Taglines: The #1 novel of the year – now a motion picture!
Airport movie storyline. This precursor to later “epic” 70’s disaster films illustrates 12 hours in the lives of the personnel and passengers at the “Lincoln Airport.” Endless problems, professional and personal, are thrown at the various personnel responsible for the safe and proper administration of air traffic, airline management and aviation at a major US airport.
Take one severe snowstorm, add multiple schedules gone awry, one elderly Trans Global Airlines stowaway, shortages, an aging, meretricious pilot, unreasonable, peevish spouses, manpower issues, fuel problems, frozen runways and equipment malfunctions and you get just a sample of the obstacles faced by weary, disgruntled personnel and passengers at the Lincoln Airport. Toss in one long-suffering pilot’s wife, several stubborn men, office politics and romance and one passenger with a bomb and you have the film “Airport” from 1970.
Airport is a 1970 American air disaster-drama film written and directed by George Seaton and starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin. Based on Arthur Hailey’s 1968 novel of the same name, it originated the 1970s disaster film genre. It is also the first in the Airport film series. Produced on a $10 million budget, it earned over $100 million.
The film is about an airport manager trying to keep his airport open during a snowstorm, while a suicide bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 airliner in flight. It takes place at fictional Lincoln International Airport near Chicago, Illinois. The film was a commercial success and surpassed Spartacus as Universal Pictures’ biggest moneymaker. The movie won Helen Hayes an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her role as an elderly stowaway and was nominated for nine other Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, and Best Costume Design for designer Edith Head.
With attention paid to the detail of day-to-day airport and airline operations, the plot concerns the response to a paralyzing snowstorm, environmental concerns over noise pollution, and an attempt to blow up an airliner. The film is characterized by personal stories intertwining while decisions are made minute-by-minute by the airport and airline staffs, operations and maintenance crews, flight crews, and Federal Aviation Administration air traffic controllers. Ernest Laszlo photographed it in 70 mm Todd-AO. It is the last film scored by Alfred Newman and the last film role for Van Heflin and Jessie Royce Landis. It was also Ross Hunter’s last film produced for Universal after a 17-year tenure.
Airport (1970)
Directed by: George Seaton
Starring: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Barbara Hale, Dana Wynter, Jessie Royce Landis, Gary Collins, John Findlater, Barry Nelson
Screenplay by: George Seaton
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Ernest Laszlo
Film Editing by: Stuart Gilmore
Costume Design by: Edith Head
Set Decoration by: Mickey S. Michaels, Jack D. Moore
Art Direction by: E. Preston Ames, Alexander Golitzen
Music by: Alfred Newman
MPAA Rating: None.
Distributed by: Universal Pictures
Release Date: May 29, 1970 (United States)
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