This review includes full spoilers. Proceed accordingly. For other movie reviews from me, click HERE:
[Recieves a comment that mildly disagrees with my take]
Dusty: You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. I’m an easy target. Yeah, you’re right, I blog too much. I also watch too much. I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you… but I don’t like to hurt people’s feelings. Well, you think what you want about my blog; I’m not changing. I like… I like me. My wife likes me. My subscribers like me. ‘Cause I’m the real article. What you see is what you get.
Rating: R
Director: John Hughes
Writer: John Hughes
Stars: Steve Martin, John Candy, Laila Robins
Release Date: November 25, 1987
Run time: 1 hour, 33 minutes
THE PLOT:
via wiki:
In New York City, two days before Thanksgiving, advertising executive Neal Page is eager to return to his family in Chicago. After a prolonged business meeting with an indecisive client, Neal struggles to secure a taxi during rush hour. Although he bribes a man to give up a cab he has hailed, another man swoops in and takes it instead.
Neal arrives at LaGuardia Airport to discover that his flight is delayed. While waiting, he encounters Del Griffith, a chatty and affable shower curtain ring salesman who unknowingly took his cab. Del’s overly friendly demeanor immediately clashes with Neal’s uptight and repressed personality. Adding to his frustration, Neal’s first-class seat is reassigned to a cramped coach seat—right next to Del—on the flight to O’Hare International Airport.
A blizzard in Chicago forces the plane to divert to Wichita, Kansas, leaving Neal and Del stranded overnight. At hotel check-in, they inadvertently swap credit cards. With only one room available, the two are forced to share a double bed. Frustrated by Del’s irritating behavior, Neal loses his temper and harshly criticizes him. Hurt, Del admits his shortcomings but asserts that he likes himself as he is, as does his wife. His response humbles Neal. While they sleep, a thief breaks into their room and steals their cash.
The next day, with air travel severely delayed, Neal purchases train tickets to Chicago for himself and Del, opting for separate compartments. He bids Del farewell, but their journey is interrupted when the locomotive breaks down near Jefferson City, Missouri, leaving passengers stranded in a field. Spotting Del struggling with his trunk, Neal decides to help, and the two reunite before traveling by bus to St. Louis. During a meal, Neal upsets Del by suggesting they continue their journey separately, leading to another parting of ways.
At the Lambert Airport in St. Louis, Neal attempts to rent a car but finds it missing when he reaches the lot. Infuriated, he delivers an expletive-filled tirade to a car rental employee and then attempts to book a taxi to Chicago. He insults the dispatcher, who responds by punching him in the face. By chance, Del arrives in a rental car and offers Neal a ride. That night, Del nearly kills them when he inadvertently drives the wrong way on a freeway. After narrowly avoiding disaster and pulling over, Del’s carelessly discarded cigarette ignites the car, setting it ablaze. Neal initially laughs, believing that Del is liable for the damage. However, Del confesses that he found Neal’s credit card in his wallet, used it to rent the car, and then returned it to Neal’s wallet, which is in the vehicle.
With his credit cards destroyed, Neal barters his expensive watch for a motel room but refuses to help Del. Unable to afford a room, Del attempts to sleep outside in the frigid temperatures and snow. Reflecting aloud, Del laments meeting someone whose company he genuinely enjoys, only to drive them away with his overbearing behavior. Neal feels pity for Del and invites him to share the room. The two bond over drinks, reminiscing about their chaotic journey.
On Thanksgiving Day, the pair continues their journey in the burnt car until the Illinois State Police impounds it for being unroadworthy. Del persuades a truck driver to give them a ride to Chicago—albeit in the truck’s refrigerated trailer. At a Chicago “L” station, Neal thanks Del for helping him get home, and the two part amicably. However, as Neal rides the commuter train, he reflects on Del’s peculiar comments and silences during their journey. Troubled, Neal returns to the station and finds Del sitting alone. Del confesses that he has no permanent home and has been living on the road since his wife’s death eight years earlier. Neal brings Del home with him and introduces his family to his new friend.
