Please fasten your seatbelts: ‘Airport’ takes off in 4K Ultra-HD
- Craig Shapiro
- 3 hours ago
- 5 min read
4K ULTRA HD REVIEW / HDR SCREENSHOTS
Bombs away! Veteran pilot Vern Demerest (Dean Martin) tries to talk down-on-his-luck passenger D,O. Guerrero (Van Heflin) into handing over his briefcase. Why? Its packed with dynamite.
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“AIRPORT”
4K Ultra HD & Blu-ray, 1970, rated G
Best extra: The commentary by authors Julie Kirgo and C. Courtney Joyner, but only by default
THE CRITICS weren’t exactly kind to “Airport.” Roger Ebert dismissed it as “metaphysically absurd” and, in his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote: “[It is] an immensely silly film — and it will probably entertain millions of people who no longer care very much about movies.”
Ouch!
The main issue was its heavy melodrama — think “Days of Our Flights” or “The Young and the Airborne.”
It seems that everyone has problems. Airport manager Mel Bakersfield (Burt Lancaster, “The Train,” “Elmer Gantry”) is dealing with a hellacious blizzard that has shut down his main runway, a commission that wants to close the airport and picketers who aren’t keen on all the noise. Plus, his marriage is on life support.
(1) “Airport” premiered in New York City on March 5, 1970. (2) Air traffic controllers keep tabs on an approaching snowstorm. The St. Paul, Minn., airport subs for fictional Lincoln International. (3) Airport manager Mel Bakersfield (Burt Lancaster, left) and a Trans Global Airline groundcrew member plot how to remove a stuck Boeing 707 blocking the main runway. (4) Vern — a married man — tries to get his girlfriend, flight attendant Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), to put off packing for just a few minutes. (5) Mel tells his wife Cindy (Dana Wynter) and daughters that he’s stuck at work. The Bakersfield’s marriage is on the rocks. (6) Mel and guest relations manager Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg) get close. She has a thing for him.
Pilot Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin, “Rio Bravo”) has knocked up his girlfriend, flight attendant Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset, “Day for Night”). Vern also doesn’t like how his brother-in-law runs the airport and has told the brass so.
Guest relations manager Tanya Livingston (Jean Seberg, “Paint Your Wagon”) has a thing for Mel.
Cigar-chewing Joe Patroni (George Kennedy, “Cool Hand Luke”) had to put a cozy night with his wife on hold to dig out a crippled plane.
And poor D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin, “Shane”) can’t hold a job. What does he do? Build a bomb, take out insurance to provide for his waitress wife Inez (Maureen Stapleton, ''Reds”) and buy a one-way ticket on a flight to Rome. And D.O. Guerrero (Van Heflin, “Shane”) can’t hold a job. He builds a bomb, buys insurance to provide for his waitress wife Inez (Maureen Stapleton, ''Reds”) and boards a flight to Rome.
The only person having a good time is the cheerful serial stowaway Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes, “A Farewell to Arms”).
But it’s those extra helpings of melodrama that made “Airport” such a success — one of the few salient points that authors Julie Kirgo and C. Courtney Vance make in their otherwise frustrating, scattershot commentary.
(1) Mel doesn’t pull any punches when he tells Commissioner Ackerman (Larry Gates) why Lincoln is in such a hairy situation: the commission’s shortsightedness and tight pursestrings. (2&3) Vern and pilot Anson Harris (Barry Nelson) head for the plane while passengers wait to finally board. (4&5) Vern, Anson and pilot Cy Jordan (Gary Collins) catch a break in the weather and prepare for takeoff.
Directed by George Seaton (“Miracle on 34th Street”) and based on Arthur Hailey’s runaway bestseller, “Airport” raked in $100,489,150, finishing second at the box office to “Love Story’s” $106,397,186 and proving beyond all doubt that melodrama sells.
It also piled up 10 Academy Award nominations, including best picture, screenplay (Seaton), cinematography (Ernest Laszlo, “Ship of Fools”), and original score (Alfred Newman, “The King and I”), and won a second Oscar for Hayes. It spawned three sequels (available on 4K UHD), kicked off a slew of ’70s disaster flicks — some better (“The Poseidon Adventure,” “The Towering Inferno”), some not so much (“Earthquake”) — and gave us the hit spoof “Airplane!”
So, will Mel get his runway open in time? Will he hook up with Tanya? Will Vern stick by Gwen or go home to his faithful wife Sarah (Barbara Hale, “Perry Mason”)? Will Ada ever get to visit her daughter in New York? Will Inez get the insurance money? And who survives the blast?
VIDEO/AUDIO
One thing everyone can agree on is that “Airport” looks spectacular in 4K. Sourced from a 35mm interpositive from the original large-format 65mm TODD-AO camera negative, and done up in Dolby Vision and HDR10, colors are broader, organic and more nuanced while the heightened resolution brings out every detail, from Edith Head’s wardrobes (she was nominated for an Oscar, too) to every flake of snow.
The only time the clarity drops off is during the multi-split screens, from two to four screens at once. It became a trendy editing technique during the 1960s and was first used with success in Universal Pictures’ “Pillow Talk” (1959).
Kino Lorber also provides two audio tracks: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and 2.0. No problems there. Suspense is heightened, dialogue couldn’t be clearer and Newman’s final score — he passed a month before the movie’s March 1970 release — serves notice from the first scene.
EXTRAS
As mentioned, the Kirgo-France commentary, the only extra, is frustrating, and that’s being kind. When they aren’t talking over each other they dig deep into people’s reading habits in 1970 instead of discussing what’s happening on-screen. If that’s your thing, go for it.
At any rate, don’t let that stop you from booking a ticket. “Airport” may not be high art, but it gets major points for fulfilling movie-making’s No. 1 requirement: It’s entertaining.
— Craig Shapiro
(1) Serial stowaway Ada Quonsett (Oscar-winner Helen Hayes) tries assure D.O. that he has no reason to worry. She doesn’t know the half of it. (2&3) The moment of truth: Vern sweet-talks D.O. then reaches for an oxygen mask after the briefcase goes boom. (4) A doctor on board tends to Gwen, who’s gravely injured by the blast. (5&6) After the damaged plane makes it back to Lincoln, everyone exhales.
SPECS:
100 GB disc
TRUE 4K mastering
Originally captured on 5-perf 65mm TODD-AO format (2.20:1 aspect), developed by Broadway producer Michael Todd. In 1970, 15 theaters in the U.S. exhibited “Airport” in 70mm, and the rest of the theaters used a 35mm print (2.35:1 aspect).
Average video bitrate: 78 Megabits per second
HDR10 maximum light level: 403 nit
Mas frame average light level: 124 nit
Box office: $100,489,150 domestically, with a production budget of $10 million, and sold nearly 65 million tickets.
Academy Awards: Nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Picture, two Best Supporting Actress, Best Writing based on Material from Another Medium, Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction, Best Costume, Best Sound, Best Film Editing, Best Score, and won for Best Supporting Actress.