Rating: 
Summary: The Mother of all Airport films is the best one !
Review: Airport is surprisingly faithful to Arthur Hailey's book, with regards to the screenplay. Jacqueline Bisset is perfectly cast as a stewardess, as is Helen Hayes as the stowaway passenger. Van Heflin and Maureen Stapleton share many poignant moments, and a little seen Barbara Hale rounds out the shining stars very well. While I have seen this movie called "slow and plodding", you actually get quite involved with all the characters and know about their motivation before the crucial scene in the air where it all comes to pass. Of course, this huge success at box office has been let down by a... DVD release - it's in Pan & Scan. Why anyone would do this on a DVD is beyond me. Also, it's lacking a lot of extra features that a film of this calibre should have on a DVD. Regardless, the film is an awesome piece of entertainment, faithful to the novel (without the "boring parts") and is supurbly acted by a stellar cast. It deserved to be the runaway worldwide success it was.
Rating: 
Summary: Classic disaster film, mixed quality DVD- 4 * movie, 3 * DVD
Review: I'll admit it: Airport is a guilty pleasure of mine. It's a classic disaster film, spiritual father to all from the Poseidon Adventure to the present day. We learn the stories of the people aboard a bomb-laden Rome bound flight, and those on the ground fighting a blizzard and blocked runway to get them home. Characters are a little thin, a little soap-opera-y, but better than many modern films. Helen Hayes in particular, is terrific in her Oscar winning role. The DVD is of mixed quality, a nice presentation of an un-remastered copy of the film. Some dirt and scratches are evident, but color and sharpness are fairly good. Screen aspect shifts, usually cropped pan & scan, but occasionally letter-boxed to preserve some wider shots. Film length is misstated on the box, at 136 minutes, not the 91 listed. Recommended for all disaster fans.
Rating:
Summary: This is where it all began
Review: There have been a few disasters and monsters before this movie. However this is the one credited as the beginning of the airplay disaster movies. These have included some sequels and even the "Air Plane" spoofs.
It is fun to look back at the different actors and remember or see them for the first time in a younger body.
The film has several overlapping and intertwining stories; some of the stories seem like soap operas.
A few mentionable scenarios are Mel Bakersfield (Burt Lancaster); airport manager is accused of placing his work before his family. He gets berated in the middle of a crisis by his probably to be ex-wife Cindy Bakersfeld (Dana Winter). Does he also get distracted by his beautiful and efficient assistant? Throw in a pilot playboy, Capt. Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin) that is forced to evaluate fatherhood. For comic relief we have Ada Quonsett a geriatric stowaway. Then for the drama there is someone who has nothing to lose and everything to gain if the plane mysteriously does not reach its destination; the man with an attaché case D. O. Guerrero (Van Heflin.)
I am not going to go through the whole story it is for fun if you get to speculate on what is going to happen. How ever I must say one of my favorite characters is Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) operations chief that is tasked with clearing the runway of a stuck 707. See him again as the corrupt lawyer, Uncle Andrew, in Agatha Christie's "Death on the Nile."
Rating: 
Summary: The granddaddy of all disaster flicks!
Review: "Airport" was the movie that started the disaster genre. It's actually a very suspenseful film if you can get past the dated sets, costumes, hairdos, cheesy dialogue and some cardboard characters. Anyway, about the film. It takes place during a blizzard at Lincoln International Airport and features a wide variety of characters to walk through. There is Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster), who is having an affair with a passenger relations manager, Tanya Livingston (Jean Seburg), while trying to avoid his mean wife, Cindy (Dana Wynter). Then we have a little old lady stowaway, Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes), who boards a plane where the Captain (Dean Martin) is having an affair with the chief stewardess (Jacqueline Bissett), while trying to save the plane from being destroyed by a nutcase with a bomb in his briefcase (Van Heflin). All the while, a plane gets stuck in the snow which blocks the primary runway, forcing an aircraft mechanic, Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) to start shoveling FAST with his crew. Oh, almost forgot the nutcase's wife, Inez (Maureen Stapleton) who tries to stop him before it is too late. I think that is everyone I got! Anyway, if you are looking for die hard action, skip this flim, it's more soap-operaish than anything, but the acting is outstanding and little helen Hayes even won an Oscar! This film was so popular (and also the Arthur Hailey book of the same name), that is spawned 3 successful sequels in the next 10 years. If you like disaster, snow, colorful characters and a wide assortment of ridiculous situations, then "Airport" is your film!
Rating:
Summary: The Airport Films Take Off
Review: As the first of the popular Airport movies, this film laid the groundwork and patterns for what would come - take a bunch of actors, some new and some veteran, give them each little melodramatic subplots, and link them together via aviation disaster. This one concerns the problems that beset a Chicago airport when a huge snowstorm strikes the same night a looney tunes passenger decides to blow a hole with dynamite in a plane en route to Rome. Dean Martin and Barry Nelson are the pilots on board trying to get the plane safely back to Chicago, while Burt Lancaster, Jean Seberg, and of course, George Kennedy work on the ground to solve the problems. There's too much emphasis put on melodrama and failing marriages, but the last half of the film works well when the suspense kicks in. The leads are all okay, but it's a few of the supporting performances that work best. Maureen Stapleton is very believable and touching as the bomber's wife who is too late to prevent the tragedy, while Van Heflin as the bomber is appropriately intense. Helen Hayes provides some of the film's best moments as a crafty stowaway, although the single best moment is provided by a priest towards the end who has a perfect way to shut up a panicked passenger. Airport is very much a film of its time, but it is fun to watch, particularly once you've made it through the soap opera of the first half. When the plane gets off the ground, so does the story.
