Boy, Do I Need A Laugh

Welcome back, and for those of you daring to join me after that epic act of film priapism that was my Mulholland Drive ramble, may I say you are one patient character.  I'm writing this on the same day that the US Congress passed the AHCA.  I've spent most of the day gargling my own bile, and boy do I need a laugh. How fortunate then that I am to watch one of the funniest movies ever made.

So, when I asked my FB friends what movies they were curious to see me discuss, Airplane! was, I think the first mentioned.  I chose to start with Mulholland Drive. I did this for two reasons:

1) Mulholland Drive had been poking at me, and I felt a strong need to revisit it.

2) A discussion of Mulholland Drive is, surprisingly, really useful in discussing Airplane!.

How the hell can this be, you are asking?  Well, I'll tell you.

Many people are unaware that Airplane! is a near scene for scene remake of another film. In fact, most people will refuse to believe that without evidence. I will provide that right here-->

Go ahead and watch that video. it's about 12 minutes long.  Jump around.

Now, if you already KNOW about this, then, forgive me while I recap.

Zero Hour was made in 1957.  It stars Dana Andrews...famous for Night of the Demon (or Curse of the Demon) and Day of the Triffids.  It's a fine little melodrama for the period.

The makers of Airplane! watched the film, and noted that it had a perfect structure, and began fooling around with it. By they time they were done, they'd written a script. So much of the original was lifted, including nearly ALL the dialogue, to the extent that they bought the rights to the film for $2500.00

What does this have to do with Mulholland Drive?

Well, in that film, you may recall there are two mirrored scenes where Betty performs a rehearsal scene.  The first time, she is doing it with Rita, and neither of them are taking the dialogue very seriously, and they laugh their way through it.  The second time, she performs it with an older male actor, and takes it extraordinarily seriously.  The interpretation and physical performance turn mundane dialogue into something erotic and sad and wrenching.  It is a direct demonstration of the way the craft of performance can transform.

That is part of the genius of Airplane! The film adapts, again, scene for scene with nearly intact dialogue a serious melodrama, but it tells you it is a comedy, and uses the power of exaggeration, and stepping one step further to transform it. The very serious melodrama is key to what makes the film funny.

Many people have talked about the humour in Airplane! being deadpan. I would say that there is an element of truth to this, but that by and large, that's not precisely true. These are deliberately comic performances, most of the time. Watching the original, and the remake side by side will show that.  The genius was in casting actors, by and large recognizable for their performances in dramas, and letting them exaggerate themselves just that fraction into absurdity.

There is also a lot of talk about the Airplane! approach to movies--that being to throw endless jokes at the screen so some will laugh. That annoys me, because this movie is more carefully crafted than that.  Watch the endless installments of the "(Insert Genre) Movie" series and you will see what I mean.  In fact, even Airplane!'s sequel failed to grasp the craft of the first film.

Timing, of course, is impossible to discuss or describe, and so, I won't be able to full explain the genius of timing in this film, but I'll try to point it out when I can.

Also, a caveat: This film was made in 1980, as such, there are a lot of jokes in it that we probably would handle differently today. It's been awhile since I've watched.  If I bring them up, it's merely to note them. All our favourites of a certain age are going to have problematic things in them.  So it goes.

Also, unlike my Mulholland Drive ramble, this will not recap nearly all on screen.  This film is not intricate to need that.  I recommend watching along with this.  I'm only going to remark on notable things, and outside the context of the film, there may be nothing here for you.

And with that, I will start the film, now.

The film starts with a Jaws gag, the fin cutting through the clouds like a fin.  Right off the bat, the filmmakers need you to understand this is a comedy.  The score of this movie is designed to evoke immediately, the soundtrack of the Airport! series of airplane disaster movies.

An interesting note: The red zone and white zone voice overs in the airport as we see the cast arriving, are the real, actual married couple that did the announcements for LAX at this time.  That tickles me.

Here we see the moonies, and our jive brothers, all of whom I love.

The man removing his metal leg is a useful exaggeration here.

I think this film was the first place I heard the term abortion, as the red zone and white zone couple bicker.

Here we see Stryker leave his cabbie waiting.  Patient guy as it turns out.

Thus far, all of this material is not in Zero Hour.  It's all designed to teach us this film is a joke before we get there.

