"That's a nice-a donut."

Monday, June 19, 2006


The Towering Inferno (1974)

After flying high with Airport and, a couple years later, The Poseidon Adventure, the era of disaster films in the 1970s arguably reached its peak with The Towering Inferno. Officially the head director on the film was John Guillermin, but the man behind the curtain was producer and co-director Irwin Allen - the master of the disaster epic. Most noteworthy is the all-star cast that is second to very few; mega stars at the time Steve McQueen and Paul Newman are the headliners but a number of screen legends and other very familiar faces include William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Jennifer Jones, Richard Chamberlain, and Robert Wagner. The movie is also notable for the historic pairing of two major studios, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros., who were both developing very similar projects - The Tower and The Glass Inferno - and had the incredible foresight and wisdom to team up and combine them into one picture.

The setup for the story is that a new 135-story office building is having its gala opening and a big party is planned with many dignitaries expected to attend. The day of the opening, while the last-minute finishing touches are being performed, building architect Doug Roberts (Newman) learns that his electrical wiring specifications may not have been properly followed. He meets with construction head James Duncan (Holden), but they agree to discuss the problem more fully the next day, after the ceremony. That becomes a grave mistake, though, as several separate small fires soon break out around the building. As the party goes on upstairs, the fires quickly spread. Fire Chief Michael O'Hallorhan (McQueen) and an army of fire fighters arrive on the scene, but find that they can do precious little to control the blazes. With some 300 guests trapped on the very top floor, Roberts and the chief work together for some daring rescue attempts. After a while it becomes obvious that some people will die (and of course some will survive), but the suspense is strong enough that you can never be sure that even the stars will make it out unscathed.

Allen and Guillermin don't waste much time on setting the tone or building character in the beginning, as the action begins to really heat up about half an hour in and after that is one intense sequence after another. Though unlike some other blockbusters, the little time that it does spend on filler and loosely developing the characters works - the emotional payoffs later on are just right. Of course plenty of it exists only on a movie plane, as some of it is too 70s-style hokey or just unbelievable with moments of "movie logic." It is also interesting in that it doesn't include much of what has become a staple for the disaster genre nowadays; there are very few crowd shots, and even after the climax there are very few.

Even with the impressive casting, the acting is not the main attraction, but most of it is still pretty good. McQueen and Newman especially do a commendable job. Though if you though O.J. Simpson was a poor actor in the Naked Gun series, his work here may be even worse. But overall The Towering Inferno does very little wrong in the way of creating a genuinely terrifying disaster on film, perfectly capturing the essence and variety of emotional responses that many people would go through if every faced with a similar situation.

The Verdict: B+.

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