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The Towering Inferno
Mar. 8th, 2007 03:25 pmSo I watched an oldie courtesy of Netflix the other night--The Towering Inferno. This is one of those iconic movies to my brother and me--Bart was very much into disaster movies when we were kids, and for some reason I had to see all of them with him, and was traumatized (or desensitized) as a result. I saw The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno and Earthquake--I'm not sure if it was in the theaters, since I was so young, but I knew the stories and the footage, and this was before VCRs. I remember watching TTI with Bart on network TV in the early 80s (?) and it seemed very familiar. I absolutely remember all those shots of that glowing building in the night, those shots from below.
Anyway, so this movie is imprinted on my imagination, and I watched it again. I have to say--beyond the whole disaster film craze, beyond the trendiness of having lots of stars in one movie--it is a damn good film. It is really well-done, and a lot of times these "knockoff" genre films aren't. (TTI was the first big disaster film after The Poseidon Adventure, which was the first and a huge success. Both were produced by Irwin Allen.) I think TTI even surpasses TPA in many ways--to start with the acting is, on the whole, muuuuch better. There was some rank acting in TPA, Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters notwithstanding. Ernest Borgine, Stella Stevens and Carol Lynley in particular make you sort of cringe. TTI has a weak link or two (OJ Simpson, aside from his many other sins, simply cannot act. WHY they gave him a featured part--he has several decent-sized scenes--is beyond me.) but on the whole everyone is terrific. Steve McQueen is just so solid and alpha male as the battalion chief O'Houlihan, Paul Newman rocks as the architect, Fred Astaire is terrific (and got an Oscar nod--can you believe, though, this was the ONLY Oscar nomination Fred Astaire ever got???) and Richard Chamberlain gets to play a bad guy! (He's a real asshole too, it's great.) The cinematography and editing (both of which won Oscars) are AMAZING--the way the movie ratchets up the tension is extremely effective. There's one scene where they handpick 12 people to go down the building in the scenic elevator (that is, the elevator *outside* the building, one of those glass elevators), after several other escape routes have been cut off. Power to the elevator has failed, so they're going to bring it down manually, and you see this elevator full of women, a few old women, and two children inching its way down the track, while explosions and fireflashes are occuring periodically throughout the building. They cut back to the scene a couple of times, and it's just great. I won't tell you if they get down to the ground safely or not--you'll just have to watch it yourself!
There's one very poignant scene near the beginning of the film, right after the fire has really started to grow, but a lot of people don't realize the danger yet. Robert Wagner is some kind of businessman who comes into his office (which is like on the 82nd floor--the fire starts on 81) and sends one of his secretaries home, saying to the other "I need to dictate a letter." He has the departing one cut off the phones, saying he doesn't want to be bothered. Of course he and the remaining secretary are really having an affair, and they fall into each other's arms. The next time we see them, they're enjoying the afterglow, and they're standing and he's caressing her--she's wearing just a shirt and some pantyhose. They banter, and then she says "do you smell cigarette smoke?" He stops and says "that's not a cigarette"--he opens the door and they see the fire. They're both in this weird kind of denial, and don't IMMEDIATELY run when they might have just made it. Instead he pretends to call the FD (the phones are off) and then confesses he was just trying to make her feel safe. And she of course knew he was lying, because she knew the phones were off. They both know they're going to die at this point but neither one admits it. And they don't say "I'll always love you" or even kiss--they just give each other these steady looks, and then he wets a towel and makes a break for it through the fire. Of course he dies--she sees this, and then sort of panics and eventually dies by falling through the window.
I can't stop thinking about the scene because that's just so weird--20 minutes ago this couple was making love, one of most life-affirming activities possible--and then they're dead. There was almost no buildup. The commentary track talks about how this movie, like the Titanic, deals with us facing our own mortality--how it can confront you unexpectedly, and how the object lesson is even more meaningful after 9/11. The commentary track was fascinating--the commentator (a film historian) describes how the two directors (Irwin Allen shot the action sequences, and some other guy the character scenes) compose their shots and their scenes, and about the color design and a lot of technical stuff. Very interesting.