This initial exchange between Elaine and Stryker is tone perfect with the dialogue in Zero Hour, that I expect it must be from the film.  But I've been wrong before.

I had no idea what the Mayo clinic was when I first saw this film, did you?  It was still funny to me.

Ham on five, hold the mayo.  That is a terrible joke.

Here comes our heart transplant girl, source of one of the funniest, and most problematic gags in the film.

I'd forgotten how much of this introductory material is just setup for later scenes and to set a brisk pace.

Elaine telling Stryker that what's really hurt him is his record since the war makes me laugh harder since I saw the original film, where it is delivered with this exact same cadence by a different character altogether.  (By a different character!) ((You'll get that joke later in the film.))

Was there really a time that people climbed stairs right out on the tarmac to board a plane like this, by the way?  Not in my recollection.  I could be wrong.

This scene with the flight crew discussing weather is from the original, the guy wiping the windshield is not.

The names of the flight crew have been changed for the obvious comedic reasons to Victor, Roger, and Clarence Over  But most of their dialogue remains unchanged.

Here is the first of many uses of flashback stock footage of Stryker's war experiences.

The jive brothers translated into English are on screen. Is this problematic? Probably, but I love these guys, and they're treated with respect in later scenes. I dunno.

There are a lot of ethnic jokes in this film already, really.

Stryker is now seated next to the first of his casualties, and we cut to the treacly sick girl. It's kind of a brilliant performance.

I also love this plane conductor, and the girl running alongside the plane.  It's really dumb, but the way she runs into the pylons cracks me up every time.

Kareem Abdul Jabbar is the co-pilot in this film. The co-pilot in Zero Hour was also a famous athlete of the period. That's a joke only the filmmakers got as they released this.  Nice.

The nun reading Boy's Life and the boy reading Nun's Life cracks me up.  I wish there was a magazine called Nun's Life. I would subscribe.

This old woman getting increasing creepy about Elaine is a wonderful bit of acting.  And here we go into the first flashback to Drambuie, to the terrible bar.

I didn't get the joke here was that these two women in the fist fight are girl scouts until I was a lot older.  I just thought they were female soldiers and the gag was purely sexist. It's funnier as girl scouts. Also it's a funny running gag that has led to a lifelong argument.

The transition to the disco scene in this flashback is amazing. When Stryker asks the guy next to him to pinch him, that actor's reaction is legit great acting. Oscar that guy.

I know I should not find a hunchbacked man trying to point out there is a knife in his back this funny, but I do.  Also when the hat flies back and hits the bartender.

I am pretty sure Air force uniforms do not have white vests under, but I'll allow it.

Also, despite the exaggerations, Stryker is a legitimately good dancer.  I would dance with him.

I am also a good disco dancer. Even at my current weight. None of you will ever see it, but it's true.

The russian dance is funny, the juggling makes it perfect..

Okay, so as we pan across the crowd, the Girl Scouts are locked in combat again. Either stakes or high, there is a prior grudge or these two are petty.  Either way, in a couple moments, as Stryker and Elaine slow dance we hear a blow, and a scream and one of them falls lifeless to the dance floor.

One of my friends and I have argued for thirty years now as to who won.  I say it's the one without pigtails, and he insists it's the one without. You tell me. Weigh in. End this. I beg you.

I just watched it.  Definite pig tails.  He's a scoundrel and wrong.  I insist.

As we cut back to the present we find that the old woman listening has hung herself.

Not sure that gag would fly now.

This scene with the kid asking to see the cockpit, and his parents ordering...verbatim from the film.  As is the jive section, but the original film uses the translated dialogue.  That kills me.

These children acting adult is another one of those jokes we probably wouldn't do today. Im not sure if it's a bad joke, but it doesn't land very well.

Oh!  I forgot Elaine has a flashback. I thought that was only Stryker.

But no, here we are recreating the beach scene in From Here to Eternity only with a lot more water and seaweed and detritus.  Also remembering why I had a crush on both of these leads. These two are pretty, in non traditional ways.  Like it.

I also love the seaweed.

So, the choices are steak and fish for dinner.  Just as in Zero Hour.  I'd avoid the fish.

This cockpit scene is 99 percent the same as the original.  You can probably find the lines that weren't in the original. There are about 3.

That tickles me.

