Wednesday, July 2, 2025

Classic Film Review: ‘Airplane!’ is a Masterpiece


Directors: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Writers: Jim Abrahams, David Zucker, Jerry Zucker
Stars: Robert Hays, Julie Hagerty, Leslie Nielsen

Synopsis: After the crew becomes sick with food poisoning, a neurotic ex-fighter pilot must safely land a commercial airplane full of passengers.


GRADE: Are you still here? The movie’s over, go home (A+)

 

Comedy is a fickle thing. How you or I perceive ‘the norm’ in our day-to-day lives and in the entertainment we consume is vastly different from person to person. The defiance of “the norm” (whatever that is for you) is what makes great comedy. There are few films out there that we consider to be universally funny, even despite the continuous evolution of the Comedy genre. Hell, films from even 5,10, or 20 years ago have aged like milk on a hot day. Airplane! however, the first film from creative outfit and directors David Zucker, Jim Abrahams, and Jerry Zucker (abbreviated as ZAZ), is one of the few films in the wider comedy genre that still has its razor sharp comedic hooks, even 45 years later.

I recall watching Airplane! for the first time in middle school – a time when my cultural knowledge that was dug into for a handful of the jokes was not where it needed to be. What sets this film apart from most comedies is that this is a parody film. Maybe it’s my childhood reverence of The Simpsons or 2000s Saturday Night Live, but it still stuck with me, and has played a role in my own sense of humor since. As I revisit the film, and as I learn more about the time period in which the film was released, the jokes become much funnier (no dip, kiddo). It’s the gift that keeps on giving. 

In a crisp 85 minutes, Airplane! is able to knock anyone on their ass. The ZAZ model of comedy is to deliver a joke a minute, almost as if you’re drowning in laughter. No second is wasted, everyone is the butt of the joke, and everything in the film is done for the greater gag at hand. This is a staple for all of their films, all 3 The Naked Gun movies and Top Secret!. However, Airplane! was the foundation, the blueprint, to the ZAZ model. The jokes range from 70s film references (which oddly aged much better than most of the other jokes), stereotyping, sexual innuendos, and making fun of religious groups.

The plot of Airplane! is bare bones – a plane in flight has to make an emergency landing after a case of food poisoning amongst the passengers. The lampooning rules over everything, the idea of anything aside from the bit is a parody. A deconstructive approach is taken into the making of Airplane!, few films of commercial and critical pedigree of the time could achieve this. The idea of character, plot, and themes are secondary to the bit, but the bit spoon feeds the secondary elements. It’s a bizarre way to make a movie and while it may not be everyone’s way to tell a story, its experiment has paid off (I mean, a dumb guy like myself is writing at length over it).

While this piece is about the film Airplane!, I can’t write about it without mentioning my GOAT, Leslie Nielsen. I mean, I have a polaroid of him from the set of Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult sitting on my nightstand – that’s my guy! He takes a while before he eventually appears in Airplane!, but once he does you’d wonder how the rest of the film existed without him. His style of straight-faced word play and immature bits is present here. Before Airplane! Leslie Nielsen was a dramatic actor and wasn’t known for comedy. Afterwards, it would be hard to believe that this funny guy was ever in serious roles. The stakes are dire, the comedy is a mix of slapstick and referential, but Leslie comes in and delivers the funniest string of words in the most serious demeanor imaginable.

Since Airplane! was released, parody movies have tried to replicate the formula, and only few movies could land in the way Airplane! did. Leslie Nielsen became a face of these style of films, starring in movies such as Superhero Movie, Spy Hard, and Wrongfully Accused, but those films never reached the heights of the ZAZ films. The draw with Airplane! that the previously mentioned films lack is that the joke can be read a mile away in the other films. In Airplane!, you have no clue where things are going until it eventually happens. Once the hammer drops, the viewer can’t know when and how it’ll happen or else the comedic draw is weaker.

In the 45 years since release, Airplane! has remained a prime example of comedy done right in film. A lot of the jokes in the film didn’t age the best (but certainly not the worst), a lot of the innuendos can be crude, but the delivery is there – every damn time. The next big studio comedy releasing soon is a remake of another ZAZ classic – The Naked Gun, being manned by Seth MacFarlane and The Lonely Island’s Akiva Schaffer. The humor in the trailers we’ve gotten so far have been overly crude and overly violent. While I am hopeful, the direction seems to lean more on shock rather than subversion.


Airplane! is a masterpiece of film and comedy. The way it can convey emotion and story beats through goofy bits and parody still makes it a one of a kind film. 45 years after release, and Airplane! can still split sides like a generous dinner host. Surely Airplane! will still knock me on my ass for the next 45 years. Oh, and don’t call me surely!

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