One film I’ve always felt has never received its due respect is Airport (1970), which is now best known as the first all-star disaster flick of the 1970s.  That is true, but it’s much better than that.  Nominated for ten Academy Awards including Best Picture, Airport was an acclaimed hit as well as a blockbuster, with good reason.

Based on Arthur Hailey’s fantastic novel — one of only a few books I’ve ever read multiple times — George Seaton’s movie brings to life one of the most remarkable and exciting urban milieus imaginable: a metropolitan airport.  Such a place teems with life both organic and mechanical, where lives intersect and collide, sometimes literally.  And when one man brings a bomb aboard his flight to Rome, the suspense jumps to new heights.

It is true that a few of the characters are rather cardboard and that an air of “soap opera” pervades at least two major relationships.  Even so those relationships are handled with sensitivity.

I love the all-star cast, including Dean Martin as the Boeing 707 pilot.  His reputation as a drunk has led some viewers to ridicule his casting, but I never fail to be moved by his earnest performance.  Helen Hayes won an Oscar for her stowaway role and Maureen Stapleton was also nominated.  As unlikely as it may seem, the guy who runs away with the picture is George Kennedy, which led to his becoming the only character to be featured in all three sequels, each time with a higher-level job!

Alfred Newman’s main theme is perfect, although his “love story” music is pretty syrupy.  And while the domestic issues that hound the airport executives and pilots are not as exciting as what happens to them at work, those issues help frame the drama and provide emotional context.  I’ve loved this movie ever since I saw its first network television showing back on Nov. 11, 1973.  My rating:  ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆.  (10:4).