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The Stewardess Is Flying The Plane! American Films of the 1970s
More than 350 full-color and black-and-white images highlight an illustrated retrospective of the great American films of the 1970s, examining more than four hundred films of a decade marked by such great movies as Jaws, Star Wars, The Godfather, Rocky, The Sting, Apocalypse Now, and M*A*S*H. 20,000 first printing.
272 pages, Hardcover
First published November 9, 2005
2 people are currently reading
128 people want to read
About the author
Ron Hogan
13 books79 followersRon Hogan is the author of Getting Right with Tao A Contemporary Spin on the Tao Te Ching and The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane. He also contributed to the New York Times bestseller Not Quite What I Was Planning and Secrets of the Lost Symbol.
Ron helped create the literary Internet by launching Beatrice.com in 1995. Fifteen years later, after writing about the business side of publishing as a senior editor for GalleyCat for several years, he served briefly as the director of e-marketing strategy for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Ron helped create the literary Internet by launching Beatrice.com in 1995. Fifteen years later, after writing about the business side of publishing as a senior editor for GalleyCat for several years, he served briefly as the director of e-marketing strategy for Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
July 29, 2023
Fun with Some Memorable Movies!
When I began reading this book, I called my adult son who works in a field related to aviation and who loves cinema. "Here's a quick trivia question," I said by way of introduction. "I'm just reading this book about 1970s movies, movies your Mom and I saw when we were dating. The book is titled 'The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane!' What movie is that from?"
He began rattling off some titles, but mainly was thinking of more recent comedies. His first guess was Airplane. And, because I don't want to turn this review into a spoiler, I won't answer the question here. I'm sure some of my alert movie-loving Goodreads friends will know right away.
And that's a pretty good way to introduce this book in a Goodreads review. If what you just read sounds like a question you'd shake your head and have no interest in discussing, then this isn't a book for you. But, if that trivia question has you wracking your brain for airplane movies, then you'll probably have some fun with this book.
I only learned that this book existed because I follow some movie-and-book discussion strings in Goodreads and I saw a friend reading this book. My recommendation is to check out the used copies on Amazon. I got my copy, which had been a library book, for $5 complete with shipping. Yes, it's a well-worn copy and it still has an old-fashioned library stamp-the-due-date slip inside the front cover, but it's all I need for a few fun evenings of nostalgia.
It's a "coffee-table" book with lots of big photographs and was published in 2005, so there is a whole lot of context from the past two decades that is missing here. But my guess is that anyone who would order a copy of this book, today, won't be spending a lot of time reading Ron Hogan's text. Hogan is a well-known fixture in the publishing industry, but I don't think of him as an expert on American cinema. His text is about what you'd expect to read in a typical magazine story about this era of cinema.
So, let's be honest: The fun of this book lies in the pictures! How long has it been since you've stared at a full-page closeup of the alien bursting out of Kane's (John Hurt's) stomach in Alien (1979). Well, that's one of the eye-popping pages in this book.
I kept a small notepad handy as I flipped the pages and enjoyed some of the text and all of the pictures and captions. As a result, I want to go back and see a lot of films, including Targets (which Hogan slips in here even though that came out in 1968), A Boy and His Dog (1975), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Eiger Sanction (1975), The Hired Hand (1971) and Charley Verrick (1973) among so many others.
My tour through Hogan's book has sparked what I'm sure will be weeks of fun revisiting these movies I had forgotten about before rediscovering them in these pages.
And that movie with the stewardess landing the plane?
Well, add a comment and tell us which film Hogan is highlighting in choosing that title.
When I began reading this book, I called my adult son who works in a field related to aviation and who loves cinema. "Here's a quick trivia question," I said by way of introduction. "I'm just reading this book about 1970s movies, movies your Mom and I saw when we were dating. The book is titled 'The Stewardess Is Flying the Plane!' What movie is that from?"
He began rattling off some titles, but mainly was thinking of more recent comedies. His first guess was Airplane. And, because I don't want to turn this review into a spoiler, I won't answer the question here. I'm sure some of my alert movie-loving Goodreads friends will know right away.
And that's a pretty good way to introduce this book in a Goodreads review. If what you just read sounds like a question you'd shake your head and have no interest in discussing, then this isn't a book for you. But, if that trivia question has you wracking your brain for airplane movies, then you'll probably have some fun with this book.