The Review
In the spirit of watching one of the only Thanksgiving movies about which I know, I sat down to watch and review this one. Comedic tales of misery are not universally pleasurable for their audiences, and for much of this film that lack of enjoyment was something I felt viscerally. However, Planes, Trains, and Automobiles does a strong job of eventually using that misery to point its audience to something deeper and heartfelt about what it means to be human – or at least what it should mean. Life is busy and hectic, and navigating the chaos can sometimes give us a wrong impression of our mastery of the chaos, and along with that, a very uncaring way of treating our fellow man who shares that struggle. We can lose sight of what actually matters and about what we should be thankful. This movie is a long slow and painful burning away of one man’s thin veneer of civility, so that he can eventually *be* civil. Once the veneer is gone, he sees himself for what he is and he sees his fellow traveler with new eyes. Then they become truly human together, and love overcomes their circumstances. You leave the film wondering how much different everything in the story would have been had this epiphany occurred before the story started. It undoubtedly would have been less miserable for both main characters. We can learn something from that, and hopefully without needing to experience the worst travel circumstances imaginable to do so.
Most of the film goes by with Steve Martin’s Neal as the sympathetic normal guy character, who continues to comedically endure calamity after calamity, due in large part to his interactions with affable but mishap-prone Dell (John Candy.) The big emotional gut-punch of the film is finally learning just before it finishes that Dell’s wife is long dead and that he has no family to see, and no home to visit for Thanksgiving. It’s a gut punch because we realize along with Neal that he never once asked him anything personal throughout the entire preceding story. Dell asks about Neal’s family and supports (usually inadequately) his desire to get home – no matter how badly the justifiably frustrated Neal treats him. Neal never once does the same thing in return. Neal is the one who fails the most foundational test of what it means to be human. Steve Martin does a great job in that realization scene, too, because you can see on his face that he failed his own self-evaluation and is ashamed. It re-writes for Neal and the audience the entire movie that came before.
This is a Thanksgiving movie. Why? It reminds us of what actually matters, what doesn’t, and of what we should be thankful. Neal spent this whole movie feeling and being unlucky, but when we get to the end, we see that those were small things in the big picture. He is enormously fortunate – with a great house and a large, beautiful family who loves him. Dell by contrast is the profoundly unlucky one, cursed to push away the people he is trying to befriend. He has no place to go and no one waiting for him. The experience with Dell reminds Neal of just how rich and fortunate he is, and he is able to share some of that with Dell.
This movie is almost entirely just Steve Martin and John Candy doing scenes together and they are both fantastic. Martin is great in his slow unraveling – highlighted by his complete break-down at the car rental desk. He does this while never turning Neal into a parody. He is a real human from beginning to end, and a better one at the end. John Candy’s Dell is also a wonderful performance. He imbues Dell with this outward warmth, and it’s an authentic warmth, but with glimpses of the fact that he is harboring a lot of pain beneath the surface. It’s a very subtle and outstanding characterization and you will likely see people you know in this character. You end up wanting to give the guy a hug while simultaneously hoping you never have to travel anywhere with him.
I wondered going in why the movie is rated R. Steve Martin and John Candy do not strike me as guys who do “rated R” movies. The answer for the rating is in the language. As everything goes worse and worse for Martin’s Neal, he swears more and more. If you have a fond memory of this movie, you should keep that in mind before sharing it with your kids.
Overall, I am glad I rewatched Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I am not a huge fan of the film’s “bad luck” humor (though I know a lot of people like that sort of thing), wherein we watch a guy endure bad thing after bad thing for laughs. In spite of that, I really appreciated the emotionally powerful way the story reminded its audience to pay attention to the people around us and to care about them. It shames its own audience – in a good way – by pointing out that this reminder is even necessary. It also reminds its audience to be thankful for the things in our life that really matter.
Have you seen Planes, Trains, and Automobiles? If so, what did you think?