Thirty-five years ago, the greatest Thanksgiving movie of all time brought three all-time comedic talents together- Steve Martin, John Candy, and writer-director John Hughes. We didn't know in 1987 how special their collaboration would be. We do now. A classic film burrows it's way into the back of your brain while countless others fade away. This one will still be known in the year 2087, which I hope to live long enough to confirm. Hughes was getting tired of his teen-movie label when he hammered out a script partially inspired by his own travel mishaps. The movie gods were smiling when Martin and Candy found room in their schedules to share one at the Braidwood Inn. Gus's son is picking them up tomorrow. Join me as I explain in detail why the last Thursday in November can't go by without these beleaguered boomers.
Neal Page is kind of an asshole. I mean, it's okay, most people are. This buttoned-up adman has an evening flight to catch two days before Thanksgiving, and is eager to leave this New York meeting. I love it when a movie just throws us right into the main character's frenzied existence with no foreplay. His laidback coworker is Ferris Bueller's father(Lyman Ward)- I like to think that all Hughes movies take place in the same universe. Stay tuned for a post-credits scene to see more of Neal's indecisive client(Emmy winner William Windom).
Page gets in an unspoken foot-race with a not-yet-super-famous Kevin Bacon- he had just shot "She's Having a Baby" with Hughes, which would be released three months later, and was eager to stay in his orbit. Neal loses, with Ira Newborn's oh-so-'80s score blaring in the background. Minutes later, a lawyer(Nick Wyman) that doesn't have a good nature gives up his cab for $75. That doesn't work out either.
Ahh, John Candy. The loveable Canadian comic was ubiquitous in the 1980s, appearing in many popular films("The Blues Brothers", "Stripes", "National Lampoon's Vacation", "Splash", "Summer Rental", "Spaceballs", "The Great Outdoors"). We probably took him for granted, and it goes without saying that he left us way too soon. Del Griffith, the gregarious traveling shower curtain ring salesman, is widely considered his greatest role. He had no idea he was stealing Neal's cab. Or his precious privacy in a crowded airline terminal. Candy's mustache/dark perm was a clever way to separate the character from others he's played, and makes Del feel more special.
"Planes..." humorously captures the feeling of being faced with people who couldn't care less that they're a small part of your journey. It happens nearly every time you step out in public. Why would this stewardess(Diana Castle) want to make Neal's life any easier? She's at work and probably as pissed off as he is.
Legend has it that Hughes wrote a 145-page script and a three-and-a-half hour version of this movie exists in a Paramount vault somewhere. That's right, "PT&A" is as long as "Titanic" in an alternate reality. A prolonged plane conversation over some unappealing airline food, featuring 'Old Man' Bill Erwin of "Seinfeld" season 4 fame, has been worked into some TV airings. Del is such an optimistic, open-hearted guy, he can't imagine anyone not wanting to be his friend. He wan't born with the cynicism that develops in most people. In Neal's defense, taking your shoes and socks off in a stranger's presence is pushing it.
Ben Stein, that Nixon aide turned game show host, and his monotone voice announce the flight cancellations due to adverse weather. We have Hughes to thank(or blame, depending on your politics) for his entertainment career. He's still best known as Ferris Bueller's boring(voodoo) Economics teacher.
Welcome to Wichita! Neil is too uptight to sleep on a public floor, so he reluctantly accepts Del's hotel room offer. Remember, LIKE your work, LOVE your wife.
Neal is thoroughly disgusted in the back of Doobby's cab. Loud rock music and a sleazy Larry Hankin, another "Seinfeld" season 4 player, is the last thing the prissy Page wants in his life at 11:30 pm on a Tuesday. Hughes would create another Thanksgiving odd couple as writer-producer in 1991's "Dutch", starring Ed O'Neill and Ethan Embry, if anyone's looking for a double feature.
There's only one room left at the Braidwood Inn. Cinematographer Donald Peterman helped launch Ron Howard's directing career with "Splash" and "Cocoon", and later lensed two '90s bangers- "Point Break" and "Men in Black".
I'm sure a lonely Laila Robins, making her film debut, would have liked a larger role. As I alluded to earlier, Paul Hirsch had his work cut out for him in the editing room. Among the many scenes he removed was Neal's wife's suspicions about his trip. Is he having an affair? Is "Del Griffith" really his mistress?? There's hardly a trace of this unnecessary subplot in the film's finished 92-minute form.
