Yazar 
The actor John Travolta, familiar to us from films like Pulp Fiction, Face/Off and Hairspray, this time sits in the director’s chair for the first time, adapting the 1997 children’s novel of the same name to the screen. The film premiered this year at the Cannes Film Festival, and Travolta was presented with an Honorary Palme d’Or. The film was recently made available to audiences on Apple TV. Telling the architecture and golden age of aviation through the eyes of an eight-year-old aviation enthusiast, Propeller: One-Way Night Coach is, with its quite plain and sophisticated storytelling, a production in which you can find traces from the director’s own memory book.
A Turbulent Flight to the Heart of Memories
Propeller: One-Way Night Coach, over its one-hour runtime, offers a tribute to Travolta‘s admiration for aviation. Indeed, alongside the director’s own childhood, family and relationships with other people, his bond with planes is also explored. The narrative begins with images of a curious boy from the high-society class and his mother at the airport in the New York of the 1960s. This multi-stage journey, which eight-year-old Jeff (Clark Shotwell) will later describe as the greatest adventure of his life, creates a charm full of period detail. An acting offer his mother Helen (Kelly Quinnet) receives from Hollywood brings Jeff along on the journey too.
Helen, who is excessively fond of etiquette, accent and niche tastes, has an image in her son Jeff’s eyes of — among these — caring about appearances. Her effort to seem so despite not being very wealthy is among the situations the narrator Jeff finds shallow and ridiculous throughout the film. Jeff, for his part, has managed to memorize step by step all the flight schedules and stopover routes for the dream that makes his eyes light up.
For the plane journey, they prefer propeller flight — what the technology of the era allows — because it suits their budget better. It’s impossible not to see Jeff’s passion for aviation as he watches his dream of flying come true for the first time, accompanied by the buzzing sound of propeller engines. The narrative mostly wants us to witness the magical moments Jeff experiences rather than a plot. Setting off with childlike excitement to explore the parts of the plane, meeting the pilots and cabin crew, and immediately falling in love with a flight attendant he finds attractive are some of the moments that add joy to the film’s linearity.
On the other hand, there are also laudatory references to the golden age of American aviation after World War II. The film’s atmosphere, combined with the singular bright/warm analog aesthetic of 1960s cinema, creates a strong visuality. However, almost the entire film taking place indoors causes the exterior and sky shots to remain weak, dimming the cinematography. The narrative occasionally makes room for Jeff’s limited dialogues with the plane’s other passengers and supporting characters. Considering the film focuses on slices made of childhood memories, it’s quite understandable that these dialogues proceed as two- or three-sentence exchanges, far from detail.
Jeff running into the flight attendant he likes again during the connecting flights he takes with his mother, and the untrue things he says to impress her, contain specific details as if taken from Travolta‘s own life. Moreover, Jeff observing what goes on aboard the plane — for example, a panic attack suffered by a man with a fear of flying — is reflected very vividly through a child’s eyes. The factor that forms the film’s magical essence, with the effect of the childlike storytelling, is precisely that it takes us adults back to our own childhood. In this respect, Propeller: One-Way Night Coach, besides letting us look at the past, also carries the melancholy of the beautiful times left behind.
The Collision of Personas
Jeff’s observations throughout the flight about the different masks his mother wears toward people stand out as merely descriptive, far from ill intent. His mother’s overly forward manner in order to acquire powerful connections, however, embarrasses Jeff. Continuing accompanied by fur coats, elegant women, hats and cigars, the film keeps the allure of the 1960s alive.
At the same time, we witness that the airline rules of that period were far more relaxed than today’s. Cigarettes that could be smoked on the plane, the absence of any seatbelt requirement, and passengers being able to enter the cockpit freely lay bare how much these elements have changed in the era we’re in.
When we look at the cinematography, a palette dominated by yellow and beige is generally preferred, along with a balanced use of warm and cold colors. This aesthetic world adds richness to the film, visually giving off practically a The Grand Budapest Hotel air.
Propeller: One-Way Night Coach has emotionally striking aspects too. Especially, the friendship that Liz (Olga Hoffman), one of the flight attendants, forms with Helen, and her Nazi-tinged life story, give rise to touching moments. Moreover, Jeff dreaming of marrying Doris (Ella Travolta), the flight attendant he falls in love with, handles childlike innocence in a realistic way. The music used in the film, consisting of pieces as emotional and jazz-tinged as possible — like Frank Sinatra‘s Come Fly With Me — holds up a mirror to the retro atmosphere of the era.
A Gift from the Past
It’s possible to say that Propeller: One-Way Night Coach is, in general, an attempt to accompany Travolta‘s youthful passion. But at the center of the narrative, the different enthusiasms of Helen — who crosses the country on connecting flights with the hope of becoming a great actress — and her son Jeff are explored. The glitchiness and artificiality in the flight footage make it feel as if we’re watching computer graphics. It’s striking that this technique was deliberately chosen as a reference to the effects of the 1960s.
The enchanting feeling of flying for the first time through the eyes of an eight-year-old child, the excitement of arriving somewhere brand new, and the interesting people met in the sky leave nostalgic and powerful impressions. Jeff/Travolta realizing, while still living the very moment he’s in during the flight, that he will later miss it dearly, also emphasizes the film’s emotional center. Still, without denying the past and nostalgia, the film chooses to see them as an archive.
The film’s 61-minute runtime creates certain shortcomings when it comes to introducing the supporting characters encountered on the plane in a more in-depth way. The narrative taking no dramatic risk at all seems to have caused the character developments to remain shallow here and there. Still, Travolta appearing in the finale as a retired pilot emphasizes that the story has personal goals. Probably best regarded as a gift Travolta made for himself and his loved ones, the film becomes more understandable and leaves a smile on people’s faces.
To read more articles by Fatma Kıpçak, click here.
For more, follow us on YouTube, X and Instagram.
Yorumlar