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| Bernstein |
Airplane!: (Elmer Bernstein) The ultimate anthology
of cliches from classic comedy films,
Airplane! is a production
that defied the direction of the genre in an era when it was dominated
by the kind of satirical and cynical ideas of Woody Allen. The object of
this parody was the rash of airplane-related horror films that arose
with
Airport and lasted through all the variants of its sequels,
as well as Paramount's own
Zero Hour from 1957. The trick to
Airplane! that made it such a fantastic parody was its purely
unashamed use of sophomoric humor, with jokes so dumb and tasteless that
they actually became funny in unison. So predictable (and successful,
grossing upwards of $100 million) was the 1980 film that it led to its
own sequel, though the original
Airplane! will be long remembered
for, among other things, changing how people react to the word "surely."
Composer Elmer Bernstein was at a point in his career when his
comedy-writing skills were in high demand. The early 1980's are recalled
by Bernstein collectors as the era of
Airplane!,
Trading
Places, and
Ghostbusters, a trend that somewhat baffled those
collectors and even occasionally the composer himself. His vast
experience in action and Western scores from the 1960's, however, would
prove to serve him well when writing these more ridiculous parody
scores, of which
Airplane! is likely the crowning achievement.
Underneath the laughs is an airborne horror plot that Bernstein uses to
insert a plethora of militaristic action motifs, and the love story
between the lead stewardess and a former pilot who has lost his wits
allows the composer to expand on some of his sappy romance writing. The
key to the enduring popularity of this score rests in Bernstein's proper
decision, as is often the case in similar films with effective scores,
to handle the story as though it were completely serious. Interspersed
throughout the score are references, for instance, to John Williams'
theme for
Jaws, which was a highly popular tactic for films to
take in the late 1970's. Several other funny insertions litter the work
as well.
Like many parody scores, however, the quality of the
score in the film is vastly different from that on album, and
Airplane! is one of those highly effective scores in context that
loses some of its punch without the punch lines that go with it. On
album, an endless series of bumbling, short cues causes the score to
jump almost incoherently between genres and conflicting motifs at a
whim. It makes sense on the whole, but it remains a frenetic listening
experience. A sappy love theme for the hopeless characters of Elaine and
Ted is the most enduring memory from the score for
Airplane!,
though it serves as almost an annoyance in the film, its rising strings
at the outset setting the stage for yet another intentionally awkward
flashback. It's sometimes truncated for ineptitude. The orchestra hits
that represent the "tension theme" are mixed almost indiscriminately
into the film, and they don't do the score much justice on album. There
are few lengthier cues of development; the ones led by snare drums and
brass rips represent the militaristic element well and offer some of the
more listenable moments. A classical waltz-like rhythm announces the
"Resolution" cue (otherwise known as "Success") with much of the same
deliberation as equivalents in
Trading Places. Ironically, the
best performances of the film's heroic title theme come early in the
work, with the LAX-related cues (starting with "Ambulance Arrives")
offering bold brass rhythms mocking John Williams' disaster scores if
the early 1970's with good humor. Interestingly, though, Bernstein plays
much of the story without any twist of stylish jazz or other unique
pizzazz that often influenced his comedy works (despite some
genre-hopping in the source cues), and
Airplane! thus becomes as
score that seems more functional in its attempt to play it serious
rather than purely funny. The film also makes use of source lounge music
and a 'native' cue (for the "Molumbo" tribe, a nice deviation) by
Bernstein, as well as several song staples of the era. Ultimately, an
appreciation of the composer's music for
Airplane! depends on the
same level of appreciation for the film itself, a circumstance that
again exists in correlation with many of Bernstein's comedy scores of
the era.
On album, a belated LP release in 1980 was not a
product faithful to the score (it was a song-riddled irritation with
limited Bernstein material included), and it took until 1997 before the
first bootleg of the score was filtered to soundtrack collectors. That
unmentionable combined 40 minutes of
Airplane! music with
Bernstein's score for the 1978 television adaptation of
Little
Women that aired on NBC. As expected, Bernstein's tone for this
Alcott story is quietly restrained, often limited to solo woodwinds and
whimsical string themes, with occasional honky tonk Western rhythms
breaking the monotony. Unfortunately, this bootleg suffered from
terrible sound quality, ruining
Airplane! completely and doing
slightly more justice to
Little Women. As such, the pressing was
completely unacceptable and soundtrack specialty outlets were ridiculed
for selling it. Several years later, a more loyal bootleg with
Bernstein's almost complete
Airplane! score appeared from the
isolated DVD score track, breaking the cues into film order, supplying
the source songs, and, most importantly, presenting the score in
glorious sound quality. For several years, that 2005 album was a very
satisfying entry in many Bernstein collections, though to give the score
the legitimate treatment it well deserved, La-La Land Records included
Airplane! as one of its limited offerings in 2009. Advertised as
the first of the label's foray into the vaults at Paramount, the product
sold out from the label within a month but remained readily available
for a few years thereafter. Rearranging the cues a bit and providing
alternative takes and rejected material amounting to only about ten
minutes of notable additional music, the 2009 album is a comprehensive
and carefully assembled product that still suffers from inherent
continuity issues due to the score's wildly shifting personalities. It
was finally re-issued on CD with identical music in 2024 by 1984/Rusted
Wave for bargain prices, albeit without the same production quality in
the packaging. For casual collectors, the 2005 bootleg will suffice, for
the sound quality on the 2009 and 2024 products are not significantly
different. Any of them are a vast improvement over the 1997 bootleg that
held the spot on the shelf warm for these far more engaging and loyal
presentations.
@Amazon.com: CD or
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- Music as Written for the Film: ****
- Music as Heard on the 1997 Bootleg: *
- Music as Heard on the 2005 Bootleg: ****
- Music as Heard on the 2009 and 2024 Albums: ****
- Overall: ****
| Bias Check: |
For Elmer Bernstein reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating is 3.29
(in 18 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.18
(in 11,104 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
|
Neither bootleg's insert includes extra information about the score or film.
The 2009 La-La Land album contains extensive notation about both the film and score.
The 2024 1984/Rusted Wave album contains a list of performers but no other information.