Rating:
Summary: The granddaddy of all disaster flicks!
Review: "Airport" was the movie that started the disaster genre. It's actually a very suspenseful film if you can get past the dated sets, costumes, hairdos, cheesy dialogue and some cardboard characters. Anyway, about the film. It takes place during a blizzard at Lincoln International Airport and features a wide variety of characters to walk through. There is Airport manager Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster), who is having an affair with a passenger relations manager, Tanya Livingston (Jean Seburg), while trying to avoid his mean wife, Cindy (Dana Wynter). Then we have a little old lady stowaway, Ada Quonsett (Helen Hayes), who boards a plane where the Captain (Dean Martin) is having an affair with the chief stewardess (Jacqueline Bissett), while trying to save the plane from being destroyed by a nutcase with a bomb in his briefcase (Van Heflin). All the while, a plane gets stuck in the snow which blocks the primary runway, forcing an aircraft mechanic, Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) to start shoveling FAST with his crew. Oh, almost forgot the nutcase's wife, Inez (Maureen Stapleton) who tries to stop him before it is too late. I think that is everyone I got! Anyway, if you are looking for die hard action, skip this flim, it's more soap-operaish than anything, but the acting is outstanding and little helen Hayes even won an Oscar! This film was so popular (and also the Arthur Hailey book of the same name), that is spawned 3 successful sequels in the next 10 years. If you like disaster, snow, colorful characters and a wide assortment of ridiculous situations, then "Airport" is your film!
Rating:
Summary: Airport
Review: The movie Was Well Made.ive seen this more than 20 times.The cast was great.I liked Helen Hayes she was funny.
Rating:
Summary: good but not great
Review: One of those All-Star production during the seventies.
Much better than the following Airport-Films.
A sentimental Oscar for Helen Hayes,she was really a great actress,but her performance was only solide and not outstanding.
Maureen Stapleton gives the best and greatest performance in this
film,her role was small but but most interesting.The Academy Award had should goes to her.Fine Turns by Lancaster and Martin.
Rating:
Summary: Still a Thrill
Review: Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin star in this film about life and work around an airport for the employees and passengers. It is a mix of suspense and drama, of the sort that is still a thrill today, and while airports were safer during this time, the film exposes the caps that were apparent even then. Dean Martin's performance is especially memorable, as it is very different from his work with Jerry Lewis or parts thereafter (no singing). However, in the form of a brainy teener there is still something of a Jerry Lewis-type-character for the man of "That's Amore" to contend with. A film that will entertain and intrigue!
Rating:
Summary: The original airplane disaster movie
Review: This first of the big airplane disaster movies features an outstanding cast, a host of distinctive characters, and a widely interesting web of subplots. While all things lead to disaster in the air, there is a much greater human component to Airport than what you will see in the disaster movies of today. Perhaps the human drama does not play out to perfection on one or two occasions, yet it all kept my rapt fascination even as I wondered why disaster had not yet struck an hour and a half into the film (which lasts for two hours and seventeen minutes). Airport (1970) picked up ten Academy Award nominations, including best picture, Helen Hayes walked away from it with her second Oscar, and a host of sequels followed in its wake, so obviously it did many things right. The first half of the film actually seems like some kind of 1970s TV pilot. Mel Bakersfield (Burt Lancaster) is the airport manager working himself to death in order to keep the place running smoothly, campaigning when he can for expansion and modernization. His brother-in-law pilot Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin) assumes the role of Bakersfield's antagonist, criticizing airport measures for keeping the runways operational and the flights on schedule, especially on nights such as the one in question, when a major snowstorm is wreaking havoc on the ground as well as in the air. Bakersfield is locked in an unhappy marriage with a regal yet noxious social gadfly, facing the fact that the woman he now cares about may be leaving her job at the airport for a better opportunity elsewhere. Demerest has some kind of marriage of convenience to Bakerfield's sister, and he is carrying on with a lovely and suddenly pregnant stewardess (they still called them stewardesses back in 1970) played by the engaging Jacqueline Bisset. Then you have the heavy of the group, Joe Patroni (George "If it's an airplane movie, I'm in it" Kennedy), the only man for the job of getting an airplane stuck in the snow out of the way of the main landing strip. Helen Hayes plays a delightfully entertaining serial stowaway, and while she is naturally fantastic in her role, the size and importance of her part would not seem to merit the Best Actress award she received for her performance. About the time you start looking for Aaron Spelling's name to come up in the closing credits, we are finally introduced to a nervous fellow putting together an attaché case of explosives. He is presented in the most sentimental of lights, and one can't help but feel sorry for him and for the rash decision he has made, nor can one do anything but curse the otherwise forgettable character who plays the dumbest airplane passenger in history. Eventually, the plane takes off for Rome with both the stowaway and the bomber on board; soon thereafter, puzzle pieces begin to fall into place, and the pilots, aware of the danger, try to turn around and head for home. Their safe return faces two major obstacles: the bomber on board and the stuck airplane jutting out on the only landing strip they can safely attempt to land on through the roaring blizzard. Don't expect a lot of special effects or outrageous acts of unrealistic heroics (although there is a priest who delivers a most unorthodox and intensely satisfying blessing to the aforementioned dumbest airplane passenger on earth). What happens is presented very well, but the real drama lies in the characters' relationships. I am a huge Dean Martin fan, and I thought the man delivered a terrific dramatic performance in this movie, standing equally beside the likes of the legendary Lancaster, Bisset, and Hayes. The story may seem to develop slowly for those used to or expecting quick and impressive action and special effects, but this movie follows the old creed that there can be no real tragedy unless the audience knows and cares about the characters.
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