson , ¨Airport 77¨ (1977) considered one of the best of the series , being directed by Jerry Jameson with Jack Lemmon , Christopher Lee , James Stewart , Lee Grant , Robert Hooks , Monte Markham , Kathleen Quinlan , Darren McGavin ,Gil Gerard , M. Emmet Walsh , Pamela Bellwood , Michael Pataki , James Booth , leading to the last of the tired ones , this ¨Airport 79¨ (1979) by David Lowell Rich with . This picture was nominated for Worst Picture at the Hastings Bad Cinema Society's 2nd Stinkers Bad Movie Awards in 1979 and listed among The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made in "The Official Razzie Movie Guide" . Furthermore , ¨ Skyjacked (1972) ¨ by John Guillermin with Charlton Heston , James Brolin and this film was parodied heavily in Airplane! (1980) by Jim Abrahams and David Zucker

Some slack might be cut this movie due to the fact that it was made in 1979. That much said, it really is pretty dire.

Never mind the laughable back-projection or the awful, awful camera-tracking of supposed "in-flight" objects, it's the stunts that the Concorde pulls off that will have you blinking in disbelief at the absurdity. Barrel-rolls, loop-the-loops and violent "evasive" maneuvers left me wondering why the Air-Forces of the world didn't just fly Concordes as their main fighters.

So, here are the important lessons I learned from this celluloid cheese-fest:

1. The Concorde is at least as agile as a Phantom 4 jet-fighter.

2. You can fire a flare gun at Mach 2 simply by opening the cockpit window and sticking your arm out.

3. If the flare gun fails to discharge, do not drop it, as it may then go off.

4. The Concorde can dodge up to two Sidewinder missiles fired at it at once.

5. A flare will distract a heat-seeking missile every time.

6. Switching off your jet-engines is a sure-fire way of throwing heat-seeking missiles off track if 5 (above) fails.

7. When performing a crash-landing in the Concorde, it is apparently impossible to jettison your fuel beforehand.

8. Concorde pilots are all combat-trained veterans.

As you might imagine, this film is not very realistic. The effects are primitive by today's standards and that, coupled with the nonsense acrobatics the Concorde performs, makes this a movie deserving of little but scorn.

Not recommended. Not recommended at all!

CONCORDE: AIRPORT '79, THE (1979) **½ Alain Delon, Susan Blakely, Robert Wagner, Sylvia Kristel, George Kennedy. This fourth and final entry in the Airport series is arguably the weakest of the bunch, but it doesn't deserve the critical thrashing it's received over the years. True, the script is rife with hokey, often saccharine dialog (in one nauseating scene, a television reporter (John Davidson) and his Russian gymnast girlfriend recite wedding vows to each other when they think the plane is going down), and leaves far too many unresolved subplots (thanks mostly to the use of a huge ensemble cast of Hollywood has-beens, a series trademark). But Airport fans won't care, because the action is what matters and on that score, at least, The Concorde delivers. Even with its dated special effects, the movie still packs a wallop, delivering plenty of nail-biting suspense and a spectacular ending. Worth seeing.