‘Airplane’ soars in Blu-ray
McClatchy Newspapers
Robert Hays never expected “Airplane!’ to be anything more than a cult classic that would play on college campuses.
“None of us ever expected it would become so influential on comedy films. In fact, the producer, Jon Davison, came on the set one day and said it didn’t look good. Everyone was laughing at the dailies and if the dailies are too good, the film won’t be good,” Hays says.
What everyone was seeing in the daily filming was a production that took the absurdity and quick pacing of a Marx Brothers movie and added a modern spin to poke fun at big-budget action movies. Jokes — both verbal and visual — came at such a fast clip that multiple viewings became a must.
Those jokes can be appreciated again and again with today’s release of “Airplane!” on Blu-ray for the first time. The film also stars Leslie Nielsen, Julie Hagerty, Robert Stack, Lloyd Bridges and Peter Graves.
“Airplane!” has made more than $83 million at the box office, which would equate to about $200 million if adjusted for today’s ticket prices.
Fans flocked to see the comic insanity created by writers/directors Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker. The filmmakers went against normal thinking and cast dramatic actors — Nielsen, Stack, Graves and Bridges — to handle the comic parts. Hays had no trouble picking up the absurd nature of the movie but some of his co-stars struggled.
“Airplane!” was so different, it took five years of studio rejections before Paramount agreed to make it.