Above average 70s disaster movie - The Poseidon Adventure
DVD collector, movie connoisseur, cult film connoisseur
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MAY
28
2008
Poseidon Adventure —
The Poseidon Adventure (1972)The seventies were the era of the big Hollywood disaster film, usually produced by Irwin Allen and starring a flock of big names as part of an ensemble cast. The Poseidon Adventure follows this recipe to the letter, with a big luxury liner not exactly sinking but flipping over 180 degrees with the bottom up and the top below the surface. The cast is tasked with keeping their wits about them and working productively to save themselves even as the fires and explosions continue to slowly dissolve the ship beneath them.
Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Stella Stevens, Red Buttons, Shelly Winters and Roddy MacDowall, among other familiar faces are the cast who are attending a New Years Eve party aboard the cruise ship Poseidon as the disaster befalls them at the stroke of midnight. How dramatic!
After the chaos, a group of people decide to try to make it up to the bottom of the ship where the hull is only 1" thick. Hey, it's a plan, but the script is not Shakespeare. The first step is to climb the Christmas tree and a bunch of people stay in the ball room only to be devasted as the cruel sea rushes in just after the last of the survivors safely climbs the tree.
The natural leader who emerges is a radical clergyman Gene Hackman who believes in looking to himself to provide the help rather than hoping in God, as the other priest Arthur O'Connell does. The various people are pretty evenly divided between men and women and the various pairings that occur and trials and tribulations of each person are well documented. Clearly some are not going to make it but it keeps you interested to see which ones do and which ones don't.
The ladies all seem to peel down to their skivvies while the men only have to get down to their undershirt. It's amusing watching Stella Stevens climb the ladders with her sparkly high heels.
Shelly Winters' Jewish grandmother is among the most irritating and also effective characters in the cast. Most of the characters emote histrionically but Shelly and Hackman are the most purposeful and positive characters. John Williams majestic score is a nice touch, also.
The Fox DVD is presented in 2.35:1 theatrical format, in color, and running 117 minutes. While it is about as good as it gets for a disaster film, realize it is like opening a 70s time capsule and being met with a locker full of polyester fashions and an old 45 RPM record of the saccharine pop lounge tune The Morning After.
Last edited on May 28, 2008
Poseidon Adventure is recommended by GeorgeChabot
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