Planes, Trains and Automobiles

MOVIE
VIDEO
AUDIO
EXTRAS
OVERALL

One Disc
1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English Dolby Digital 5.1
French Dolby Digital 2.0
English Subtitles
Run Time: 92 Minutes
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MOVIE
Every year at Thanksgiving my family's annual tradition is to prepare for the impending holiday by watching one of two films; A Christmas Story or National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I've always argued that our Thanksgiving would be better spent watching a film about Thanksgiving and, aside from Jodie Foster's Home For The Holidays, I can't think of anything other than Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Do you remember John Hughes? No, not the guy that wrote Dennis the Menace, Baby's Day Out and Home Alone 3. Well, actually yes, that guy. But do you remember before Home Alone (Which, along with its sequel, I still enjoy quite a bit) the days when Hughes wasn't considered family friendly, when he made hard nosed movies like The Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller's Day Off and Sixteen Candles and National Lampoon's Vacation and Christmas Vacation and Planes, Trains and Automobiles, a movie thats R rating seems entirely derived from a sequence between Steve Martin and Edie McClurg where he drops the F bomb at least ten times in a two minute speech. The point was, kiddies, once upon a time, John Hughes made movies for adults, or at least the older kids. And Planes, Trains and Automobiles was among the best of them.
Neil Page (Steve Martin) tries to leave New York City where he works in an ad agency with Ferris Bueller's father (no really, not just Lyman Ward, the same actor, but the same character) at the last minute on the day before Thanksgiving. He's thwarted in the street by Kevin Bacon (how many times has this happened to you) and has his cab stolen by a large man with an enormous piece of luggage. He again encounters this man in the airport and begins a reluctant friendship with him. He is a shower curtain ring salesman named Del Griffith (John Candy in perhaps his greatest performance) with a big heart and a bigger mouth. This unlikely duo then traverse the country together, trying desperately to get home to Chicago in time for Thanksgiving dinner.
If you ever doubt John Hughes' talent as a writer (and I know I do that a lot as of late) all you have to do is go back and look at the big confrontation between Del and Neil in the hotel room, a moment of such passion and anger that it is almost heart wrenching. Thank god for cheesy eighties synth new age music, eh? That moment always gets to me, because the movie tricks you, they play up Neil's side so that while he's being cruel and cynical and angry, you're on his side. Then, suddenly, there's an about face, a moment where Neil explodes and spews hateful things at Del, and we're with him all the way. Then, thanks to a truly touching performance by John Candy, we're forced to eat our words, to swallow our laughter, and it hurts. And this is only about halfway through the film. An appropriate place for the heart of a movie that sometimes can be disjointed and feel almost episodic in nature, but I'd say that's what ultimately works about it. The film has a ticking clock, Thanksgiving dinner, a snowstorm and a certain number of miles that need to be covered come hell or high water, and there's a little of both of those in it.
So why do we, those who love this film so, well, love it so? I think it's because when you tear away all of the flashiness of it, all of the episodic nature and the big battle with the elements and the powers that be keeping Del and Neil out of Chicago, what it's really about is family, who you love and having some place to go for the holidays. And especially at this time of year, what's more important than that. Besides, you also have Steve Martin, a man that will look exactly the same until the day he dies, and John Candy, a comedian that had many missteps in his career, but could always be counted on to give it his all and elevate the material just a bit.

VIDEO
This video transfer got the job done, but was nothing special. Presented in the film's original theatrical ratio of 1.85:1 Anamorphic Widescreen, they've managed to make the movie look fresh despite the appearance of John Candy and the fact that it was the eighties. The print is clean and has only the bare minimum of defects, a bit of edge enhancement and compression artifacts, but it all feels a bit dull. Perhaps that's the winter landscape of the film, but the video transfer didn't WOW me.

AUDIO
As I've said before, most comedies don't require a 5.1 soundtrack, since they mostly just use the front three speakers, sometimes wandering into the back for the score, a big song or a zippy sound effect. Planes, Trains and Automobiles falls into that category. It's nice to see that the film is mixed in Dolby Digital 5.1, but mainly, everything happens in the front soundscape. The various music in the film, however, manages to make it into all five speakers and fills the room nicely. And there are also occasional sound effects that do travel or are at least utilizing the separated rears.

EXTRAS
Boy Paramount, this one hurt. Not even a trailer on this film. How can you sleep at night? And especially after you promised us deleted scenes. Bah. You're lucky we love these movies. Yes sirree. Reeeeeeal lucky.

CLOSING THOUGHTS
What do I think then? I think it's a shame that this is the only opportunity we have to see this great movie in widescreen and in a digital format. I think Paramount completely dropped the ball on it too. We all know that John Hughes enjoys doing commentary (see Ferris Bueller's Day Off) and we also all know that most of his movies come with around forty-five minutes of footage that gets cut before the final version (a rumored three hour original cut of The Breakfast Club) so why, when there is such a fan base for these, his earlier, edgy films, do we only get a single commentary on Ferris Bueller and nothing in the way of extras anywhere else? I got this disc at a Best Buy sale for $9.99 and it was worth that price considering the pan and scan video release was going for about $7.99 at that same time. But I wouldn't pay over ten. Paramount should be ashamed of themselves.