| Miracle of Flight | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Directed by | Terry Gilliam |
| Written by | Terry Gilliam |
| Produced by | Terry Gilliam |
Release date |
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Running time | 5 minutes [2] |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
Miracle of Flight is a 1974 British animated short comedy film written and directed by Terry Gilliam. [3]
"Ever since man first observed the smooth, graceful soaring of a Boeing 707, he has had an unquenchable desire to fly." - Narrator [4]
After a short montage of various birds (and a Boeing 707) in flight, we see several attempts of people attempting to fly themselves. A shepherd attempts flying by flapping his wings, only to land on top of his sheep. Another man constructs a suit shaped like a bird to fly, only to crash upon leaping off a cliff.
Other early attempts includes a man dons bird talon shoes and meets the same fate as the first man. Two more try and also fall off the cliff (one has himself covered in tar and bird feathers, and another flattens his arms, so he can merely glide).
The scene then switch to a "certain country" where a "certain king" gathers his finest scientists at a research center on a high cliff to try and break the flight barrier, but all the king does is kick the scientists off a high cliff all the while loudly commanding "FLY!". But on July 27, 1643, it initially appears that one scientist was successful in being able to fly, but he ends up hitting the ground (the camera was merely turned on its side as he was falling to appear as though he were flying and rotates back to normal after the scientist's impact). "Nope, that's still not right", the king comments. "Next."
A man tried an assisted flight by using seagulls to lift him up into the air. From below, people watch in astonishment, while one elderly woman throws bread crumbs on the pavement, muttering, "Nice little birdies." This ends the man's flight, as the gulls dive bomb to the ground.
Three hundred years later, a man living in Krakatau, East of Miami, invents the airline ticket. Soon everything else fell into place as other people invent various items essential to air travel, such as in-flight movies, sickness bag, stewardesses, the "please fasten your safety belt" sign, and the air terminal.
The final scene depicts a man goes through the airport check-in. He walk down the terminal and checks the flight schedule which announces that Flight 507 for Krakatoa East of Düsseldorf is now boarding at Gate 3. He went to gate where he handed his boarding pass to a stewardess. He walked through that gate just as the pilot wished him a very pleasant flight. Outside the gate, he waits for his flight...which is only getting kicked off the same high cliff where the king kicked off all his scientists several years ago. The short ends with the line his the king saying, "Nope, still not got it." [5]
Terrence Vance Gilliam is an American-British filmmaker, comedian, collage animator, and actor. He gained stardom as a member of the Monty Python comedy troupe alongside John Cleese, Eric Idle, Michael Palin, Terry Jones, and Graham Chapman. Together they collaborated on the sketch series Monty Python's Flying Circus (1969–1974) and the films Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Life of Brian (1979) and The Meaning of Life (1983). In 1988, they received the BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. In 2009, Gilliam received the BAFTA Fellowship for lifetime achievement.
Airport is a 1970 American air disaster–drama film written and directed by George Seaton and starring Burt Lancaster and Dean Martin. Based on Arthur Hailey's 1968 novel, it originated the 1970s disaster film genre. It is also the first of four films in the Airport film series. Produced on a $10 million budget, it earned over $128 million. The supporting cast features Jean Seberg, Jacqueline Bisset, George Kennedy, Helen Hayes, Van Heflin, Maureen Stapleton, Barry Nelson, Lloyd Nolan, Dana Wynter and Barbara Hale.
Boeing Boeing is a 1965 American bedroom farce comedy film based on the 1960 French play Boeing-Boeing and starring Tony Curtis and Jerry Lewis. Released on December 22, 1965, it was the last film that Lewis made for Paramount Pictures, which had produced all of his films since My Friend Irma (1949).
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1969.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1970.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1972.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1971.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1977.
And Now for Something Completely Different is a 1971 British sketch comedy film based on the television comedy series Monty Python's Flying Circus featuring sketches from the show's first two series. The title was taken from a catchphrase used in the television show.
