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Johnny LaRue's Crane Shot
Sunday, March 5, 2006
Win One For The Zipper
Now Playing: AIRPLANE!
Paramount did something interesting with its latest AIRPLANE! DVD. Not only did the studio port over the audio commentary (with writer/directors Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker and David Zucker) from the original disc, but it has also added what it calls the "Long Haul" edition. The DVD contains a lot of new interview segments and a few deleted scenes, but instead of placing them in its own supplemental section, they are "inserted" into the movie using branching technology.

Basically, while you're watching the movie, at intervals a logo will pop up on the screen, and then you'll be taken away from the film for a few minutes to watch a newly produced interview clip pertaining to the scene you're watching. For instance, while the Hare Krishnas are pestering people in the airport, the film cuts away to a minute or so with actor David Leisure (EMPTY NEST), who played one of the Hare Krishnas and talks about his experience. Or, as the stewardess played by Lorna Patterson (PRIVATE BENJAMIN) demonstrates the duck life vest, the disc cuts away to the present-day Patterson (looking very beautiful 25 years later) telling a story about how the prop worked.

It's all very interesting, and with the exception of Julie Hagerty, Paramount rounded up just about every important living participant, including Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker, Robert Hays, Peter Graves, the two black jive guys, Leslie Nielsen, the special effects supervisor, even the kid to whom Graves asks, "Have you ever seen a grown man naked?"

The Long Haul edition is as advertised--make sure you set aside three hours or so if you want to watch it straight through. Obviously, this isn't recommended if you've never seen the movie before, because rarely do more than a couple of minutes go by before we are whisked away to a new segment. The downside of this is that the Long Haul edition is the only way to see these extras. They aren't located anywhere else on the DVD. So if you want to see one of the deleted scenes, you have to find the spot in the film where the extra is placed and be branched off to it.

That's a drag, but I still think the Long Haul version is an innovative way to present DVD extras. It works with a movie like AIRPLANE!, because of the movie's quick pace and fragmented structure, but I don't know how well the process would work with a more standard feature.

It's still kinda funny to see Peter Graves' perplexed acceptance of the movie's success. It's no secret that Graves was very apprehensive about doing AIRPLANE! He thought the humor was tasteless and didn't understand why the three directors wanted him, an actor known for playing very straight action and dramatic roles, to be in it. All the way through shooting, Graves didn't get the humor, and really winced at all the "ever been to a Turkish bath" stuff. It wasn't until the first screening, which his wife dragged him to, that he realized, from listening to the audience's loud laughter, that the movie genuinely was funny.

On the other hand, Robert Stack, also not known for his wild sense of humor, understood the movie completely. Lloyd Bridges sort of did, but once asked Stack just before shooting a scene, "What's the joke here?" Stack told him, "Lloyd, we're the joke," which is exactly right.

One aspect of AIRPLANE! not often noted (although Abrahams, Zucker and Zucker do in one of the interview segments) is Elmer Bernstein's terrific score that perfectly hits the proper parodic notes. It also opened up, along with ANIMAL HOUSE, a new direction for Bernstein's composing career, as he started scoring lots of comedies, like STRIPES (very good) and GHOSTBUSTERS, whereas I don't think he had ever done a big comedy prior to ANIMAL HOUSE two years before AIRPLANE! (which doesn't contain a typical "comedy" underscore).

The new DVD is officially called the Don't Call Me Shirley Edition, and since AIRPLANE! really should be in everyone's movie library, you might as well pick it up.

Posted by Marty at 12:12 AM CST
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