The Towering Inferno - 1974
One Tiny Spark Becomes A Night Of Blazing Suspense.
The Towering Inferno (1974)
I Used To Love This Movie, 27 February 2005
I saw this at the cinema when it first played at The Regal Cinema in Rothesay 30 years ago . It's a spectacular movie , one that I enjoyed immensely due to the ironic and well deserved deaths of many of the characters
!!!! MILD SPOILERS !!!! Like horror movies characters in disaster movies get what they deserve . A couple having sex find that that the corridor outside is ablaze . Maybe if they didn't have their faces in each others nether regions they would have realised the whole building is burning down . So Mr Stud tries to make a break for it and would have possibly succeeded if he hadn't used up all his energy on his pretty blond bedmate who dies in a very spectacular way . Well if you have sex with other mens husbands you shouldn't expect to die of old age . There's a scene where the party goers exit in a lift only to get off on the floor where the fire is raging causing a massacre , but best of all is the death of major bad guy Roger Simmons who decides he's not going to burn so leads a revolt for the escape cage , kicking a few of his peers to their deaths and ending up dying himself . Even if you've got a terminal irony deficiency you realise if this guy had taken his turn in the line he would have perhaps survived to the end credits , but he bloody well deserved to die as did most of the characters
Indeed it's very difficult to like most of the main characters in the movie and this is probably deliberate on the part of the film makers - Most of the civilian characters are rich , arrogant , selfish and powerful and you certainly don't feel too much sympathy when one of them dies . It's an entirely different matter for the rescue services however , and the film unrepently is on their side showing them for the real life heroes as they are without much false machismo , they're professionals just doing a dangerous job .
It's impossible to enjoy this film after 9/11 however and much of the dialogue points out what a bad idea it is building unfeasibly tall buildings
The Towering Inferno (1974)
Review by Wayne Malin
Stupid? Sure is...but fun too
Caught this in a movie theatre with a bunch of friends when I was 12. I loved it then and it still holds up now more than 30 years later.
Movie about a 138 story building built in San Francisco. Naturally the wiring is not up to standards and a fire starts on the 81st floor. And it happens on the opening night when there's a huge party on the top floor. And we get to see an all star cast deal with this.
For starters people keep comparing this to 9/11. Ummmmmm--why? 9/11 was a horrific tragedy of course but it was a terrorist attack. This has nothing to do with terrorists. And 9/11 happened in New York. OK--let's deal with plot now. A 138 story building. OK I can buy that, but in San Francisco???? New York maybe but California? I don't think so. Also the film starts by saying it's dedicated to fire fighters the world over. Uh huh. What bull! This is just a big, dumb, loud but fun escapist movie. I like it, but I think it's only dedicated to killing people off as ingeniously as possible. Still it's all fake so it's hard to take seriously. The characters are all one dimensional and the situations and dialogue are SO clichéd I actually broke out laughing a few times! Also the film has plot loopholes galore and some really questionable "logic". I LOVE how they put the fire out!
The acting is mostly rotten but really--these people have NOTHING to work with. Steve McQueen is The Fire Chief and he's just terrible. Paul Newman is The Architect--he's actually very good. William Holden is The Builder and looks just miserable (he supposedly hated this movie). Fay Dunaway is The Girlfriend--she looks stunning but has nothing to do except look glamorous and have terrible "romantic" dialogue with Newman. Fred Astaire is The Con Man--he's OK. Susan Blakely is The Wife--see Faye Dunaway. Richard Chamberlain is The Son-In-Law--the poor guy tries but can't pull his role off. Jennifer Jones is The Widow--miscast and horribly treated. O.J. Simpson is The Security Man--he saves a cat. Wow. Robert Vaughn is The Senator--poor guy has zero to work with. Robert Wanger is The Publicity Man--he's hardly in this enough to matter. Also the late Scott Newman (Paul Newman's son) plays a young fireman. He's actually very good. It's too bad he took his own life in 1978.
So the film is stupid and dumb but the special effects are still quite good and I was never bored even though the film runs 2 hours and 45 minutes. A great disaster film. Turn off your brain and enjoy! I give it a 9. |