"I like me". Candy breaks your heart with this wholly unexpected monologue, in response to Neal's late night temper tantrum. Del's bedtime ritual, coupled with cab/airline indignities is just too much for Page. It's made clear here that Neal isn't the nicest guy in the world. Del might be, and I defy you to find another comedy that gets dead-serious like this before the 30-minute mark. Candy has an underlying sadness and depth that he didn't live long enough to fully reveal. I guess we'll just have to settle for "Only the Lonely" and his showy five-minute appearance in "JFK".
Hughes expertly follows that sudden dramatic punch with perhaps the film's biggest laugh. Martin and Candy improvised their famous "pillows" exchange, and Patsy Cline's 1969 hit "Back in Baby's Arms" was really playing on set. Neal diffuses the awkwardness with some "masculine" Chicago Bears talk(the 1986 Super Bowl champs).
You just can't share a bathroom with some people.
Neal and Del were robbed overnight- a deleted scene has the long-haired pizza/beer delivery guy Gary Riley getting revenge for a lousy tip- and now must take a morning ride with another one of Griffith's ungainly friends. Observant viewers should recognize Dylan Baker as Peter Parker's college professor in Sam Raimi's "Spider-Man" sequels and numerous other film/TV appearances. In the same year that "Married...with Children" premiered, Owen and his wife(Lulie Newcomb) could have got a redneck sitcom going. Fun fact- his hand spit-wipe was improvised when Hughes decided the scene needed something extra.
Neal is happy to part ways with his heavyset companion at the Wichita train station and get some sleep that won't be interrupted by a quiet college girl. Del is clearly disappointed by the seeming conclusion of the relationship. He has no real way of keeping in touch without Page's contact info. I love the contrast between the two characters. Neal is the kind of guy that wishes Mark Zuckerberg was never born. Del wants to build a bridge to every person he's ever met.
A train breakdown puts Neal and Del on a bus, and back in each-other's good company. Page grabs Griffith's trunk on his own accord, a subtle show of their growing friendship. This was the start of a slight reinvention for Steve Martin(then 41) who was previously best known onscreen for the broad stylings of his 1979 debut "The Jerk". The $49.5 million domestic box office of "Planes..." positioned the maturing comic for two more career-defining hits, "Parenthood" and "Father of the Bride".
(British pop-rock group Westworld blasting)Why don't you take a picture, because movies don't do this anymore.
"Three Coins in the Fountain", anyone? Each one seeking happiness?? Thrown by three hopeful lovers, no? Del doesn't have a pot to piss in, but people like him more. "FLINTSTONES..."
Del hasn't been home in years. Hughes keeps dropping heartbreaking hints about the nomadic nice guy that would bond the two Johns in real life. Two years later, they reunited for "Uncle Buck", another Candy classic that became a basic cable fixture. A "Home Alone" paycut($414 for one day) is no problem when you're doing a favor for a friend. Or was it? Hughes was said to be devastated by Candy's 1994 death and lost a lot of his desire to make movies in the years after. We'll never know if the legendary writer/producer/director would have reentered the industry to capitalize on all the '80s nostalgia in the streaming era. He also died of a heart attack in 2009.
Page will probably get where he's going a lot faster alone, so we get another separation. He should have known better. I love how the obscure band E.T.A. and their quirky soundtrack contribution("I Can Take Anything") kicks in the moment Neal realizes he's been screwed by a missing rental car. Or fucked, I should say. This movie is rated-R for one reason.
It was a nice hat.
Gobble, gobble. Maybe Edie McClure's rental car girl is talking to her twin sister, Mr. Rooney's secretary Grace.
You can start by wiping that stupid fucking smile off your face. Neal didn't walk down a fucking highway and across a fucking runway to have you smile in his fucking face. Hold onto your paperwork, people, you just never know. I suppose a cell phone would've solved this problem today, but Page would have lost that too.
Friendly life advice from John Hughes- Don't tell an angry blue-collar guy(John Randolph Jones) that he has a small penis. He might knock you out and then help you up by your testicles.
Del got a car, no sweat.
