Airport ’77, the third film in the Airport series, gets a beautiful upgrade to 4K UHD thanks to Kino, which comes with special features and a new 4K restoration.
The Film
When terrorists take over a plane to steal priceless pieces of art, you call Wesley Snipes. No, not if it’s 1977. Who do you call then? It was 1977, it had to be Harrison “Get off My Plane” Ford! Wrong again, hotshot. No, you call a mustachioed Jack Lemmon?!?! Yes, that’s right. The latest entry in the disaster series has Jack Lemmon as a grizzled veteran pilot working for James Stewart’s millionaire.
When a terrorist’s (played by Gil Gerrard or, as he was known in the early 80s… GIL GERRARD – for those that remember those TV Ads for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) “perfect plan” goes to hell, a new prototype luxury liner airplane crashes in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. Yes, that’s right, the Bermuda Triangle. The remaining crew and passengers are slowly sinking to the bottom of the Ocean with no hope. It is up to that grizzled pilot (played by Lemmon) to guide these panic-stricken men and women to safety. The Navy and Joe Petroni (series regular George Kennedy) begin the search for the downed plane. Will they find it in time??
That last question was merely a rhetorical one. We know exactly what the outcome of this, the third film in the long-running series, will be. One has to give credit to everyone involved, as the entire cast and crew of Airport ’77 give it their all and then some. The entire film feels like it’s on a Spinal Tap “11”. The film is over-the-top in the best way that those kinds of films can be. From Christopher Lee and Lee Grant as a married couple slinging insults to one another to Kathleen Quinlan throwing googly eyes at the blind piano-playing lounge singer, there isn’t a single performance, story, or action beat that isn’t juicy.
The film, directed by Jerry Jameson, knows that it isn’t high art or even high entertainment. Airport ’77 knows it’s just direct big-budget entertaining melodrama. There isn’t a single line of dialogue or plot thread by the four credited screenwriters, Michael Scheff, David Spector, H. A. L. Craig, and Charles Kuenstle, that isn’t brittle drama bordering on parody. Thankfully, the film is cast with a who’s who of legends, character actors, and up-and-coming actors of the time, who make everything work. Even when it doesn’t work, it’s still damn entertaining. Lines like “dammit, you hit him too hard… you killed him” are just too fun as they are drily delivered.
Jack Lemmon action lead could have been a joke to end all jokes. Somehow, it isn’t a joke as the star managed to acquit himself in the role quite well. Thankfully, the film does not resort to having him fight anyone, but the physicality of the role and how Lemmon pulls it off is one of the more delightfully strange successes of the film. Though James Stewart’s appearance in the film can only be labelled as crass stunt casting. The legend does nothing but stare incredulously at others as they tell him bad news. There is a Christopher Lee moment underwater that will have one rewinding multiple times, as this reviewer did, because of the ludicrousness of it. The same goes for the fight that Lee Grant gets into with a stewardess. The film is filled with these overripe moments that the actors overplay, but somehow manages to be the perfect pastiche of crazy 70s studio filmmaking.
Airport ’77 is as entertaining as any of the Airport series and of the disaster subgenre as a whole.
The Transfer
The all-new HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative is an excellent representation of cinematographers Philip H. Lathrop and Rexford Metz’s 35mm shot film. The 4K UHD disc is astounding in its clarity, depth, and color reproduction. The clarity the transfer brings to the model work alone is worth the price of admission. The Dolby Vision imbues the blacks with a level of refined detail that Blu-ray just can’t produce. Airport ‘77, in its 4K UHD format, is a great example of just the kind of restoration work that Kino Lorber is doing to bring films like this to life for a new generation of film fans.
The Extras
They include the following;
DISC 1 (4KUHD):
NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Writer Julie Kirgo and Writer/Filmmaker Peter Hankoff
DISC 2 (BLU-RAY):
NEW Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Writer Julie Kirgo and Writer/Filmmaker Peter Hankoff
Theatrical Trailer (Newly Mastered in 2K)
The all-new Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Writer Julie Kirgo and Writer/Filmmaker Peter Hankoff begins with Hankoff talking about being a “flight school” dropout, but still having 11 hours of flight time. Kirgo discusses her personal experience as a Junior Publicist at Universal Studios at the time, and a party that was thrown for the film. Some of the details include what their personal favorite moments, actors, of the series – including what their favorite film was; the tropes and clichés of the Airport series both in films and how they were produced; a great aside about Laserdisc; a discussion of the career and personal history of producer Jennings Lang; the production history of the Airport series; a discussion of the career and personal history of director Jerry Jameson; the Visual FX work in the film; the career and personal history of cinematographer Philip H. Lathrop; a larger discussion of the various actors that appear in the film; a larger discussion of the various locations that were used in and around Florida to shoot the film; and much more.
Rounding out the special features are trailers for Airport [Newly Mastered in 2K] (3:34); Airport 1975 [Newly Mastered in 2K] (2:59); Airport ’77 [Newly Mastered in 2K] (2:52); The Concorde… Airport ’79 (3:08); Turbulence (2:00); Dante’s Peak (1:25);
The Final Thought
Kino Lorber has brought the Airport series back to life with these 4K UHD upgrades. Highest possible recommendations!
