Often described as the first Soviet disaster film, AIR CREW (EKIPAZH; 1980) borrows heavily from EARTHQUAKE, AIRPORT, WHEN TIME RAN OUT and just about every other disaster movie released in the 1970s. It’s certainly every bit as overblown, ham-fisted and melodramatic as its Hollywood counterparts, and so can at least be counted as a partial success.
It commences with a punishing 70 minutes’ worth of “dramatic” character development, in which we’re introduced to a trio of airline pilots. There’s Valentin, who’s navigating a messy divorce and a stuttering child who insists on calling him Uncle. The much older Andrei is dealing with a flighty teen daughter who’s been impregnated by a punk, while the insatiable playboy Igor strings along Tamara, an attractive young flight attendant (who provides what is said to be the first-ever bedroom set nudity in a Soviet film). Andrei is upset with Igor about his actions, which is where we are when the action finally gets underway.
The trio find themselves headlining a rescue mission, flying a 747 out to a remote Middle Eastern region where several Russian tourists are stranded. The plane has barely set down when an earthquake strikes the runway, causing explosions and large cracks to open up in the ground. This is followed by an erupting volcano and mass flooding, but the pilots manage to gather a number of terrified refugees into the plane and take off before the lava and floodwaters reach them.
Once in the air, though, another issue quickly becomes apparent: a breach in the plane’s outer hull. Valentin gets bundled up like a space alien so he can crawl along the outside of the plane and repair the breach, only to end up frost bitten. It’s up to Igor to finish the job, but he emerges with several broken ribs. Next our heroes have to land the plane, which presents a new problem: the brakes don’t work!
As you might guess, the special effects here aren’t exactly up to Hollywood standards. Yet the elaborate old school model work does have a definite retro charm, bolstered by some striking directorial touches (distorted lenses, varying film speeds) that create a subtly poetic aura that’s unique in disaster movies.
Unfortunately that effect is blunted by the pedestrian staging, hellaciously drawn-out narrative and interminable half hour long coda in which the various human interest stories laid out in the opening 70 minutes are tied up. Still, I’ll have to say that AIR CREW is about on par with the disaster films it emulates, which is to say it’s a worthwhile time passer for a slow afternoon.
This film, incidentally, was remade (see below), but that remake, directed by Nikolay Lebedev in 2016, isn’t much better.
Vital Statistics
AIR CREW (EKIPAZH)
Mosfilm
Director: Aleksandr Mitta
Screenplay: Yuli Dunsky, Valeri Frid, Aleksandr Mitta, Boris Urinovsky
Cinematography: Valeriy Shuvalov
Editing: Nadezhda Veselyovskaya
Cast: Georgi Zhzhyonov, Anatoliy Vasilev, Leonid Filatov, Aleksandra Yakovleva-Aasmyae, Irina Akulova, Yekaterina Vasilyeva, Komaki Kurihara, Yuriy Gorobets, Aleksandr Pavlov, Galina Gladkova