"Radio Days", "Some Kind of Wonderful", "Raising Arizona", "Beverly Hills Cop II", "The Witches of Eastwick", "Innerspace", "Spaceballs", "The Secret of My Success", "Three O'Clock High", "Baby Boom", "Three Men and a Baby", "Overboard", "Moonstruck", "Throw Momma From the Train", "Broadcast News", "Good Morning, Vietnam". All good comedies released in 1987. Most were on cable constantly. I wish I could just go with the flow, but I have to take a minute to mourn the death of the comedy genre here. When did the laughter die?
Oh, and I have to call special attention to Steve Martin's OTHER 1987 gem, "Roxanne"(that he also wrote), which got a big thumbs up from Siskel and Ebert and my eight-year old self, for anyone looking to double up on this wild and crazy guy.
Del broke the passenger seat during a long night of driving, and Neal fidgets with his nuts a lot. Songs have to be chosen and placed carefully in a film, and music buff Hughes does it again with the 1953 Ray Charles hit "Mess Around". That lit cigarette may cause problems, though.
Del isn't the devil, but this is a nice sight gag.
After driving the wrong way, the weary duo can't help but laugh at their mounting misfortune. That is until the revelation that their burning rental car is in Neal's name- the result of an earlier credit card mix-up. It doesn't even matter how the fire gets put out, because Martin and Candy really cook.
Seventeen dollars and a helluva nice watch gets Neal some shelter from Martin Ferrero, of "Miami Vice" and "Jurassic Park" fame. Two crumpled bills and a Casio gets Del sent back to the cold(and hot) car for a sad soliloquy from Candy. He should have been nominated. No disrespect to Marcello Mastroianni, but are there any "Dark Eyes" fans out there? Didn't think so. This is the moment when an empathetic Neal finally accepts Del. These two guys needed each other.
To the wives? Who needs wives. You don't really get to do late-night eating/drinking and boisterous bullshit sessions when there's a woman attached to your hip. Is sex worth giving that up? Look at these expressions and tell me honestly.
"PT&A" was filmed from March 2nd to July 1st 1987 and finding snow to slow down Neal and Del was a constant challenge for the first two months. They started in Buffalo, and many days were spent traveling to locations in NY, Missouri, Illinois, Ohio, and California. Hughes was unbothered by his ballooning schedule and budget as the production mirrored the film's storyline. You would think they were shooting some sort of epic with costs in the same neighborhood as "Predator" and "Robocop". In a way, they were.
State trooper Michael McKean can't let our heroes go ahead in this vehicle. This was actually day one, and I'm still surprised to learn that movies are rarely shot in sequence. The Grand Detroit Farm & Country convertible isn't pretty to look at, like Clark Griswald's Wagon Queen Family Truckster, and will go no further until it's been made safe for highway travel.
A trip in the back of a frozen truck takes us to the Chicago train station. Neal gets home late, but a little wiser. If the last ten minutes of this movie doesn't activate your tear ducts, you should be on some FBI watch list. The British alt-pop band Dream Factory can be heard in the background of Del's "I like me" speech and was the perfect rythmic accompaniment to Neal's railroad reflection. It's another reminder that Hughes had a Scorsese/Tarantino-like ability to find mood music that perfectly matches what we're seeing and feeling.
Del doesn't have a home and his wife Marie has been dead for eight years. "EVERY TIME YOU GO...AWAY". Every time Neal brings Del home for a turkey dinner, I get reminded what it means to be a human being. We all need that in our busy, fast-paced, monetary-driven lives that leave the Del Griffiths of the world largely unnoticed. Hughes was a Republican and even he knew it. He may have also known something subconsciously about Candy because he ends "Planes..." and "Uncle Buck" with a bittersweet freeze-frame that conveys happiness and sadness at the same time. The less-is-more approach that was taken in editing, even though it left some good Candy verbiage on the cutting room floor(according to Martin) was the right call for VHS lovers and sleepy Thanksgiving Eve viewers.
I like to think that Del spent a week or so in one of Neal's many guest rooms until he got an apartment and eventually a new wife. That's my post-script, and that's what a great movies does for you- they leave you imagining where the characters go after the end credits because you don't want your relationship with them to end. That's why "PT&A" has been a November staple since 1987, and please spare us the remake that's been talked about in recent years. It doesn't have a chance. Roger Ebert rewarded it's rewatchability with a spot on his prestigious 'Great Movies' book list. Now, it's officially on mine. "Planes, Trains & Automobiles" is one of the world's greatest films.
