The Towering Inferno | | Cast : | Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway | | Director : | John Guillermin, Irwin Allen | | Studio : | Twentieth Century Fox | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, THX, Widescreen | | Released Date : | December 14, 1974 | | DVD Released Date : | April 15, 2003 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | PG (Parental Guidance Suggested) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 18, 2005 | | Summary | Welcome to hell! | Content
 | The tension social state in USA in those ages was practically reaching the boiling point. There were many conflicts issues and counter faced items. The collective self esteem was extremely low: evasion, scandals, affairs. When that happens you need to recreate another vision in the movies and many times you must apply the same process suffered by Alexander in the Clockwise Orange; this shock therapy may provoke a natural escape in the social body.
That's why this Wave of catastrophes in the screen gave so very good profits. Somehow Airport was the pivot and the different maneuvers were perfectly articulated: Poseidon Adventure, a terrible sea accident, and then a natural phenomena: Earthquake, but something missed to complete the cycle. A tragedy based in the violation of norms of Industrial Security, with the subsequent homage to the Firemen, trying to warn about the possible effects derived from risky actions to minimize operational costs.
The rest of the story follows the ancient patterns of this genre: the abnegate fireman, the modern hero who will lose his life, a love affair, a sinister character, a couple in trouble who eventually will rejoin and all the well known premises that you may guess.
Admirable from all standpoint with impressive special effects to that age; I insist in that point due the technology has experimented such advance level that the new generations will establish the respective differences with let's say Titanic. But it's good to advert that this young generation, in 2020 will suffer the same smile of that generation. Many people tend to forget, the life is simple cycle.
Steve Mac Queen and Faye Dunaway shone above the rest of the cast. Dazzling direction.
Highly recommended.
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| Rating | | | Date | June 01, 2005 | | Summary | The Towering Infernal Movie!!! | Content
| This is one of those disaster movies made back in the early 1970's. I was thinking that these movie were mostly a disaster so their title is pretty apt. In this movie we see a tall skyscraper go up in flames. William Holden spends most of his time talking on the telephone to somebody and Richard Chamberlain is the bad guy.It DOES take more than a big name cast to make a good movie I have discovered.Also I am very surprised that they did not have a large number of drowned bodiss at the end of this movie . Nuff said. I give this movie 5 stars because Faye Dunaway does look pretty good in it. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 01, 2005 | | Summary | Action Packed - but lack of character and story development | Content
| The year 1974 saw the emergence of the "Disaster Movie" hit the Silver Screen. The two big "Disaster Movies" that were released were "Earthquake" and "The Towering Inferno". In addition to both taking place in California, both had great success at the box office thanks to two of the great all-time cast ensembles ever. One thing that was different about "The Towering Inferno" is that it was a long movie by even the standards of the 1970s. This movie was 165 minutes. While I am not against having a movie of this length, the sad thing is that this movie doesn't utilize an all-star cast to fill up this type of screen time. Overall, directors John Guillermin and Irvin Allen succeed at creating an action-packed movie. However there isn't the type of character or storyline development that one would expect from this type of movie. Still overall, this movie has to rank as an all-time classic.
First the all-star cast. And for 1974, this read like a Hollywood Who's Who. Some of these were already legendary Hollywood names - while others were still to emerge as Hollywood names. The cast includes: Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Susan Blakely, Richard Chamberlain, Jennifer Jones, O.J. Simpson (yes "The Juice"), Robert Wagner, Susan Flannery, Gregory Sierra (i.e. "Julio" from "Sanford and Son"), Mike Lookinland (i.e. "Bobby Brady" from "The Brady Bunch"), singer Maureen McGovern, and Dabney Coleman.
The plot-line is revolves a 135 story Skyscraper that is fictionally the world's tallest building (the building is even superimposed on the San Francisco skyline and it does a decent job). Because of poor wiring thanks to the Chief Engineer (Chamberlain), a fire breaks out and begins to spread. This fire takes place the night of the opening party that is taking place on the top floor of the Skyscraper. Much of the movie focuses around the rescue of people from the building - and the focus eventually turns to saving the guests who are at the party on the 135th floor.
