Movie · 1970 · Action, Drama, Thriller · 2h 17m · G · English
Curator score: 2.3/10 (38.8K ratings)
The #1 novel of the year - now a motion picture!
Overview
An airport manager tries to keep his terminals open during a snowstorm, while a suicide bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 airliner in flight.
Ratings
Curator score: 2.3/10
IMDb: 6.6/10
Letterboxd: 3.21/5
Rotten Tomatoes: 72%
Metacritic: 42
TMDB: 6.5/10
Director
George Seaton
Production
Ross Hunter Productions
Cast
Burt Lancaster, Dana Wynter, Dean Martin, Barbara Hale, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy, Jodean Lawrence, Helen Hayes, John Findlater, Van Heflin, Maureen Stapleton, Barry Nelson, Eileen Wesson, Robert Patten, Paul Picerni, Ilana Dowding, Lisa Gerritsen, Clark Howat, Gary Collins
Where to watch
Netflix, TCM, Netflix Standard with Ads
Curator Review
Verdict
A foundational disaster blockbuster with old-school studio polish, a strong ensemble, and a surprisingly soap-operatic interest in personal crises. Its appeal is less about nonstop thrills than about watching the template for the 1970s disaster cycle take shape.
Best for
fans of classic disaster movies
viewers who enjoy star-packed ensemble dramas
people interested in early 1970s blockbuster craft
audiences who like slow-burn suspense with melodrama
Skip if
you want a fast-moving action movie
you’re impatient with long setup and domestic subplots
you prefer modern disaster films with bigger spectacle
you dislike dated pacing or earnest melodrama
Overview
Airport is one of those movies that feels both hugely influential and faintly antique. It helped define the disaster-movie boom, but it spends a lot of time on marriages, affairs, work stress, and airport logistics before the danger really bites. That slower, more procedural rhythm is part of its charm if you’re in the right mood, and part of the frustration if you’re not.
Worth noting
What keeps it afloat is the combination of polished studio craftsmanship and a cast that knows exactly how to play this kind of material. The film treats the airport like a pressure cooker, and once the bomb plot and storm complications converge, the tension becomes genuinely effective. It’s also interesting as a snapshot of a pre-modern blockbuster: big, glossy, and melodramatic, but still grounded in character friction rather than pure spectacle.
Bottom line
It won’t feel nimble by contemporary standards, and some viewers will find the runtime and exposition heavy. But if you like seeing a genre blueprint being assembled in real time, this is a key stop. It’s not the most exciting disaster film, but it is one of the most important.
Top Letterboxd reviews
Mike D'Angelo (3.5★) · 189 likes
65/100
Funny to read the contemporaneous reviews of this juggernaut (still one of the 50 highest-grossing films of all time, adjusted for inflation—about $550 million domestic in today's money), which almost uniformly treat it as beneath contempt. Wonder what they'd think if I could zip back there in a time machine and show them what today's equivalent looks like. For a big dumb event movie, it's almost surreally adult by current standards, albeit in a shallow, soapy kind of way;… more
Jesse (3★) · 147 likes
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.
Dylan (3★) · 132 likes
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… more
Brendan (4★) · 105 likes
When I was reading what the movie was about, I think I already knew this would be the one I loved. The movie Airport involves a man that is suicidal and also a woman called Mrs Ada Quonsett who sneaks onto flights without a ticket. There has been more drama about a woman that wants to divorce a man, as she found out something.
Airport is one of the craziest films I've seen this year, including a bomb, a thief… more
Daniel (4.5★) · 102 likes
"Have you ever been a stowaway on any other airline?""Oh, yes. But I like Trans Global the best.""Well, it's nice to meet a satisfied customer."
Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster), manager of Chicago's Lincoln International Airport, has his hands full when a snowstorm hits the airport, while his marriage is in trouble as well. Meanwhile, Bakersfeld's brother-in-law, pilot Vernon Demeres (Dean Martin), has an extramarital affair with a stewardess. Demeres also prepares to evaluate another pilot on an upcoming… more