It was just the kind of movie Hollywood loves to make, big budget, multi star cast, big sets, thrills and throw in some high octane drama scenes.
The Poseidon Adventure’s tag line was “Hell Upside Down”, and in a way it did sum up what the movie was all about. The movie starts off with a captivating opening credits scene, set to John Williams rather sombre, heavy sounding BGM, giving us an inkling of what is to come.
Fresh from his Oscar winning triumph as the maverick cop Popeye Doyle in The French Connection, Hackman again ends up playing a maverick , Reverend Frank Scott, who constantly questions faith and believes that God helps those who helps themselves.
Apart from Hackman, the movie has a a whole host of other great actors.
Ernst Borgine, as Mike Rogo, a tough talking New York City cop, and his sea sick wife Linda( Stella Stevens), who also happens to be an ex hooker, whom Mike had arrested 6 times and then in his own words “Well I had to figure out some way to keep you off the streets until you married me!”.
Academy award winner Shelley Winters( The Diary of Anne Frank), is Belle Rosen, an elderly Jewish lady travelling to meet her grandson in Israel along with her husband Manny Rosen. Comedian Red Buttons, is a shy haberdasher James Martin, who would be one of the survivors.
Leslie Nielsen, is Captain Harrison, he actually started his career playing more serious roles like this, but gained fame later for his comedies like Airplane, and the Naked Gun Series.
The rest of the cast has the standard set of characters in a disaster flick, the over smart kid Robin( Eric Shea) whose curiousity about the ship, comes handy later on. His sister Susan(Pamela Sue Martin) and the singer Nonnie(Carol Lynley), who are there for the screams, and leg show.
The main scene where the tidal wave hits the ship, was quite well shot for those days, I still remember watching this as a kid on the big screen, sitting on the edge. The scene showing the ship tilting, and the utter chaos involved is well shot, you can feel it as the cruise passengers, hang on to anything for dear life.
The actual adventure commences, when a motley group of survivors, makes it’s way through chimney shafts, narrow alleyways, burning rooms, the tension is quite well maintained. Again while some of the visual effects might look tacky, credit due to director Ronald Neame, for maintaining the tension quite well.
The Poseidon Adventure is pretty much popcorn entertainment, it is a kind of thrill ride, where you just need to sit back and enjoy, be thrilled. Some of the action scenes are quite realistically shot, especially the one where the group tries to clamber up a vertical shaft, with swirling waters all around.
The directors does manage to keep up the tension quite well, especially with the explosions going off at regular intervals, heightening the sense of unease. As also the constant ego clash between Hackman and Borgine, maintains the drama quotient well.
It helps that the movie has a terrific cast, with 3 Oscar winners, Gene Hackman,taking off from where he left in The French Connection, reprises his maverick,tough guy act, turning out to be an unlikely leader and an even more unlikely priest. Ernest Borgnine, compliments him with his typical, over the top, gruff, performance, and he comes on to his own in the final scene. Shelley Winters was nominated for a Best Supporting Actress, and deservedly so, she has one of the movie’s most poignant scenes.
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