I will say, the movie is loooong--almost three hours. But it's worth it--and the ending is awesome.
Anyway, so this movie is imprinted on my imagination, and I watched it again. I have to say--beyond the whole disaster film craze, beyond the trendiness of having lots of stars in one movie--it is a damn good film. It is really well-done, and a lot of times these "knockoff" genre films aren't. (TTI was the first big disaster film after The Poseidon Adventure, which was the first and a huge success. Both were produced by Irwin Allen.) I think TTI even surpasses TPA in many ways--to start with the acting is, on the whole, muuuuch better. There was some rank acting in TPA, Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters notwithstanding. Ernest Borgine, Stella Stevens and Carol Lynley in particular make you sort of cringe. TTI has a weak link or two (OJ Simpson, aside from his many other sins, simply cannot act. WHY they gave him a featured part--he has several decent-sized scenes--is beyond me.) but on the whole everyone is terrific. Steve McQueen is just so solid and alpha male as the battalion chief O'Houlihan, Paul Newman rocks as the architect, Fred Astaire is terrific (and got an Oscar nod--can you believe, though, this was the ONLY Oscar nomination Fred Astaire ever got???) and Richard Chamberlain gets to play a bad guy! (He's a real asshole too, it's great.) The cinematography and editing (both of which won Oscars) are AMAZING--the way the movie ratchets up the tension is extremely effective. There's one scene where they handpick 12 people to go down the building in the scenic elevator (that is, the elevator *outside* the building, one of those glass elevators), after several other escape routes have been cut off. Power to the elevator has failed, so they're going to bring it down manually, and you see this elevator full of women, a few old women, and two children inching its way down the track, while explosions and fireflashes are occuring periodically throughout the building. They cut back to the scene a couple of times, and it's just great. I won't tell you if they get down to the ground safely or not--you'll just have to watch it yourself!
There's one very poignant scene near the beginning of the film, right after the fire has really started to grow, but a lot of people don't realize the danger yet. Robert Wagner is some kind of businessman who comes into his office (which is like on the 82nd floor--the fire starts on 81) and sends one of his secretaries home, saying to the other "I need to dictate a letter." He has the departing one cut off the phones, saying he doesn't want to be bothered. Of course he and the remaining secretary are really having an affair, and they fall into each other's arms. The next time we see them, they're enjoying the afterglow, and they're standing and he's caressing her--she's wearing just a shirt and some pantyhose. They banter, and then she says "do you smell cigarette smoke?" He stops and says "that's not a cigarette"--he opens the door and they see the fire. They're both in this weird kind of denial, and don't IMMEDIATELY run when they might have just made it. Instead he pretends to call the FD (the phones are off) and then confesses he was just trying to make her feel safe. And she of course knew he was lying, because she knew the phones were off. They both know they're going to die at this point but neither one admits it. And they don't say "I'll always love you" or even kiss--they just give each other these steady looks, and then he wets a towel and makes a break for it through the fire. Of course he dies--she sees this, and then sort of panics and eventually dies by falling through the window.
I can't stop thinking about the scene because that's just so weird--20 minutes ago this couple was making love, one of most life-affirming activities possible--and then they're dead. There was almost no buildup. The commentary track talks about how this movie, like the Titanic, deals with us facing our own mortality--how it can confront you unexpectedly, and how the object lesson is even more meaningful after 9/11. The commentary track was fascinating--the commentator (a film historian) describes how the two directors (Irwin Allen shot the action sequences, and some other guy the character scenes) compose their shots and their scenes, and about the color design and a lot of technical stuff. Very interesting.
I will say, the movie is loooong--almost three hours. But it's worth it--and the ending is awesome.