Of course once the kid starts talking about Kareem Abdul Jabbar, it's all original, and also a lot of fun.  As the years of gone by, I've become increasingly fond of this guy.  Did you know he wrote a Mycroft Holmes novel?  True story.  It's even okay.  Good for him

Do you like movies about gladiators?  I always did.  Took me a while to really get why :)

Does Stryker even have an assigned seat.  I swear he is all over this plane.

Julie Hagerty's performance as Elaine is really so well handled.  She straddles deadpan and exaggeration perfectly.  Better than anyone aside from Leslie Nielsen, who hasn't appeared yet.

This flashback to the psych ward is, again, nearly word for word, though Ethel Merman is not in the original. It's so perfect. Watching this movie side by side with Zero Hour is highly recommended. You see the way the original dialogue enhances this film, and it makes the riffing like a very early and very advanced Mystery Science Theatre 3000.

Okay, here's the guitar scene. This is partly in Zero Hour, and partly based on a scene from one of the Airport films as well.  It makes me laugh at an IV being knocked out of a desperately ill child's arm.  I've debated if her mugging and trying to stab it back in her arm makes it more or less funny.  I suspect without that mugging, the joke might have been TOO cruel. All I know is that this scene underlines exactly how I feel about sick kid plotlines played for pathos in films of this type.

That Japanese soldier sitting next to Stryker is there specifically to commit hari kiri as a result of this boring story.  Problematic? Yes.  So is a lot of this Peace Corps scene, but it's leavened with a lot of jokes at the expense of the well meaning white liberals...like the Tupperware party scene.  The scene where all of the Africans are experts at basketball is a little much these days, but Stryker's belief in the advanced teaching techniques being responsible help a little.

George Zip, by the way, is the real name of a dead airman in Zero Hour.

This drinking problem joke. I have used it ever since, no less than once a month. I am that guy. I am sorry. It has never not made me smile. Not once. Anyone can do it and I will laugh. Hitler's ghost could pull that schtick and I would laugh. I have NO IDEA why this is so. Partly timing, I think.  Who knows. Drama is a lot easier to dissect than comedy.

Comedy functions by the disruption of expectations. That's part of why building a comedy like this, on the bones of a melodrama is so effective. Even though this movie is a barrage of absurd oversteps into madness, they always dip back into melodrama, and follow the exact act structure of melodrama. They keep pulling us back into the structure, into the place where we expect X, and once in three times give us Y.  It's genius. It's the particular genius of this film.

Laughter is an evolved scream, when we realize something has gone wrong, but what has gone wrong is essentially harmless, at least to us. It's at nobody's serious expense, or nobody we care about.

This is also why, of course, it's so very dangerous and can be so abusive, and why we need to be careful how we use it. It's very often used to make a group of people the Other, and that's rarely cool.

I'm impressed, actually, how rarely this film has done that so far.

It's punching down less than I'd expect.

This scene with the first illness and the request to find a doctor is nearly verbatim again. As is MUCH of the film from this point on.

Of course when the doctor appears in the original he is not wearing a stethoscope, nor is he Leslie Nielsen.  This was the very first time anyone ever cast him in a comedic role, and it's certainly the best performance he ever gave in one. And the genius of his performance is that with very few exceptions he IS the only one playing it entirely straight.

I want to learn this egg trick. I should get on that.

Has anyone ever wiped sweat from their forehead in a thriller without it being a sign of imminent physical trouble?

It looks like everyone in that cockpit has had the fish.  Ruh-roh.

This scene in the cockpit where the doctor asks what the menu choices were makes me laugh MORE after seeing Zero Hour.  The choices are chicken and fish, and the doctor states he had lasagna.  In the original the doctor says, "Yes, I remember, I had meat."  Which, even at the time must have rung weird in people's ears, but it was a gold mine for these clowns.

So as it becomes clear that the culprit is fish, the doctor begins describing symptoms that the pilot immediately begins to experience in turn. This was also Peter Graves' first comic performance, and you can tell, because when he tries to be funny, he's not so hot here.  He's much better when he plays straight.

This automatic pilot gag was stupid when I was 10. It's stupid now. One of a few gags that I just never liked.

Ahh Lloyd Bridges as McCloskey.  So much of his dialogue is identical to the original film, but his performance is genuinely hilarious and I dunno why.  Also love this guy Johnny, who read as gay to me then, and still does, but with no jokes at the expense of that. He's just great.

