The Birth of the Disaster Film Blueprint

Read Time:5 Minute, 35 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Airport (4KUHD)
G –

Genre: Drama, Adventure, Action, Thriller
Year Released: 1970, Kino Lorber 4K 2025
Runtime: 2h 17m
Director(s): George Seaton, Henry Hathaway (uncredited sequences)
Writer(s): Arthur Hailey (novel), George Seaton (screenplay)
Cast: Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, George Kennedy, Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Maureen Stapleton, Dana Wynter, Barry Nelson, Lloyd Nolan, Barbara Hale, Gary Collins, Larry Gates, Whit Bissell, Virginia Grey
Where to Watch: available September 30, 2025, pre-order your copy here: www.kinolorber.com or www.amazon.com

RAVING REVIEW: AIRPORT arrives with the kind of Hollywood bravado only 1970 could muster: a sprawling ensemble, a bestselling novel as source material, and the promise of spectacle wrapped in a glossy studio production. George Seaton’s adaptation of Arthur Hailey’s hit book doesn’t just chart one perilous night at Lincoln International—it all but invents a genre, laying down the tarmac for a decade of big-budget disaster films to follow. Watching it now, especially in Kino Lorber’s new 4K restoration, is to witness the moment when melodrama, spectacle, and procedural collided at cruising altitude.

What separates AIRPORT from its imitators (and even the sequels) is its patience. The so-called “disaster” is almost secondary; much of the film is devoted to the logistics of operating an airport during a snowstorm and the struggles of the people who keep it open. Burt Lancaster anchors the movie as Mel Bakersfield, the airport manager juggling a failing marriage, political pressures, and an avalanche of emergencies. Lancaster gives Bakersfield an edge of exhaustion, but also the authority that makes you believe he could single-handedly keep an international hub from collapsing. His weary gravitas grounds the soapy turns around him.

Dean Martin, cast against his Rat Pack image as pilot Vernon Demerest, leans more on charm than depth, but his performance adds to the film’s appeal. His relationship with stewardess Gwen (Jacqueline Bisset) gives the film a scandalous twist—infidelity and unexpected pregnancy baked into the turbulence. Jean Seberg plays Tanya Livingston, an airport executive whose calm, no-nonsense demeanor makes her one of the film’s unsung heroes. Her presence, professional yet undercut by personal longing, is emblematic of the movie’s balance between workplace procedure and human messiness.

Of course, AIRPORT wouldn’t be remembered without its Oscar-winning performance: Helen Hayes as Ada Quonsett, the elderly stowaway who provides both comic relief and genuine tension. Her mischievous energy makes her a scene-stealer, but Hayes never lets the role devolve into parody. She walks a fine line between levity and danger, keeping the audience guessing whether her antics will compromise the already fragile safety of the flight. It’s no wonder the Academy rewarded her with a second career Oscar nearly four decades after her first.

The film’s most tragic role, though, rests with Van Heflin and Maureen Stapleton as the Guerreros. Heflin, in one of his final roles, portrays D.O. Guerrero with heartbreaking desperation, a man driven to carry a bomb aboard the plane in hopes of leaving his wife financially secure through insurance money. Stapleton’s Inez, racing to stop him, delivers some of the film’s most affecting moments—her anguish underscoring that AIRPORT isn’t just spectacle but also human drama.

George Kennedy rounds out the ensemble as Joe Patroni, the tough-talking mechanic tasked with freeing a snowbound jet from the runway. Kennedy injects humor and working-class grit into a film otherwise dominated by executives, pilots, and passengers, and his role proved so popular that he became the connective tissue across the franchise’s sequels.

Technically, the film reflects both the limitations and strengths of its era. Ernest Laszlo’s cinematography captures the snowstorm with a cold-blooded realism, and Alfred Newman’s sweeping score provides grandeur, even when the narrative feels bogged down by soap opera elements. The split-screen editing, a novelty at the time, adds energy but can now feel dated. Special effects are modest by today’s standards, yet AIRPORT wisely leans more on tension and performance than on spectacle.

In many ways, AIRPORT straddles two worlds: the earnest melodrama of the studio era and the spectacle-driven blockbuster culture that would dominate the ’70s. It was nominated for ten Academy Awards, including Best Picture, indicating that Hollywood regarded it as more than just pulp entertainment. Yet it also spawned a franchise of diminishing returns and inspired a parody that is truly enduring—AIRPLANE!—so much that many casual viewers forget how serious AIRPORT was intended to be.

The new Kino Lorber 4K release underscores the film’s place in cinema history. The restoration highlights details in both the snowy exteriors and the lavish interiors of Lincoln International, while extras like the historian commentary give overdue credit to George Seaton’s careful adaptation and Ross Hunter’s glossy production. For fans of the disaster genre, it’s essential; for newcomers, it’s a time capsule of when star-studded melodrama could become a box-office juggernaut.

AIRPORT earns its place as the grandparent of the disaster films. It may not be as thrilling as its descendants, but its ensemble, emotion, and ambition still resonate. It’s a flawed but significant piece of Hollywood spectacle—half soap opera, half procedural, all housed inside a snowbound terminal where ordinary people wrestle with extraordinary stakes.

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[photo courtesy of KINO LORBER]

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