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This was the period, the 1970s, when flying was gradually becoming mainstream, shifting from a luxury reserved for the super-rich to the middle class, but not quite to the stage where 'everyone can fly'!
This was also the time when moviemakers were fascinated with big production sets. The old charm of goodness prevailing over evil remains. In that era, too, people were fascinated by real-life disasters. Movies like The Poseidon Adventure, Earthquake, and Jaws captured everyone's imagination.
The Airport series collectively delivered big box-office returns. Its cast included big names at the height of their careers. Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, Jean Serberg, Jacqueline Bisset, Charlton Heston, Karen Black, singer Helen Reddy, Erik Estrada, Linda Blair, Jack Lemmon, Christopher Lee (of Dracula fame), James Stewart, Robert Wagner, Alan Delon and George Kennedy (who appeared in all four films) are some of those in this film.
If one were to follow the Airport series, one would find it slowly becoming absurd with time. The first one deals with a Boeing 707 being partly blown up by a depressed man, and how this decompressed machine tries to land amidst a snowstorm. In the second instalment, a light aircraft crashes into a Boeing 747, busting the cockpit and injuring the only surviving pilot. The First Stewardess has to man the flight to safety. The third one, a private Boeing 747, was hijacked for the priceless art it was carrying. The passengers, the Captain and the crew are incapacitated by poisonous gas. The rogue co-pilot took charge but crashed into an oil rig, and the plane plunged into the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. The final episode turned out to be comical. A Concorde was seen dodging surface-to-air missiles and got away. An arms dealer, fearing that his nefarious activities would come to light, decided to blast the whistleblower on the plane.
With negative reviews of the fourth instalment, the producers decided to end the franchise. The story is based on Arthur Hailey's book. The 'Airport' movies remain a "trip down memory lane" for fans of 1970s cinema and pre-digital special effects.
Farouk Gulsara (asokansham@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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