Sigh.  The inflate the autopiliot by blowing him up below the belt line.  This is not funny.  Get back to the funny part.

Elaine's post coital eyes at the co-pilot are a little funny, but not worth the joke.

"Finding someone who can fly this plane, and who didn't have fish for dinner," is from the original. That shocked me past words because it is so funny.

And here's Robert Stack, now as Captain Kramer.  Also his first comedic role, but again, his dialogue is almost verbatim from Zero Hour! He's not as much fun as Bridges or Nielsen, and people don't tend to remember his performance as much, but he's really very good here.

Are we at three suicides for people next to Stryker already. I thought it took longer. And so it is that Stryker is called to the cockpit.

"I am serious, and don't call me surely" is NOT from Zero Hour, but it could be.

This score is so beautifully generic that I am in love with it. It could have been so winky.. and that's a problem that infects the sequel, and a lot of the subsequent attempts to catch this lightning in other bottles.

This scene where Kramer is driving to the airport makes excellent use of terrible rear projection driving footage, drawing attention to it, and then switching the footage to the western chase footage just as it becomes almost intolerable. Timing.

The Jesus on the windshield covering its eyes...another joke that doesn't land. It was a step too far. It's funny to see the ones that don't feel of a piece with the film.

Okay, so this scene where the passenger is panicking and the stewardess is shaking her. In Airplane, she is interrupted and a man takes over, and then another, and there is a long line, including a dude with a wrench.  The scene in Zero Hour...it's not much less funny.  It's really the same.  Except they cut the line. It's a clear case of that scene already being kind of accidentally funny and them being able to seamlessly exaggerate it.

It's not funny to see a woman in distress get slapped around. I'm not really sure why it's funny here. I will say she is definitely NOT the butt of the joke. The joke is at the expense of a certain kind of scene in a melodrama. We've seen this scene so many times where someone is trying to calm a person down, and another person steps in to take over...doing the EXACT SAME THING.

I think this scene where Stryker physically destroys all the people trying to hand him pamphlets is cathartic for some, but it's also a fine tip of the hat to his action hero past.

McCloskey's escalating series of addictions he picked the wrong week to keep quitting is spaced out exactly correctly.

And here's the automatic pilot molesting Elaine, and it's not funny, and was never funny. Thankfully it's brief

This scene here with Kramer talking Stryker through the plane's controls--verbatim.

Barbara Billngsley speaks jive.  Of course.

In this scene in Air Traffic Control, Johnny is deliberately doing the worst fake typing I have ever scene.  This guy playing full out vaudeville next to Bridges playing straight is like cheese popcorn and caramel popcorn together: perfect.

The pilot's wife is having an affair with a horse.  I think this is a Godfather reference. Either way, it's just odd enough it works.

When you turn on the air in your real life flight, this is you.  This is what you look like.

They guy who checks the turkey in the Radar Range in this scene is Jonathan Banks, later to star in Wiseguy, and even later in Breaking Bad as Mike Ehrmantraut. This is pretty darned early in his career, but that voice is unmistakable.

This scene with the reporters is verbatim until Johnny takes over in it, unsurprisingly.

Ah spinning newspapers over presses.  Some day I will do a supercut of these shots.

Incidentally, Boy Trapped in Refrigerator Eats Own Foot, later became the name of my film production unit when I made short films in high school and college. It's not funny, but it made me laugh.

"I say 'Let 'em crash,'" from this Counterpoint spot was laughably over exaggerated in 1980.  I miss times when this was just a joke in a film.  Seriously, I hear conservative pundits say worse things than this with utter seriousness every day now. Dammit, I was hoping this movie would distract me from the American Congress declaring a couple million people unfit for life in a blatant move toward eugenics. No such luck.

I could use something to rinse my mouth out like this guy and his flask.  This exchange where he offers the woman a slug...from Zero Hour again.  So SO much more of this film than you realize is from the original movie.  It's crazy.  Of course the old woman doesn't snort a line of coke in the original.

This nun singing Aretha Franklin's "Respect" is a perfect summation of mid-century American culture.

Time for more stock footage from the war...interspersed with wacky early attempts at flight.

Of COURSE, Johnny knows the work of Barbara Stanwyck.

