Airport 1975

Directed by: Jack Smight
Music by: John Cacavas
Starring: Charlton Heston, Karen Black, George Kennedy, Gloria Swanson, Efrem Zimbalist, Jr., Myrna Loy, Dana Andrews
MPAA rating: PG
My Rating: 6 out of 10

After I saw the first Airport, I immediately wanted to take a peek at the three sequels that were made. I was warned by certain film critics that the three that followed were not up to the standard of the original, but I was a little unprepared for the ways in which this one departed from the original. As a result, after I finished watching it I came out thinking: “Good, but…Why?”

Airport 1975 begins by introducing two lovers, head pilot Al Murdock (Charlton Heston) and stewardess Nancy Pryor (Karen Black) as they prepare to travel to Los Angeles. Murdock leaves early and reaches LA without incident. However, Nancy’s trip takes a different twist. A businessman (Dana Andrews) flying a twin engine business plane, suddenly dies and his plane spins out of control and smashes into the flight deck of the plane Nancy is flying on, wiping out the flight crew.

With no one aboard who can land the plane, and the plane flying out of control through the mountains of Utah, Murdock teams up with Joe Patroni (George Kennedy) and rushes to Utah where they try to pull off a mid-air transfer to get a pilot into the damaged plane to bring it back under control and land it safely before it crashes into the mountains.

It is a good plot and the tense buildup to the accident is one of the best I have ever seen. In addition the special effects are amazing, especially the shots of the plane flying out of control through the mountains. However, the film departs from the original in regards to character development and morality. The characters are not as developed as in the original and as a result the characters are seen as weak-minded people with no purpose in life but alcohol, pleasure or envy. Flirtations between the flight crew and stewardesses are annoying and unnecessary, and they don’t really seem to be people until the disaster hits. Also, swearing and bad language run rampant in this movie and is inexcusable. Unlike Airport however, the language issues even go so far as to ruin the dialogue in certain areas which makes it that much more inexcusable.

Overall this movie had potential to be as good as the original, and if you can put up with (or fast forward through) the junky parts it might be worth seeing, but if you watch it expecting something as good as the original than you are in for a disappointment. Oh, and prepare for Karen Black to freak you out at certain points of the movie.