Cutout animation is a form of stop-motion animation using flat characters, props and backgrounds cut from materials such as paper, card, stiff fabric or photographs. The props would be cut out and used as puppets for stop motion. The world's earliest known animated feature films were cutout animations, as is the world's earliest surviving animated feature Die Abenteuer des Prinzen Achmed (1926) by Lotte Reiniger.
Jabberwocky is a 1977 British fantasy comedy film co-written and directed by Terry Gilliam. Jabberwocky stars Michael Palin as Dennis, a cooper's apprentice, who is forced through clumsy, often slapstick misfortunes to hunt a terrible dragon after the death of his father. The film's title is taken from the nonsense poem "Jabberwocky" from Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass (1871).
Continental Airlines Flight 11, registration N70775, was a Boeing 707 aircraft which exploded in the vicinity of Centerville, Iowa, United States, while en route from O'Hare Airport, Chicago, Illinois, to Kansas City, Missouri, on May 22, 1962. The aircraft crashed in a clover field near Unionville, in Putnam County, Missouri, killing all 45 crew and passengers on board. The investigation determined the cause of the crash was a suicide bombing, committed as insurance fraud.
Skyjacked is a 1972 American disaster film starring Charlton Heston and Yvette Mimieux. Directed by John Guillermin, the film is based on the David Harper novel Hijacked. James Brolin led an ensemble cast primarily playing the roles of passengers and crew aboard an airliner.
Cheddi Jagan International Airport, formerly Timehri International Airport, is the primary international airport of Guyana. The airport is located on the right bank of the Demerara River in the city of Timehri, 41 kilometres (25 mi) south of Guyana's capital, Georgetown. It is the larger of the two international airports serving Georgetown with the other airport being the Eugene F. Correia International Airport.
Come Fly with Me is a 1963 British Jet Age romantic comedy film directed by Henry Levin and released by MGM. Featuring an ensemble cast of Dolores Hart, Hugh O'Brian, Karlheinz Böhm, Pamela Tiffin, Karl Malden, and Lois Nettleton, it is based on Bernard Glemser's 1960 chick-lit novel Girl on a Wing, which was published again in 1969 under the title The Fly Girls. It follows three young international air hostesses looking for romance and excitement, weaving abundant soap opera elements into its tale of opportunity for glamorous travel and adventures with men that came with being an airline hostess.
National Airlines was a trunk carrier, a scheduled airline in the United States that operated from 1934 until it merged with Pan Am in 1980. For most of its existence the company was headquartered at Miami International Airport, Florida. At its height, National Airlines had a network of "Coast-to-Coast-to-Coast" flights, linking Florida and Gulf Coast destinations such as New Orleans and Houston with cities along the East Coast as far north as Boston as well as with large cities on the West Coast including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. From 1970 to 1978, National, Braniff International Airways, Pan American World Airways and Trans World Airlines (TWA) were the only U.S. airlines permitted to operate scheduled passenger flights to Europe.
BOAC Flight 712 was a British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) service operated by a Boeing 707-465 from London Heathrow Airport bound for Sydney via Zurich and Singapore. On Monday 8 April 1968, it suffered an engine failure on takeoff that quickly led to a major fire; the engine detached from the aircraft in flight. After the aircraft had made a successful emergency landing, confusion over checklists and distractions from the presence of a check pilot contributed to the deaths of five of the 127 on board. The direct cause of the fire was the failure of a compressor wheel, due to metal fatigue.
Coffee, Tea or Me? is a book of purported memoirs by the fictitious stewardesses Trudy Baker and Rachel Jones, written by the initially uncredited Donald Bain and first published in 1967. The book depicts the anecdotal lives of two lusty young stewardesses, and was originally presented as factual.
The 1965 Carmel mid-air collision occurred on December 4, 1965, when Eastern Air Lines Flight 853 (N6218C), a Lockheed Super Constellation en route from Boston Logan International Airport to Newark International Airport, collided in mid-air with Trans World Airlines Flight 42 (N748TW), a Boeing 707-131B en route from San Francisco International Airport to John F. Kennedy International Airport, over Carmel, New York, United States.