Did I mention I love Johnny as he literally jumps in and out of scenes?  I do.

This scene where the doctor tries to talk Stryker into going back to the cockpit is verbatim again, from Zero Hour...up until the win one for the Zipper speech, which is dark and hilarious.

Dr Rumack.  Huh.  I never noticed he HAD a last name.  Learn something every time you watch a film.

And now we prepare for the landing scene, a festival of sight gags interrupted by verbatim dialogue from the film.

Boy they were really sick of disco by 1980 huh?  The plane trashes a disco station on approach for grins.

Lloyd Bridges as McCloskey enjoys sniffing glue more than I've ever enjoyed anything.

Jonathan Banks has a few more lines here.  Keen.

And now Lloyd Bridges gets to be actually goofy and it works.  :)

This landing really is genuinely hairy to watch, and technically as rough to watch or worse than the one in Zero Hour, even though it is exactly the same landing.  In almost all particulars.

Every time I am told to practice crash position on an airplane I am tempted to get upside down in my seat like the moonies.

And this speech from the air traffic controller to Stryker is verbatim, until Stryker walks away, but Kramer just keeps going, and is perfect at it.

This kiss by the airplane is pretty much right out of the original too.

Sigh finish on an auto pilot gag.  Blerg.  Bad way to stop.

This was the first film I can think of, and maybe the first one ever to have gags in the closing credits, and they are legitimately hilarious. I'm not going to go over all of them, of course, because it's not really required.  If you haven't sat through them and paid attention, though...you should.

So, as the credits play out I'll talk about why this film, missed gags and all works where the sequel fails, why it's better than Top Secret, Police Squad or the Naked Gun series.  Now, I love Top Secret a lot as well, and I like Police Squad, the shortly lived series by the same creators. I loathe the Naked Gun movies, and I hate all the "Scary Movie" imitators.

Airplane! works because it is a re-interpretation of an existing text. It is a classic case of transformative derivative work. Airplane has great jokes, middling jokes, and some clunkers.  This is true of the subsequent entries. What it has that the others do not is a blueprint. By following SO religiously on the original film, they were able to exaggerate, to avoid all story problems. The STORY was sound. The characters were SOUND. The plot works.  All they needed to do was push it..break reality, and make it funny. They could focus on just extending melodrama that one step into the place where our expectations were thwarted, and this is the root of funny.

Airplane 2 tries too hard. It has no story, except a vague retelling of the first film.  It tries to graft science fiction elements for satire, but throws to wide a net and misses far more than it hits.

Top Secret satirizes two very specific types of films by blending them, and it comes far nearer to recapturing the magic of Airplane!  It's a worthy sequel, but again, throws a wide net, and misses out on the focus of Airplane!

Police Squad, the tv show satirizes cop shows of the period, but no cop show in particular, and might have been better served to do so. The jokes are fresh, and they do hit a lot of common conventions well.

The Naked Gun films are, I'm afraid, just a festival of Nielsen mugging, and a series of jokes thrown at the wall, some funny, and some not.

Airplane! is a genuinely great film, not just because it's funny, but because it had focus, and found humour in a narrow field. Sometimes restrictions are as good for art as total freedom. It's also an early example of remix culture.

It's audacious in a lot of ways that they did this at all.  Hell, most of the characters kept their names.

I thought it was a funny film without knowing Zero Hour existed.

Knowing it does makes me consider it a great film. It lets me appreciate the craft, and it helps e understand why it's the best movie of this type ever made.

It's built on good bones-a perfectly structured little melodrama, that they don't actually disrespect. They aren't mocking Zero Hour. They are playing with it, engaging with the text and addressing how time changes our perspective.

And looking back on this film now from about thirty years on, I can see ways this film has dated also. But I don't intend to disrespect it either.

It's almost damned perfect, even if it is sometimes a little broad, and a little crass.

In thirty years, if we're all around, I suspect our descendants will look at us now and find much of what we do painfully earnest and much painfully ironic.

In any case, I love this film with a child's heart as it hit me with the impact of a freight train, and I still love it as a considerably more mature adult who finds it less funny than he used to but far, FAR more interesting and artful

And thanks for reading.  Comments are always welcome.

And forgive my multitude of typos.  I'm committed to the first draft explosion of feelings and words things I'm doing here.  At least for now.  At some point I might tighten it up.