![]() He strives to make the movie deserve his performance.įifty years later, The Poseidon Adventure remains an irresistible relic of the pre-blockbuster era, before Steven Spielberg came along and proved that productions of this scale didn’t have to feel so ungainly. He was a pro’s pro: in a cast full of hams and gams, Hackman creates a character whose will to live – and to save other’s lives in the process – is a matter of religious devotion, a Job-like burden against a spiteful or indifferent God. For actors that prolific – he would appear in over 100 movies in his career – there’s usually a temptation to “phone it in” on the junkier projects, but as a troubled preacher who leads 10 passengers up to the bottom of the ship, Hackman commits himself so fully to the role that you’d never imagine he’d ever shrug it off. It’s a lumbering ensemble piece, with Ernest Borgnine screaming at the top of his lungs, Shelley Winters swan-diving into floodwaters and an annoying little boy who happens to know that the engine room on a capsized ocean liner has a steel hull that’s only one-inch thick.Īnd yet Hackman is legitimately extraordinary. In the grand arc of Hackman’s career, The Poseidon Adventure is not a work of art like The French Connection or The Conversation, but a tacky Irwin Allen production, to be followed later by another enormous disaster movie, The Towering Inferno. The dwindling group meets its share of catastrophic obstacles - from explosions and flooding passages to their own crippling fear and uncertainty - as the water rises higher in the sinking ship, cutting off all but one route of escape, and cutting their time short.Both men have a point. The survivors divide into two groups: those who will remain where they are and await help, and those who follow impassioned Reverend Scott (Hackman) as he forges upward toward what is now the bottom of the ship, and their best chance for rescue. Titanic encounters a 90-foot tidal wave and goes belly-up. Shortly after midnight on New Year's Day, with confetti still raining down over the ballroom, the topheavy luxury cruiser S.S. If you thought James Cameron's Titanic was too smarmy, hop aboard. ![]() An all-star cast led by Gene Hackman and Ernest Borgnine fires up this occasionally stilted 1972 Irwin Allen classic. With all that said, this film is a classic and is something everyone should see at least once, as well as the remake.Īfter a luxury cruise ship capsizes en route from New York to Athens, a handful of desperate survivors work against time for a slim chance at rescue. I would recommend it to 11-year-olds and up as well as mature 10-year-olds. I think a 13+ age recommendation is a little extreme, especially since the remake is more graphically violent. I would give positive role models 3/5, since there is another character who is negative and hostile to the people around him, which makes matters worse. I would give positive messages 4/5, since the survival of the main characters depends on positive relationships with one another and fewer people would have survived if they had not worked together and looked out for one another and instead tried to save themselves and only themselves. The man survived and made sure the woman survived as well. Despite the violence, the movie has positive messages, like determination, perseverance, and loyalty, and positive role models include the reverend, the leader of the crowd, as well as the man who finds a bond with a frightened woman, whose brother dies right after the ship takes damage from the wave. There is some mild language, but nothing over-the-top, and if there’s any drinking, there may be some champagne when New Year’s is being celebrated before the wave strikes the ship. If it’s just one sex reference that should be more like 1/5. However, the only dead body that is shown is the person who had the heart attack for holding her breath too long under water, but nothing graphic is shown when people die by falling into water and fire. The violence is people dying due to the sinking of the ship, including drowning in water, a heart attack, and vanishing in fire. It is still not as good as the 2006 remake “Poseidon”. I just saw it again tonight and I liked it better. The first time I saw this movie a few years ago, I did not like it.
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