CineTV Contest: Movies that Impacted my Childhood

Dad was a TV and movie buff and was never selfish about inviting us to watch films with him. He wasn’t the kind of father who took us to see Disney movies. His thing was action, and my brothers and I loved that.

To participate in this initiative, I dug into my memories and found three films that left a big impression on me—I couldn’t pick just one. Two of them premiered in 1974, and one in mid-1975. I should mention that I’m a guy over 50, and I’m bringing you movies released half a century ago.

The Towering Inferno (1974)

I can tell you that what I remember most about this movie is that it was produced by Irwin Allen, the same producer behind The Poseidon Adventure and famous TV series like Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, The Time Tunnel, and Land of the Giants. I never missed one of those shows—they all fascinated me. This producer ruled my early days as a viewer of movies and series, and I loved his productions.

The cast of The Towering Inferno was top-notch, featuring high-caliber, famous actors. The leads were Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. The film tells the story of a catastrophe in a San Francisco skyscraper over 100 stories tall, caused by a massive fire.

Newman’s architect and McQueen’s fire chief represented two significant sides of the same tragedy: the former tormented by construction flaws that allowed the disaster to happen, the latter determined to save lives however possible.

One of the moments that hit me hardest was the rooftop rescue, where an explosion disrupted the air evacuation plan, leaving the survivors desperate. The movie hooked me with its visual effects.

More than just a spectacle of destruction, The Towering Inferno is a wake-up call to the deadly consequences of negligence in construction and corporate corruption—issues that persist today. The tense narrative and bittersweet ending left me completely stunned. It’s impossible to forget this film.

Earthquake (1974)

This was a thriller that brought Sensurround technology to theaters, creating the sensation that the room was shaking during the intense earthquake scenes. I vividly remember feeling the vibrations in my seat—something both spectacular and terrifying.

Among its stars, I recall the main one, Charlton Heston, who appeared in countless Hollywood films, along with George Kennedy, another great actor, and Lorne Greene, the dad from the Western series Bonanza.

Heston played an engineer caught in a dilemma between his wife and his mistress. Meanwhile, the policeman (Kennedy) struggled to maintain order as the city crumbled around him. The film interweaves several stories of people facing catastrophe.

The central earthquake sequence is a milestone in special effects. The sound effects create an unmatched experience. But what hits hard is the aftermath: aftershocks, gas leaks, and flooding from a collapsed dam.

For me, it’s a classic genre that, while it’s aged in some ways, I can still watch today.

Jaws (1975)

Directed by the brilliant Steven Spielberg, Jaws is a horror and suspense movie that marked a before and after. The story takes place in a coastal town where a huge white shark appears and begins to terrorize the bathers. Its three main stars - Roy Scheider, Robert Shaw, and Richard Dreyfuss - I've seen in tons of movies.

Police Chief Scheider is caught between public safety and pressure from politicians who don’t want to close the beaches. Dreyfuss was the scientist, and Shaw was a shark hunter with a dark past. These three, along with the shark, had me frozen in my seat. I couldn’t even eat my popcorn.

In Jaws, the tension never lets up. Spielberg’s choice to show the shark only at key moments, paired with John Williams’ masterful score, turns fear into something you feel in your bones.

Jaws isn’t just a monster movie—it’s a suspense masterpiece. There’s never a dull moment. Later sequels came along, but for me, none topped the original.

If you love classics, these three films will delight you. But the magic of them came alive in the theaters—that’s where they grabbed me.