What's surprising about the influential comedy classic Airplane! is not its constant bombardment of visual jokes and silly puns, but that there were few, if any, comedies before 1980 that tried to do what Jerry Zucker, David Zucker, and Jim Abrahams did. The classics by Billy Wilder or Woody Allen were zany, but were not rapid-fire one-liners through and through. Airplane! ushered in a whole new genre of comedy. The Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker writing and directing team would of course eventually go on to create the Naked Gun trilogy with Leslie Nielsen at the helm, but this was their first foray into the absurdity of filmmaking.
Watching them pummel the viewer with gag after gag in under 90 minutes is kind of like watching a fisherman cast out a really big net with the knowledge that at least he'll catch a few good ones when he rakes it back in again. These guys pull out every knee-slapper, belly-groaner and movie spoof in the book. Did I mention spoof? To name but a few, there's Saturday Night Fever, Jaws, and, of course, Airport. Sure, not every joke hits the target, but boy is it fun being along for the ride.
The plot involves ex-pilot Ted Striker (Robert Hays) desparately trying to win back the affections of his girlfriend, the lovely flight attendant Elaine (Julie Hagerty). And that's about it. There is an emergency onboard that requires Striker to face his demons and get back into the driver's seat of a plane, but that's not what's important right now.
The parts of the movie I found funniest were all in the cockpit. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Roger), Peter Graves (Oveur), and Frank Ashmore (Victor) have a brilliant scene where they get confused with each other's names ("What's the vector, Victor, over." "Roger, Roger.",etc.) Then there's the sequence where Elaine has to manually inflate the rubber pilot and both of them need a cigarette afterwards.
I can't really type a whole lot about the joy of Airplane! -- it's one of those movies that is more fun talking about with friends, rehashing some of the classic jokes ("Remember the scene when..."). What I can tell you is that I've watched this movie many times, and "surely" it's a testament to the Zucker/Abrahams/Zucker team that I can find new things to laugh at each time through.
