CineTV Contest #49 - Favorite Movie with Bad Weather: The Poseidon Adventure.
In 1972, a film called The Poseidon Adventure was released, focusing on a luxury liner called the SS Poseidon, which suffers the effects of a giant tidal wave on its last voyage from New York to Athens. The ship capsizes in the middle of the New Year's holiday, and its survivors frantically search for a way to the surface before it is too late.
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The climate of the film is cold and it is possible to feel the humidity as if the sea level is rising, with aspects related to changes in the weather, thus increasing the danger of tidal waves or tsunamis as they are also known.
These characters will try very hard to reach the top of the ship (i.e. the hull) to save their lives. There is a spectacular use of special effects made only with models, as CGI did not exist at the time.
In the first 20 minutes the characters who are going to live this adventure are introduced, and then comes the tragedy in a film that gives the viewer no respite. The lives of a group of people are in danger and their only concern becomes survival.
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Here, the setting forms a fundamental part of the film as it is the place where a deadly journey is staged that is totally unimaginable for the group of survivors.
Gene Hackman, as Frank Scott, is a reverend whose attitude makes him a leader who does not renounce God's will, but does everything humanly possible to be someone of worth in the earthly world.
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Shellley Winters, is Belle Rosen and was nominated for an Oscar for her role in this film.
She is an insightful mature woman who goes to visit a grandson she has never met with her husband, and who was once an excellent swimmer. In this film she is the protagonist of one of the most mythical sequences in all disaster films: she dives more than 20 metres to try to save the life of a character.
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This scene is very well shot, maintains the suspense and is performed by the actress herself without the need for a stunt double.
Red Buttons is the shy bachelor James Martin who has never known love, and finds it in a beautiful young singer terrified by the situation.
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Ernest Borgnine is Mike Rogo, a cantankerous New York detective travelling with his wife on their honeymoon.
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Other notable performances include Stella Stevens as Mike Rogo's wife Linda, Jack Albertson as Belle Rosen's husband Manny Rosen, Pamela Sue Martin as Susan Shelby, Carol Linley as singer Nonnie Parry, Roddy M Dowall as bartender Acres Yoyok and a Leslie Nielsen in a brief role as Captain Harrison in a serious performance before turning to comedy.
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The characters, faced with a climate change disaster, are hungry and cold and decide to work together to save their lives.
In the wake of this tsunami disaster, the stories of the survivors in the film are interwoven. They must use all their cunning and inventive to survive and must join forces even though they have different ways of thinking and acting in order to achieve their goal of getting out of this dangerous situation alive.
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The original 1972 film is very good and full of emotion, but they don't make movies like this anymore, as these days they focus more on the special effects than on the story.
The film was directed by Ronald Neame, produced by the so-called Master of Disaster Cinema Irwing Allen. The screenplay by Wendell Mayes and Stirling Silliphant was based on Paul Gallico's novel The Poseidon Adventure.
In 1973 the film received an Oscar for Best Original Song: The Morning After and a special effects award. That same year the BAFTA Award for Best Actor goes to Gene Hackman and the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress to Shelley Winters.
John Williams received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score for a Motion Picture.
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This story was turned into a TV miniseries in 2005 and a remake in 2006. In the miniseries, it is a bomb that causes the cruise ship to capsize, and in the 2006 film the reason for the capsizing is the same as in the 1972 version.
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These remakes are pleasing to the eye and even entertaining, but as I said in previous paragraphs they are stories that rely more on their special effects than on the stories of their characters.
This is my entry in the CineTV Contest #49 - Favorite Movie with Bad Weather Link Here.
Greetings to all and good luck to the other participants.
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I recall bits and pieces of this movie but never knew it was capsized due to a sunami. 🤔
A tidal wave is a tsunami, at that time 1972 the term tsunami was not very popular. thanks for stopping by @wanderingmoon.
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This is an amazing one to watch, thanks for sharing.
Hi @the-lead. This film is one of the pillars of the catastrophe cinema so fashionable in the 70s. It has no digital special effects, and looks better than many films of today. Best regards.
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Yeah, you are actually correct about that. I watched the movie more than once because of how interesting it is
The Poseiden Adventure - was a darn good film. I rmember seeing it as a kid. I had forgotten that Ernest Borgnine was in it. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
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Hi @thunderjack. Thanks to you for visiting me. It is a movie where the special effects are at the order of the story and not the story at the order of the special effects. I have it in DVD format and enjoy it from time to time. I saw it in the cinema when I was 6 years old and I was amazed and fascinated. Best Regards.
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It truly was a great movie. I remember my dad recommending this movie for me and I enjoyed every bit of it.