One thing that is disappointing is the lack of development of several of the characters. All of the seeds were there to develop the characters of the three main characters: Fire Chief Michael O'Hallorhan (McQueen), Building Architect Doug Roberts (Newman), and Building Owner James Duncan (Holden). Of these three characters, I think Holden's character as the building owner is developed the nicest. James Duncan starts out as a character more or less interested in "saving face" the night of the party he is hosted (i.e. he tries to over-simplify what is happening with the fire). As the movie develops, it is Duncan who takes a leadership role in coordinating the rescue efforts - and even says he will sacrifice himself as one of the last to be rescued. Newman's character of Doug Roberts is more or less relegated to becoming a rescuing crusader throughout the movie - not leaving his character much time to develop. McQueen's role as O'Hallorhan portrays him as a no-nonsense Fire Chief. As the movie progresses, McQueen takes on more of an action role - thus also limiting his growth as a character. Although we see some real emotion from O'Hallorhan when he is told of what happened with the Scenic Elevator - if we saw more stuff like this, McQueen's character would have really been strong.
Many of the other characters don't make the use of their talents. Faye Dunaway and Fred Astaire's roles are nice in the movie - but I don't think they ultimately contribute to the movie's end product. Even Lookinland - while playing on of the two children involved in being trapped in the building, doesn't really grow into more of a "child hero" like I would expect. Perhaps the best role of the minor characters is of Richard Chamberlain. He is the closest thing to the movie's villain. His selfishness as the rescue efforts continue are done very well. Finally, a note on O.J. Simpson - what a lousy security guard he is! Basically all he does is rescue a cat.
By today's standards, I'm not sure how well a storyline like this would play out. For starters, there is no mention of anything called automatic sprinklers in this movie. You can also see that fire codes - while important, aren't really a big deal back then. When Duncan wants to basically ignore the Fire Department's order to evacuate - you wonder: "could they really do that back then??"
You'll see some great special effects in this movie. The pyrotechnics of this movie are outstanding - the fire and explosions seem genuine throughout the movie. The scenes will the helicopter and scenic elevator are legendary - in addition to having great special effects, you will see some of the film's most exciting sequences. I thought the scene when Roberts and the 2 children getting trapped in the stairwell was way too long - somehow I think that time could have been used better.
There is somewhat of an interesting angle in this movie. At the end of the movie, O'Hallorhan discusses how they were lucky that on the number of casualties for such a disaster. He mentions, "One of these Days - they're gonna kill 10,000" (referring to unsafe building codes). 27 years later - although not Arson or bad construction practices, we would see the World Trade Center disaster. I also thought O'Hallorhan's offer to "work" with Roberts on the good fire safety practices is an interesting twist.
Overall, this was a good movie. I probably rate it somewhere between 3 and 4 stars. As mentioned I do think that much could have been done to develop the storyline and characters - and still preserve the integrity of this movie. If this movie were ever to be remade today, I'm sure there would have to be some major changes to the storyline just to adapt it to today's society. Still I'd check this movie out. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 20, 2005 | | Summary | One Of The Top Disaster Movies Of The 1970s | Content
| It was nice to see Steve McQueen again after all these years. The movie has special effects based upon the capabilities that existed 30 years ago before the computer age. It also has some of the movie stars of the period. The movie at over 2 1/2 hours was a large undertaking that was possible by the joining together of two Hollywood Studios. |
| Rating | | | Date | January 08, 2005 | | Summary | STILL ONE OF THE BEST DISASTER FLICKS | Content
| I have never understood why critics have reviled this 1975 disaster film. In an article on Oscar's "mistakes," they said they couldn't understand how this movie could be nominated for Best Picture; it ended up winning three well deserved Oscars for some of its technical mastery. And why not nominate it? It's what movie making is all about. Big, flashy spectacle; a cast of previous Oscar winners and nominees; extraordinary special effects (remember this was 1975, folks) and a who's gonna get it next waiting around every corner. The whole cast does justice to their roles, even if they are stereotypes. Isn't that what a successful disaster movie requires? Some of the supporting players like Susan Flannery and Robert Vaughn did very well with the bigger name stars, too. And the DVD transfer maintains the lush colors and cinematography, and the chills are still there. When all is said and done, this is a great disaster film and poopoo to those who like to undermine its power. |
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