By Michael Lyons
Five years ago, when I started this blog and noted on the calendar that it would debut in November, I knew that the first article I had to write would need to be about Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The film was about to celebrate its 30th anniversary, and I couldn't wait to commemorate this (to read the article, click here: Holiday Road: The 30th Anniversary of "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" ).
Since its debut on November 25, 1987, Planes, Trains & Automobiles, has become more and more of a favorite for me in the past 35 years. It's now not only one of my top holiday movies (and a must-watch each season) but also one of my favorite comedies of all time.
My first introduction was a trailer that surfaced during the summer of '87 that concluded with the now famous "Those aren't pillows" scene, resulting in an eruption of laughter from the audience that was usually reserved for the main feature, not the coming attraction.
As it came closer to the opening day of Planes, Trains and Automobiles on the day before Thanksgiving, I became fascinated with the film.
The story revolves around uptight marketing executive Neal Page (Steve Martin), who is on a business trip to New York and is desperately trying to get home to Chicago to spend Thanksgiving with his family. Weather and travel-related hurdles prevent this, and he gets unwittingly paired up with Del Griffith (John Candy), an innocently annoying shower curtain ring salesman. The latter tries to help Neal but ultimately becomes part of the problem.
It's a somewhat basic conceit, but what drew me to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, and it continues to, is that it was a Thanksgiving movie. There weren't, and still aren't, a lot of films that celebrate this particular holiday. In fact, at the time, there weren't a lot of Christmas movies.
The last big theatrical holiday film before Planes, Trains, and Automobiles was A Christmas Story in 1983. Hard as it is to believe, there weren't a lot of choices when it came to holiday-themed films 35 years ago. As a holiday movie fan, there was much to look forward to with Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Additionally, Martin and Candy were at the height of their movie popularity. In the 80s, comedies were king, with films like Ghostbusters and Beverly Hills Cop as two of the biggest of the decade.
To add to it all, the film was written and directed by John Hughes, who had brought "The Brat Pack" to prominence by creating films for a generation with Sixteen Candles and Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Two years after Planes, Trains and Automibles, Hughes became the king of holiday comedies with the one-two punch of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in 1989 and Home Alone in 1990.
This would be Hughes’ first “adult” film. Knowing that he was an expert at crafting stories and injecting unique humor only increased my interest in the movie.
After seeing the film on Black Friday, I was ecstatic. It was all of the humor, timing, and physical comedy Steve Martin was so brilliant at, coupled with a genuine performance from John Candy, where the comedian crafted a character.
Running throughout Planes, Trains and Automobiles was a surprising amount of heart that never felt like it was “tacked on” but grew out of the story and the two main characters. I watched Siskel & Ebert & The Movies that weekend (and, after all, who didn’t? Their reviews could make or break a movie), and they raved about the film.
As Thanksgiving weekend came to a close, I knew, I just knew, that Planes, Trains, and Automobiles was a holiday and comic classic in the making.
Then, the box office results came out, and, as far as I was concerned, something had gone terribly wrong. I opened the newspaper (remember those?) on Monday and the small box on the “Entertainment” page with the box-office results had Planes, Trains and Automobiles at number three.
Wait! What?!? It was behind another comedy, Three Men and a Baby, at number one, and a re-issue of Disney’s 1950 animated feature, Cinderella.
How could this be? I was so disappointed. However, as the holiday season of 1987 faded, pop culture had other plans for Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
The 80s would see the boon of home video and cable, which, like many films, brought a new appreciation for this one. The VHS and DVD copies of the film I would purchase through the years would become part of the Thanksgiving season.
I am such a nerd for Planes, Trains and Automobiles that I watch it yearly two days before Thanksgiving, as that is when the film opens. I have heard multiple stories from fans who also make sure that they watch the movie sometime during Thanksgiving week, whether the day before or Thanksgiving night, as a comforting way to ease out of the “Turkey coma.”
Also, when the internet became “a thing,” word spread that Hughes had made a much longer (some say about three hour long) version of Planes, Trains and Automobiles, which had been trimmed down to a lean 90 minutes.
The footage was said to be lost with only one scene, with Steve Martin attempting to eat airline food, surfacing, as it was used on TV in place of the, now classic “F-word car rental sequence.” And, fans of the film, like me, wondered and fantasized what those scenes (some of which were also in the original trailer) and that wondrous “Hughes cut” of Planes, Trains and Automobiles must be like.
Luckily, we can wonder no more, as this year, finally, for the film’s 35th anniversary, over an hour of footage has been unearthed and released on 4K.
It's amazing to think that there are even more classically timed comedic scenes than the now iconic ones mentioned, like the "pillows," the rental car scene, and, especially, the close call between two semi-trucks.
While those scenes and lines of dialogue (Neal: "What do you think the temperature is?" Del: "One.") have become part of the lexicon for fans of the film, there's so much more to Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Here is a film about how in a fast-paced world, we can miss out on life itself, like connections with a complete, kind-hearted stranger, that can teach us more about them and ourselves.
No wonder, like so many others, for thirty-five years, I have enjoyed traveling with Neal and Del every Thanksgiving.
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