BWN Nerds’ Movie Review: Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987)

Welcome to this week’s edition of the Nerd Review!  Every week the Nerds give you their take on a different classic from the Nerdosphere.  This week Dave and Patrick review the 1987’s Thanksgiving classic Planes, Trains, and Automobiles!

The Flick:  Planes, Trains and Automobiles

What’s it About:  Neal Page just wants to get home in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with his family.  Unfortunately, his flight home is cancelled and he has to find other means of transportation home.  Enter shower curtain ring salesman Del Griffith who through a series of random events continuously encounters and joins Neal on his attempts to get home.

Metacritic Score: 74

The Nerds’ Take on Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987):

Dave: While Christmas has an over-abundance of movies synonymous with the Holiday season, when it comes to Thanksgiving, there really is just one movie that stands out above all others: John Hughes’s 1987 classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Not even a global pandemic that has swallowed up 2020 can stop Thanksgiving. It is only fitting then that we review this masterpiece for this Thanksgiving.

Full disclosure: Out of the many John Hughes films out there, this is not my favorite…but it is up there. The movie tells the story of Neal Page, a marketing executive trying to get home to his family for Thanksgiving. Neal is at a meeting in New York and is wanting to get back to Chicago. As he scrambles to   get to NYC’s La Guardia airport, he has a brief run in with shower curtain sing salesman Del Griffith when Del snatches Neal’s taxi cab, unintentionally. This is the genesis of the relationship between Neal and Del and the movie is one hilarious mishap after another, a touchstone in many Hughes films. First, the flight cannot make it to Chicago due to severe weather and it gets re-routed to Wichita. Del and Neal share a hotel room together, which leads to one of the most iconic scenes of the movie (“Those aren’t pillows”). They end up on a train bound for Chicago, but the train breaks down. A bus gets them to St. Louis and Neal wants to rent a car to get the rest of the way to Chicago. That goes predictably wrong as well. Neal and Del will eventually make it to Chicago a couple of days late.

Now, that brief description does not do the movie justice, not by a long shot. There are so many unforgettable moments in this movie, from Neal verbally tearing Del down in the hotel room, to Neal unleashing an F-bomb laden tirade on the girl working the counter at the rental car facility, to Del’s mishaps with the rental car…it is all done so very well. The main reason for that is because of the two stars, Steve Martin who plays Neal and the equally magnificent John Candy, who plays Del. These two characters could not be more different from each other. Neal is very uptight and high-strung, which is a role that Martin has absolutely mastered over the years. Del, on the other hand, has a good heart but is just supremely annoying, a role that Candy crushed many times as well during his cut-short life and career. It is the dynamics of this relationship that make the movie work so well.

In fact, it is the evolution of Neal and Del’s relationship which really help this movie stand out. Neal goes from pretty much despising Del to, by movie’s end, not only liking Del but welcoming him into his own family. Neal’s humanity towards Del at the end, once he realizes a rather sad truth about Del’s life, is the sort of heartwarming moment that showed that there was more to John Hughes’s humor than the teen comedies he had come to be known for up until this time (think Sixteen Candles, Ferris Bueller, Pretty in Pink, etc.). It was a trend Hughes would continue for the next couple of years with movies like She’s Having a Baby (including a cameo by Kevin Bacon in Planes, Trains and Automobiles, as well as dialogue from She’s Having A Baby, even though it would not come out until nearly a year later), The Great Outdoors and Uncle Buck (two more great John Candy films), and an arguably even better Holiday Classic in Christmas Vacation. But, Planes, Trains & Automobiles was a big step forward in showing Hughes’s range as a director and filmmaker.

The film was a critical and financial success and the chemistry between Martin and Candy was unmistakable. It is the quintessential Thanksgiving classic and deserves to be every bit as part of any Thanksgiving tradition as turkey, stuffing, football, or pumpkin pie.

Dave’s Rating: 4.5/5

Patrick:  There really was only one film we Nerds could review for Thanksgiving week, right?  There was just no way we could caver any movie other than the John Hughes’ classic Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.  It is THE movie that focuses on the Thanksgiving holiday.  When we reviewed the original National Lampoon’s Vacation, I focused on how relatable the experience of a stressful family roadtrip can be.  Planes is no different as the audience is treated to the odyssey of trying to get home for the holidays.

We follow the travels of Neal Page, who has been out of town in New York on business, looking to get home to his family in Chicago.  As he makes his way to the airport, Neal keeps crossing paths with a man who seemingly is getting the best of Neal’s attempts to even reach the airport.  When he finally catches his flight, he meets a boisterous shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.  Neal and Del are on the same flight to Chicago but a snowstorm reroutes the plane to Wichita, Kansas.  At every turn, as Neal tries to find ways to get home he inevitably finds himself travelling in the company of Del.  Del’s bombastic personality progressively drives Neal up a wall as the obstacles to Chicago increase.

I mentioned Vacation as a comparable film in my opening paragraph and that is no accident.  John Hughes was one of the writers of Vacation, and for Planes he both wrote and directed the flick.  Hughes is very adept at taking the mundane annoyances of life and magnifying them in hilarious ways.  From flight cancellations or having your seat bumped to losing out on a rental car, Hughes captures the horrors of travel.  And who among us hasn’t found themselves traveling next to that annoying seat neighbor on a plane?  For us though, our experience ends when the plane lands, the bus stops, etc.  Not for Neal. Del is with him for every stop on the journey.  Of course, as with most John Hughes films, by the time we reach journey’s end a bond has been formed and both Del and Neal see each other in a new light.

The script is great, and Hughes found the perfect two actors to carry the film.  Steve Martin plays Neal so well.  You can feel his frustration and desperation grow with every mishap on the road.  The great John Candy dives into that larger-than-life character he made famous in so many other roles toad to Neal’s stress.  As the tension between the two grows, you just know Neal, will break down and lose his mind on Del.  When he finally does, Martin brings all of that frustration to bear terrifically.  Planes has so many memorable scenes carried by Martin and Candy.  Most immediately remember the hotel scene (those aren’t pillows!!!!)  For my money, I love the scene where Neal loses his mind on the car rental sales rep played by Edie McClurg (look her up, you know who she is).  Martin delivers every f-bomb with an ever-increasing punch of rage before McClurg gets the last word it’s great.

Planes Trains and Automobiles is a film that speaks to anyone whose had travel issues over the holidays.  As someone with family halfway across the country, I have been there when the plans go awry.  I’m just glad I never faced Neal’s struggles.  This is classic movie and one to watch anytime, not just Thanksgiving.  Definitely worth your time

Patrick’s Rating:  4.75/5

Overall Nerds Rating for Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987):  4.6/5