I only learned that this book existed because I follow some movie-and-book discussion strings in Goodreads and I saw a friend reading this book. My recommendation is to check out the used copies on Amazon. I got my copy, which had been a library book, for $5 complete with shipping. Yes, it's a well-worn copy and it still has an old-fashioned library stamp-the-due-date slip inside the front cover, but it's all I need for a few fun evenings of nostalgia.
It's a "coffee-table" book with lots of big photographs and was published in 2005, so there is a whole lot of context from the past two decades that is missing here. But my guess is that anyone who would order a copy of this book, today, won't be spending a lot of time reading Ron Hogan's text. Hogan is a well-known fixture in the publishing industry, but I don't think of him as an expert on American cinema. His text is about what you'd expect to read in a typical magazine story about this era of cinema.
So, let's be honest: The fun of this book lies in the pictures! How long has it been since you've stared at a full-page closeup of the alien bursting out of Kane's (John Hurt's) stomach in Alien (1979). Well, that's one of the eye-popping pages in this book.
I kept a small notepad handy as I flipped the pages and enjoyed some of the text and all of the pictures and captions. As a result, I want to go back and see a lot of films, including Targets (which Hogan slips in here even though that came out in 1968), A Boy and His Dog (1975), The Towering Inferno (1974), The Eiger Sanction (1975), The Hired Hand (1971) and Charley Verrick (1973) among so many others.
My tour through Hogan's book has sparked what I'm sure will be weeks of fun revisiting these movies I had forgotten about before rediscovering them in these pages.
And that movie with the stewardess landing the plane?
Well, add a comment and tell us which film Hogan is highlighting in choosing that title.
January 3, 2018
I love movies and I love the 70's . . . and I love a lot of movies from the 70's. (All the President's Men, Chinatown, Dirty Harry, The Towering Inferno -- bored with this list yet? -- The Sting, Rocky, Jaws, The Godfather and many more.) So this book seemed like a natural selection for the 'to read' list.
The strength is in the assembled photographs - a fair amount of rare (or little-seen) official and/or behind-the scenes shots comprise over half the book. Less impactful is the written section - while there is an occasional piece of trivia, the information presented is not especially detailed or in-depth. Also, a number of British films (007 series, Hammer horror flicks, Kubrick's work, etc.) are included, making the title sort of incorrect. However, the subject matter is treated respectfully - not as camp, kitsch, or something that has dated badly - and it makes a nice coffee table tome.
The strength is in the assembled photographs - a fair amount of rare (or little-seen) official and/or behind-the scenes shots comprise over half the book. Less impactful is the written section - while there is an occasional piece of trivia, the information presented is not especially detailed or in-depth. Also, a number of British films (007 series, Hammer horror flicks, Kubrick's work, etc.) are included, making the title sort of incorrect. However, the subject matter is treated respectfully - not as camp, kitsch, or something that has dated badly - and it makes a nice coffee table tome.
October 23, 2008
To be honest, I picked this book up because Borders had it on a bargain table for 4 bucks. Being the film nerd I am I did not even flip through it, I just picked it up. The book is a great overview of the films of the 70's. Ron Hogan does not go into great depth on any particular film or genre, just a short overview of some highlighted movies, organized by genre. Not a lot to learn here about filmmaking or techniques used, but you might read about some movie you would like to see that you have never heard of.
May 20, 2020
Great pictures. The text is mostly cut and dried. Not much insight to be found. But it's fun enough to flip through once.
March 9, 2008
I loved working on this book, basically because it meant spending nearly a year watching as many '70s films as I could catch on cable and through Netflix. I'm still kinda disappointed I never got to see Americathon, but at least Manoah Bowman, my awesome photo editor, was able to find me a great publicity still from that movie that became one of my favorite chapter openings--which reminds me of the great job that Roger Gorman did creating dynamic layouts for the hundreds of photos we found. (And of course there was the bang-up job Karyn Gerhard did wrangling all my scattered impressions into a coherent argument about the ways '70s Hollywood documented the social revolution sweeping the country...)
June 28, 2021
The Stewardess is Flying the Plane!American Films of the 1970's:
Is a okay book,a quick glance at some picked movies,including some of my favorites: Dirty Harry,Corvette Summer, not really much for text except some info and the so-called "counterculture" of some movies(boring and typical). overall okay book and nothing you don't already know.
