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FILMTRACKS.COM
PRINTER-FRIENDLY VIEW 
Review of Airplane! (Elmer Bernstein)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... on the identical 2009 or 2024 albums if you seek an
adequate survey of this humorous and popular Elmer Bernstein parody
score in satisfying sound quality.
Avoid it... on the older bootlegs for the score due to atrocious sound quality or if you expect, despite all logic in this case, to hear anything resembling a consistent listening experience through dozens of short, genre-defying cues.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
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.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1997 Bootleg:
Total Time: 64:40
No track titles 2005 Bootleg: Total Time: 45:06
2009 La-La Land/2024 Rusted Wave Albums: Total Time: 52:21
* entire track not contained in film ** contains music not used in film *** contains "Notre Dame Victory March" by Michael J. Shea, J.H. O'Donnell & John F. Shea # contains "1812 Overture, Op. 49" by Peter Tchaikovsky ## contains "Theme from Jaws" by John Williams
NOTES & QUOTES:
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.
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1997-2024, Filmtracks Publications. All rights reserved.
The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from Airplane! are Copyright © 1997, 2005, 2009, 2024, Bootleg, Bootleg, La-La Land Records, 1984/Rusted Wave and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 10/16/97 and last updated 6/22/25. |