Airport ’77, the third film in the Airport series, gets a beautiful upgrade to 4K UHD thanks to Kino, which comes with special features and a new 4K restoration.
The Film
When terrorists take over a plane to steal priceless pieces of art, you call Wesley Snipes. No, not if it’s 1977. Who do you call then? It was 1977, it had to be Harrison “Get off My Plane” Ford! Wrong again, hotshot. No, you call a mustachioed Jack Lemmon?!?! Yes, that’s right. The latest entry in the disaster series has Jack Lemmon as a grizzled veteran pilot working for James Stewart’s millionaire.
When a terrorist’s (played by Gil Gerrard or, as he was known in the early 80s… GIL GERRARD – for those that remember those TV Ads for Buck Rogers in the 25th Century) “perfect plan” goes to hell, a new prototype luxury liner airplane crashes in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle. Yes, that’s right, the Bermuda Triangle. The remaining crew and passengers are slowly sinking to the bottom of the Ocean with no hope. It is up to that grizzled pilot (played by Lemmon) to guide these panic-stricken men and women to safety. The Navy and Joe Petroni (series regular George Kennedy) begin the search for the downed plane. Will they find it in time??
That last question was merely a rhetorical one. We know exactly what the outcome of this, the third film in the long-running series, will be. One has to give credit to everyone involved, as the entire cast and crew of Airport ’77 give it their all and then some. The entire film feels like it’s on a Spinal Tap “11”. The film is over-the-top in the best way that those kinds of films can be. From Christopher Lee and Lee Grant as a married couple slinging insults to one another to Kathleen Quinlan throwing googly eyes at the blind piano-playing lounge singer, there isn’t a single performance, story, or action beat that isn’t juicy.
The film, directed by Jerry Jameson, knows that it isn’t high art or even high entertainment. Airport ’77 knows it’s just direct big-budget entertaining melodrama. There isn’t a single line of dialogue or plot thread by the four credited screenwriters, Michael Scheff, David Spector, H. A. L. Craig, and Charles Kuenstle, that isn’t brittle drama bordering on parody. Thankfully, the film is cast with a who’s who of legends, character actors, and up-and-coming actors of the time, who make everything work. Even when it doesn’t work, it’s still damn entertaining. Lines like “dammit, you hit him too hard… you killed him” are just too fun as they are drily delivered.
Jack Lemmon action lead could have been a joke to end all jokes. Somehow, it isn’t a joke as the star managed to acquit himself in the role quite well. Thankfully, the film does not resort to having him fight anyone, but the physicality of the role and how Lemmon pulls it off is one of the more delightfully strange successes of the film. Though James Stewart’s appearance in the film can only be labelled as crass stunt casting. The legend does nothing but stare incredulously at others as they tell him bad news. There is a Christopher Lee moment underwater that will have one rewinding multiple times, as this reviewer did, because of the ludicrousness of it. The same goes for the fight that Lee Grant gets into with a stewardess. The film is filled with these overripe moments that the actors overplay, but somehow manages to be the perfect pastiche of crazy 70s studio filmmaking.
Airport ’77 is as entertaining as any of the Airport series and of the disaster subgenre as a whole.
The Transfer
The all-new HDR/Dolby Vision Master – From a 4K Scan of the 35mm Original Camera Negative is an excellent representation of cinematographers Philip H. Lathrop and Rexford Metz’s 35mm shot film. The 4K UHD disc is astounding in its clarity, depth, and color reproduction. The clarity the transfer brings to the model work alone is worth the price of admission. The Dolby Vision imbues the blacks with a level of refined detail that Blu-ray just can’t produce. Airport ‘77, in its 4K UHD format, is a great example of just the kind of restoration work that Kino Lorber is doing to bring films like this to life for a new generation of film fans.
The Extras
They include the following;
DISC 1 (4KUHD):
DISC 2 (BLU-RAY):
The all-new Audio Commentary by Film Historian/Writer Julie Kirgo and Writer/Filmmaker Peter Hankoff begins with Hankoff talking about being a “flight school” dropout, but still having 11 hours of flight time. Kirgo discusses her personal experience as a Junior Publicist at Universal Studios at the time, and a party that was thrown for the film. Some of the details include what their personal favorite moments, actors, of the series – including what their favorite film was; the tropes and clichés of the Airport series both in films and how they were produced; a great aside about Laserdisc; a discussion of the career and personal history of producer Jennings Lang; the production history of the Airport series; a discussion of the career and personal history of director Jerry Jameson; the Visual FX work in the film; the career and personal history of cinematographer Philip H. Lathrop; a larger discussion of the various actors that appear in the film; a larger discussion of the various locations that were used in and around Florida to shoot the film; and much more.
Rounding out the special features are trailers for Airport [Newly Mastered in 2K] (3:34); Airport 1975 [Newly Mastered in 2K] (2:59); Airport ’77 [Newly Mastered in 2K] (2:52); The Concorde… Airport ’79 (3:08); Turbulence (2:00); Dante’s Peak (1:25);
The Final Thought
Kino Lorber has brought the Airport series back to life with these 4K UHD upgrades. Highest possible recommendations!
Kino Lorber’s 4K UHD Edition of Airport ‘77 is out September 30th
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