It is often said that the 1980 parody film Airplane!, by turning out to be the ultimate genre spoof, ended the disaster‑epics trend that had dominated Hollywood in the previous decade. Its achievement becomes even more notable in light of a previous film that tried to do the same: the 1976 comedy The Big Bus, directed by John Frawley.
The plot deals with the maiden voyage of the Cyclops, a gigantic nuclear‑powered luxury bus which is about to start a non‑stop service between New York and Denver. Problems, however, start even before the voyage. A bomb explosion forces Kitty Baxter (played by Stockard Channing), daughter of the scientist who designed the bus, to find a new driver. The solution comes in the form of Dan Torrance (played by Joseph Bologna), her old flame whose bus‑driver career came to a screeching halt following an accident in the mountains and subsequent accusations of cannibalism. During the voyage he has to deal with a narcoleptic co‑driver (played by John Beck), attempted sabotage by an evil tycoon called “Ironman” (played by José Ferrer), and dozens of eccentric passengers, including some who want to kill him for personal reasons.
This film shares not only a similar basic premise with Airplane!, but also a similar approach to humour – a series of many gags stuffed into the relatively short time‑frame of an hour and a half in the hope that the majority of them would work. An inevitable comparison between the two films, however, shows that the former was less successful, mostly because screenwriters and co‑producers Lawrence J. Cohen and Fred Freeman lacked the talent of Jim Abrahams and the Zucker brothers on Airplane!. Although some of the jokes work and can make you laugh, most are either forgettable or difficult to understand without deeper knowledge of the 1970s economic situation (like the oil crisis) or popular culture. Despite an interesting cast, no performance is particularly memorable, with Joseph Bologna, apart from appearing in two of the film’s funniest scenes, looking weak compared with a similar character played by Robert Hays in Airplane!. It seems that even the producers had doubts about the quality of their work. The promotional tagline – “Everyone dies… laughing” – gives away a lack of confidence that was later justified by the film’s poor commercial results and subsequent sink into obscurity. It looks as though the producers invested less in a good script and more in props, like the real‑life gigantic bus “playing” the Cyclops, whose dimensions (proudly displayed in the introductory scene) were meant to spoof 2001: A Space Odyssey. As a result, The Big Bus is a film that could be recommended more to public‑transportation history enthusiasts and less to an audience interested in quality comedy."
RATING: 4/10 (++)
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