Snow Bombs at the Airport
I watched Airport (1970) staring Burt Lancaster for the first time recently, thanks to TiVo.
The movie was the first in the "disaster" film genre. It has multiple plots, and a myriad of characters with personal conflicts. The film's setting is a Chicago airport, and the plots include infidelity, obstructed runways, abortion, noise abatement, and bombs. The villains (or heroes?): snow, cheating husbands, an old lady and a desperate passenger. The best part of this whole Oscar nominated film: it reminds us young ones that one time, not long ago, it was actually possible to stow-away on an airplane. "Security" checkpoints and I.D. checks are thoroughly (post)modern! Don't take the film too seriously, and you'll be entertained the whole way through. Plus, it is interesting to hear the pilots arguing over thrust levels.
The movie was the first in the "disaster" film genre. It has multiple plots, and a myriad of characters with personal conflicts. The film's setting is a Chicago airport, and the plots include infidelity, obstructed runways, abortion, noise abatement, and bombs. The villains (or heroes?): snow, cheating husbands, an old lady and a desperate passenger. The best part of this whole Oscar nominated film: it reminds us young ones that one time, not long ago, it was actually possible to stow-away on an airplane. "Security" checkpoints and I.D. checks are thoroughly (post)modern! Don't take the film too seriously, and you'll be entertained the whole way through. Plus, it is interesting to hear the pilots arguing over thrust levels.
posted by Quiche at 1:10 PM
2 Comments:
I haven't seen that movie, but your post got me thinking about a stowaways and how occasionally you still hear about them. Googling "stowaway airplane" brought up links to a case of a teenager stowing away (business class!) on a Boston-to-London flight in 1999 "to impress the Mossad." Apparently it wasn't that difficult to jump the fence and just walk on the damn plane.
More recently, and stretching the definition of stowaway beyond riding in the passenger compartment, there was this fool who shipped himself from NY to Dallas in 2003 and a gruesome story of how body parts fell on Long Island in 2005. Can you imagine finding a leg in your yard?! *shudder*
That is so freaky. But the woman who found the body parts took it well:
"But I am very glad that I live where I do," she said, "so I don't have to run for my life like this man probably was doing."
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