It's bad form to follow up one's own post, but I thought I would
mention that the first film (Airport) ends with a PAR approach. It
might be worth it to rent and fast-forward just to see that. I've
practiced one in my life with a very bored controller at Travis AFB,
if I remember correctly, but it went like the movie, except the
controller gave me relative turns (left 5 degree, right 5 degrees) not
bearings (left to 285) like in the movie.

There are glimpses of the controller's scope, which is also
interesting, showing a blip on two separate screens, one sweeping
laterally, the other vertically. Makes sense.

One odd thing is that the movie shows the vor/glidescope head as they
fly the approach, so it looks like they had a working ILS. That could
have been movie stupidity, or it could have just been an example of
good ADM -- using all available resources.

-- dave j