Is a okay book,a quick glance at some picked movies,including some of my favorites: Dirty Harry,Corvette Summer, not really much for text except some info and the so-called "counterculture" of some movies(boring and typical). overall okay book and nothing you don't already know.
February 21, 2010
The text and organization are adequate but could be better. The real reason to get this book are the fantastic stills that really show off the variety of 70s cinema. With its mixture of style and camp, it was a great era for film lovers.
Read
January 16, 2023obviously read (not much text in it though...) this bc of the peter bogdanovich intro interview (?) but there was nothing groundbreaking about it, didn't really learn anything new but added four movies to my watchlist so i guess it's a win. and yeah they're right shelley winters IS ultra cool.
August 30, 2007
The best book ever written, of course. Buy several copies today!
August 30, 2015
Much more serious than I thought it would be based on the title.
December 1, 2022
Pictorial overview of 1970s cinema - a chancy idea as, according to the apologetic Afterword, studio photography at that time was a slapdash affair. As for the writing, while author Hogan demonstrates a keen, hip talent for contextualization, it's only exercised in short measure. What we mostly get are lists, fairly comprehensive itemizations of the sci-fi films, NYC-based dramas, horror/cult flicks, and disaster epics that marked the era. So, not great fun, as it coulda-shoulda been, but sufficiently amusing.
May 4, 2024
The 70s were such a colourful and interesting decade. Inside this book with many movie stills and photos you'll have a look at the most important films of all the major genres like science fiction, disaster, war, thriller, western, heist, hard crime, horror... so many great memories here. French Connection, Shaft, Star Wars, Kentucky Fried Movie, Rollerball... I am very glad that I picked up this one. Really exciting and highly recommended!
July 11, 2023
For the record, I had been warned about this book. The text isn't out of this world but the pics are quite good. Well, I agree. The writing is mostly a list of films from specific genres. I did like the initial interview with Peter Bogdanovich. I guess the book is a good but brief introduction to New Hollywood for those who know little and like to get their toes wet.
April 2, 2018
Terrific book on 70's cinema.
February 4, 2025
Great overview of the films of the 1970s, with background & insightful comment.
February 16, 2012
I really enjoyed this book. While I sometimes wished for more detail, I understood that with so many movies represented, it was impossible for the author to talk extensively about each one. The interview/introduction with director Peter Bogdanovich was great. There were also spotlights on many of the era's actors and actresses and stories about film making I'd not heard before. I loved the pictures.
I added more than a few old favourites to my rewatch list. The 70s really was a fabulous decade of film making!
I added more than a few old favourites to my rewatch list. The 70s really was a fabulous decade of film making!
November 15, 2022
I got this book as a present and was very pleased to have it sit on my shelf for 20 years. I later found occasion to give it to someone else, and he seemed pleased as well. Maybe after another 20 it can find its way onto another shelf. It's a nice coffee-table style hardcover with an overview of what's now seen as a golden era of American filmmaking. But let's face it; it's all about the title and jacket art.
February 24, 2012
Okay, the intro/interview was pretty annoying, but the main text was loads of fun. There were a few places when the guy started sounding like a critic, but those were refreshingly rare (especially for a critic). And after all, anybody who mentions that the dog in A Boy and His Dog was also in The Brady Bunch (or who brings up Jack Riley's Mr Carlin past) can't be a total stiff. :)
August 30, 2007
Anything and everything you ever wanted to know about the glorious cinematic era of the 1970s, in a fabulously illustrated volume.
April 27, 2008
This book is great! I'm haven't finished reading it and I'm already giving it 5 stars. So much great 70's movie information, I don't think I can handle it.
June 7, 2009
i've given several copies of this as gifts. it's a real fun memory book
June 10, 2012
I'm as in love with '70s film as I am books and NY.
This is a pretty fun read.
This is a pretty fun read.
Want to read
May 8, 2013This is a must for anyone that loves the real grittiness of 1970s movies that will likely never be recaptured
July 22, 2013
It has some nice photos. Doesn't examine any films in detail, and the chopped up presentation is a real distraction. Interview with Peter Bogdanovich is good if way too brief.
May 4, 2016
Clever title, nice photos, brief interview with director Peter Bogdanovich ... otherwise, reading this skimmed over coverage of 70s cinema (with a section on the Disaster Genre) is The Towering Yawn.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews