Image taken from Wikipedia
Introduction
“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” is a 1987 comedy written, produced, and directed by John Hughes. This was a bit of a turn from Hughes’s other movies of the time, which mostly included teen angst films such as “The Breakfast Club” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Upon release, the movie was met with critical acclaim. It grossed over $49,000,000 domestically, while having a budget of $30,000,000. It is still held in relatively high account today. Let’s see if there is any truth to all the praise of “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.”
Plot (Spoilers!)
(I don’t plan on going into a lot of detail with this, since there isn’t a ton of plot to this movie. I’d rather leave some of the jokes to be found out, as I don’t think me explaining every single joke of this movie would do it justice.)
Neal Page (Steve Martin), a business man on a work trip to New York City, is trying to return to his family living in Chicago for Thanksgiving. Starting in the first five minutes of the movie, it’s clear that his journey is doomed when Del Griffith (John Candy), a traveling salesman, leaves his trunk on the side of the road and trips Neal. They eventually find each other again when they are waiting for the same plane. Once on the plane, instead of going to Chicago, they are diverted to Wichita due to a blizzard. The two decide to team up and travel on their own to Chicago, instead of waiting for the flight.
Before they can start their journey, they must first spend the night in a motel, where they are forced to share a room. After spending just a few hours together, Neal blows up and yells at Del and brutally insults him. Although it is somewhat justified, Neal deeply hurts Del’s feelings. Del tells Neal that he is an uptight cynic, and says that despite how Neal may feel, Del likes himself for who he is. This leaves Neal speechless, and he goes back to sleep. During the night they have their money stolen, which forces them to use their credit cards for the rest of the journey.
I want to leave at least some of the movie a secret, so I won’t fully explain most of their journey. Neal and Del try various ways to get back to Chicago, most of them failing. Neal and Del have their ups and downs, and tend to part ways, only to eventually find each other again. The movie continues this pattern until the final ten minute of the movie.
Neal and Del finally reach Chicago in the back of a refrigerated milk truck. Under the assumption that Del has a family of his own (he frequently mentions his wife Marie and puts a framed picture of her on his various motel nightstands), the two men part ways, supposedly for the last time. However, Neal later pieces together some of the things Del had said about Marie during the journey, and realizes that Del is alone for the holiday. He goes back to the train station where the two had earlier parted ways and sees Del sitting alone. Del tells Neal that Marie actually died eight years prior and that he no longer has a home of his own. Neal, feeling sorry for the man who went out of his way just to get him home for Thanksgiving and having himself become a nicer person during the journey, invites Del to enjoy Thanksgiving with his family. The film ends with Neal finally returning home to his wife, children, parents and in-laws, and introducing Del to the family.
My opinion (also includes spoilers)
I didn’t really like this movie. The last third of the movie was pretty good, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the first hour of it. This could be because I just don’t like this type of movie. I love to watch a good comedy, but I hate the kind of comedy where literally everything goes wrong for the main character (I like to call these movies “Murphy’s Movies”). It just makes me feel bad for them, not laugh. It also doesn’t seem very realistic, as it doesn’t seem possible for that many bad things to happen to a person that quickly. This is why I don’t really like movies such as slapstick comedies or 90s kids’ comedies where every bad guy gets hit in the nuts.
I also didn’t really like the main character, Neal. The movie felt like it wanted me to be sorry for him, like he doesn’t deserve the situation he’s in, and to an extent, that’s true. But he is just really unlikeable. I get that he has a right to be mad, but he just comes off as a real jerk. I explodes for no real reason, such as the scene where he yells at the car rental lady. Yes, he has a reason to be mad and yell, but it isn’t her fault. If he had been nice to her, he might have even been able to rent a different car. He just comes off as unnecessarily mean.
I also didn’t like his companion, Del. I also got the feeling like I should feel bad for him, but I really didn’t. He doesn’t seem mean, he just seems really annoying. It’s like he is purposefully trying to make other’s lives bad. Yeah, he does some good, but he can’t tell when he’s making others uncomfortable. He doesn’t really seem like he could be a real person. No living person could be that inconsiderate (although many do come close). I didn’t really care for him until the end. Even though it’s kind of obvious that his wife died, it’s still a bit sad.
One thing that I did like about this movie is the relationship between Neal and Del. In most movies with a pair of people who don’t get along, the movie has them tolerate each other in the first two thirds of the movie, and waits until the final third to have the huge, inevitable blowout. That isn’t the case in this movie. Neal and Del have their blowout in the first third of the movie. This comes off as a shock, and it leaves the viewer to wonder where their relationship is going to go from there. Are they going to separate or will they make amends? Obviously they make amends to an extent, but their relationship is pretty rough the entire trip. I just found it interesting that they didn’t follow the normal standard for this type of movie back then.
Conclusion
If you want to watch a Thanksgiving themed movie, or just enjoy a good slapstick style comedy, then I would recommend this movie. However, if you’re like me, and you don’t really like slapstick, then I would have to recommend that you stay away from this movie. I don’t think that it has a strong enough plot to justify watching it for the story. In fact the only thing other than the slapstick worth seeing in this movie is the relationship of Neal and Del. If you don’t enjoy either of these, then just find something else to watch.
Critical Condition 