An unintentionally comedic yet unquestionably thrilling disaster that works as well as it does because it's essentially a quaint thriller, with a deliciously palpable tension lurking over every motive. You know every narrative element after a while, yet you still want to see how it all plays out. It’s super 70s, and I had a lot of fun.

Helen Hayes sashays into her role with glee. She manages to instill mystical, catatonic mystique in her character while keeping the audience captivated as she puts herself into greater danger. I couldn't really get into it since it was too generically comic for me, but she brought life to what could have been a minor character.

This movie takes a FULL HOUR to get started. You will spend a lot of time and getting in the weeds with everyone’s drama at the Airport and believe me there is a ton of tea to be spilled. 

But once it gets going it gets rather exciting and the star studded ensemble is on full display. Wild to think this kickstarted a disaster movie craze that would last through the decade. But one thing is clear, I ain’t setting foot on a plane being flown by Dean Martin.

"Airport" was released in theaters in the summer of 1970 (and proved a colossal hit), but the film feels entirely out of time, as though it could have been made a decade or more earlier—perhaps I'm just reacting to the movie's perpetual snowfall and Dean Martin's honey-smooth voice, but this might be the one disaster movie I'd call "cozy." Something tells me it's best viewed on a fuzzy analog TV with a cup of hot cocoa in hand.

Everyone will pass through the Airport,
Hoping the lines are real short.
Flying is faster,
With no disaster,
And price gouging at the food court.

Representing the birth of the 70s disaster movie cycle, Airport was a huge hit upon its release in 1970. Looking back 50+ years on, the genre obviously evolved, fine tuning the tropes, characters, and plot mechanics, which would all calcify by the close of the decade. While Airport’s pacing might be off a smidge and the script is more interested in developing character dynamics than providing the type of thrills associated with a disaster picture, Airport’s third act is satisfying when the crisis transitions from a simmer to a boil. Dean Martin, George Kennedy, and Helen Hayes (who won an Oscar for her work here) deliver some great performances to help you through the down time and get your pulse racing as Airport reaches its climax.

We’re Delta Airlines and 🎶 life is a fucking nightmare 🎶

It gets a ❤️ for George Kennedy having an orgasm while trying to free a snowbound aeroplane. Im pretty sure George Kennedy’s O face could’ve freed the Suez Canal.

The schlock-father of 70’s disaster movies. It has everything from a sprawling cast, to infidelity ricocheting off the terminal walls. It also has an inexplicably placed office chandelier and open fireplace.🤷🏻‍♂️

It’s strange that a movie which spawned 3 sequels and inspired countless imitators would be one of the worst entries into the very genre it helped popularise.

Its action and pacing are borderline comatose. There’s at least 20 minutes of old women being interrogated by airport personnel. Its use of time is so wasteful.

Airport is an artifact of the lost era in which commercial flights were still at least semi-luxurious. A time when there was a thrill to getting on a big jet airliner and many Americans still hadn’t set foot on one. While the film has the reputation of sparking the disaster movie trend of the 1970s, it’s actually a relatively straight forward drama framed in a documentary style that takes on all aspects of airport operations. It only becomes a disaster film in the last twenty minutes or so.