Planes, Trains & Automobiles
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| Planes, Trains and Automobiles | |
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 The movie poster for Planes, Trains and Automobiles. |
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| Directed by | John Hughes |
| Produced by | John Hughes |
| Written by | John Hughes |
| Starring | Steve Martin John Candy |
| Music by | Ira Newborn |
| Cinematography | Donald Peterman |
| Editing by | Paul Hirsch |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
| Release date(s) | November 25, 1987 |
| Running time | 93 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| All Movie Guide profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Planes, Trains & Automobiles is an American comedy movie produced by Paramount Pictures in 1987. It was written and directed by John Hughes and stars Steve Martin and John Candy. Laila Robins co-stars and the film features cameos by Michael McKean, Kevin Bacon, Lyman Ward and William Windom. The movie also features Ben Stein, Larry Hankin, Edie McClurg, Dylan Baker, Bill Erwin and Matthew Lawrence.
Tagline: What he really wanted was to spend Thanksgiving with his family. What he got was three days with the turkey.
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[edit] Plot
Steve Martin plays the tightly wound Neal Page, a bundle-of-nerves straight man. John Candy portrays the innocent, but always skewered, Del Griffith, a shower curtain ring salesman who seems to live in a world governed by a different set of rules to those governing Neal Page's marketing life.
The movie follows the story of Neal Page as he tries to return to his family for Thanksgiving after being on a business trip. The journey is doomed from the outset, with Del Griffith interfering by snatching the taxi cab that Page had hailed for himself. The two inevitably pair up later and begin an absurdly error-prone adventure to help Page to get back to his home. When every mode of transport fails them, what should have been a brief, New York to Chicago flight turns into a mishmash of cancelled, broken, and worthless trips in the wrong direction.
[edit] Response
The film was greeted with critical applause in 1987, a surprising revelation given the fact that at the time Steve Martin and John Candy were both known as relatively low-brow comedians and John Hughes was considered a teen angst filmmaker. Their attempts at producing an 'adult' comedy resulted in one of the most highly regarded films of the decade. (It now has 97% positive ratings on Rotten Tomatoes and is featured in Roger Ebert's Great Movies collection.) In 2000, readers of Total Film magazine voted it the 10th greatest comedy film of all time.
[edit] Rating
The film could have been rated PG, but it is rated R by the MPAA due to a scene in which Steve Martin goes on a tirade against a car rental agent (Edie McClurg). The "F word" is used 19 times in just over a minute.
The scene is dubbed for television and the rest of the film is family-friendly.
[edit] Releases
The film was released on DVD in 2000, and although there is a three-hour version of the film in the Paramount Studios film vault, the original theatrical version is featured on the DVD in a 'bare bones' presentation.
A known deleted scene of Neal and Del eating airline food, that is commonly seen on the version of the film edited for television, is not on the disc either.
[edit] Trivia
- Kevin Bacon plays the man who races Steve Martin to the taxi at the beginning of the picture. During the shooting of PT&A, John Hughes was also filming She's Having a Baby, in which Kevin Bacon starred and interestingly, the latter film can be heard playing on a television in a later scene, even though it was launched into theaters after Martin and Candy's movie.
- The frenetic musical score makes extensive use of the folk song "Red River Valley".
- Three actors in this film were also in John Hughes' film Ferris Bueller's Day Off: Edie McClurg, who played the rental agent in the infamous 'fuck' scene, played principal Ed Rooney's secretary, Grace. Lyman Ward, Neal's co-worker at the beginning of the film, played Tom Bueller, Ferris' father and Ben Stein, who has a cameo as ticket counter customer, was also featured in Ferris Bueller's Day Off, as Ferris's put-upon economics teacher.
- The film is both Steve Martin's and John Candy's favorite performances of their own.
- The shot of the plane that Page and Griffith are riding on near the beginning of the film is a shot of the plane from the movie 'Airplane!'. However, the image has been enlarged so the faux "TA" Airline logo is not visible on the aircraft. Both Airplane! and Planes, Trains and Automobiles were released by Paramount Studios (and both partly took place in Chicago).
- The house that served as Neal Page's house later became the McCallister home in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York.
- When the rental car burns, a sign is visible behind Martin and Candy that reads "Chicago - 106 Miles". This is a nod to the John Landis film The Blues Brothers, which features at its climax the line "It's 106 miles to Chicago...".
- A quick scene after the credits shows Page's boss still trying to decide which ad layout to use, while his Thanksgiving dinner (including an entire turkey) sits on his desk next to him.
[edit] External links
- Planes, Trains & Automobiles at the Internet Movie Database
- Planes, Trains & Automobiles review by Roger Ebert
Sixteen Candles • The Breakfast Club • Weird Science • Ferris Bueller's Day Off • Planes, Trains & Automobiles • She's Having a Baby • Uncle Buck • Curly Sue
