When it comes to holiday-themed movies, there seem to be only two major times of the year: Halloween and Christmas. Those two holidays get the most press, and with good reason. A good percentage of the population wrap their own personalities around liking either of those holidays, so movies based during those times appeal to millions of people. But what about those lesser-represented holidays? Like Thanksgiving, for example. Sure, it may not be as popular as Christmas or Halloween, but it’s undeniably an important day for Americans. And yeah, Thanksgiving does get its representation in pop culture, it’s nowhere near as prevalent as the other two. This is why the movies that do become perennial Thanksgiving classics are so important. One such film is the 1987 comedy Planes, Trains and Automobiles.
Written and directed by John Hughes, Planes, Trains and Automobiles stars Steve Martin as Neal Page, an ad executive who is trying to get from New York to Chicago for Thanksgiving. Neal is uptight and detail-oriented, fastidious in his appearance, and eager to get where he needs to go. His trip begins the Tuesday before the holiday, and we can feel his anxiety early in the film as he struggles to get free from a mind-numbing meeting.
The film also stars John Candy as Del Griffith. Del is a travelling salesman who specializes in shower rings and is the complete opposite of Neal. He is talkative, slovenly, and can be a bit obtuse at times. But Del shows that he has a heart of gold; he constantly volunteers to help, even though his efforts lead to more shenanigans.
Planes, Trains and Automobiles follows Neal and Del through a labyrinth of bad luck, terrible choices, and some sort of deity actively wishing them harm. That last one is hyperbole as no actual gods appear in the film, but as you watch some of the terrible things the pair have to endure, you sometimes wonder if there could be some symbolism to support that theory. But the point of the movie is to experience how these two men, different in every way, can survive being in each other’s company.
After a failed attempt to get to Chicago via plane, Neal and Del are stranded in Wichita, Kansas. They are forced to share a hotel room for the night, and Del’s messy habits overtake Neal’s sensibilities. Neal breaks down and rips into Del, pointing out all his faults. The scene goes on for minutes and the ruthlessness that Neal unleashes becomes difficult to watch. But John Candy’s performance is perfect. We watch as each of Neal’s words cut into him, the look on Candy’s face showing each stab of pain. He’s practically on the verge of tears but manages to hold it together, and the audience feels that pain. It’s the moment where Del changes from the annoying guy we’re stuck next to on the plane into a wounded puppy we’d run out into traffic to protect.
But it’s Del’s response to Neal’s tirade that set the film’s theme into motion. We know very little about Del up to this point besides his occupation and how chatty he can be. But he tells Neal, “I like me, my wife likes me, my customers like me.” And just like that, Del becomes an object of envy. We see a change come over Neal, an embarrassment at how harsh he’d just been to this relative stranger. Del called Neal a cold-hearted cynic, and he felt it. It forces him to self-reflect, and he’s willing to give Del a chance based on that. It’s the first cracks in his armor that the rest of the movie intends to widen.
But what really makes the movie is the differences between Del and Neal. Neal comes from a world of affluence: a high-power job, big home, tailored suits. He’s lost touch with the common man, if he ever really understood them at all. While Del, on the other hand, exemplifies the common man. A travelling salesman, he makes his bones schmoozing people to make sales. He relies on his memories of his customers’ lives to foster connections, and along the way he develops a bond. He’s told that he tries too hard, but he can’t break his ways that easily. So when he meets Neal and tries to accommodate all of Neal’s needs, he comes off as pushy in Neal’s eyes. But instead, Del is only trying to find a solution to Neal’s problems, which is what a good salesman does.
Though Del is the driving force behind Planes, Trains and Automobiles, Neal’s development is the focus of the film because, at its core, the movie is about empathy. Del has it. He exudes empathy, and he proves this in the way he truly understands all of Neal’s issues. But Neal’s lack of empathy sets him on edge and forces him to put a wall up. It’s not until he actually ponders the things Del has said to him over their trip does he realize what Del is dealing with. And only then does Neal show empathy to Del, inviting him to Thanksgiving dinner with his family. Planes, Trains and Automobiles is for Neal what A Christmas Carol is for Ebenezer Scrooge: a mirror to his foibles that leads to redemption.
The popularity of Planes, Trains and Automobiles is a testament to the talents of Steve Martin and John Candy. Martin has a penchant for the fastidious character, the clean-cut, tightly wound, ready-to-pop kind of man. And when he does pop, Martin’s intensity is hard-hitting, and his comedy shines through. He encapsulates the “guy shouting at the teller whom you don’t know to laugh at or be afraid of.” And since it’s a movie, we laugh, and it’s perfect.
Candy, though, offers a different lightness in his portrayal of Del. Del is a person who struggles through sadness with a smile on his face. He tries to please everyone else all while battling to keep his own feelings buried. And this is likely a manifestation from Candy as the actor lived that struggle himself. After losing his good friend John Belushi to a drug overdose, Candy fell into a deep depression, but as a comedic actor, he painted a smile on his face to make the world laugh. This is Del. Though other actors could have played the roles of Neal and Del, the movie would have suffered from it.
So what makes Planes, Trains and Automobiles a perennial classic? Surely its setting during Thanksgiving is one of the reasons, but ultimately, it’s about seeing ourselves in Neal and the change he’s capable of. Our modern world has left us so detached from the world that it can be difficult at times to connect with others. We see their idiosyncrasies and decide quickly that we want nothing to do with them, completely forgetting that they are a fully formed person with a life we know nothing about. Their existence formed their personality, and though it might be much different from ours, if we take a moment to think about what they’ve gone through, we’d understand them better. Everyone can benefit from having a Del in their life, someone who is patient enough to wait out the misunderstanding in order to make a new friend.
