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The Towering Inferno (1974)
Director: John Guillermin
Cast overview: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen
Running time: 165 minutes
The 1970s saw a spate of disaster films, some admittedly better than others. This is one of the best of the lot, I reckon. I first watched it with my dad when I was about eight, and loved it. It's a very long film, but it's one of the most entertaining films of the seventies, even if not everything works. It also boasts one of the biggest-name casts I've seen in a film, with Newman and McQueen leading the billing, but with Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, OJ Simpson all chipping in at one time or another. The sheer cast alone is astounding.
Anyway, about the film: a new 135-story building has gone up in San Francisco, and a huge fire breaks out at its unveiling. On the 135th floor, hundreds of people gather for a party. Of course, as with all disaster films, they are now in mortal danger and the local fire crew, ably assisted by Steve McQueen's character, Doug Halloran, come to the rescue, although it's far from straightforward.
It's suspenseful and tense, with scenes such as that in the elevator shaft and the helicopter pick-up scene leaving you sweating as much as those near the fire. The script does occasionally verge into the melodramatic, although the usual disaster-film hamminess doesn't appear as much as it might in other films. This was big-budget, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. CGI was an unheard-of concept in the seventies, and it makes this film even more of a great achievement.
In short, this is one of my favourite films, even though I don't watch it as much as I used to, and it stands up as one of the best disaster films ever, with its all-star cast and effective, suspenseful writing and direction coming together to create a very entertaining film. It's not perfect, and it's perhaps overlong, but it's still an old favourite for me.
Quotes
James Duncan: [smiling genially, sure that he can smarm his way out of the situation] Everything under control?
Chief O'Hallorhan: You've gotta move all these people out of here.
James Duncan: Aw, now, just how bad is it?
Chief O'Hallorhan: It's a fire, mister, and all fires are bad.
Doug Roberts: [picks up ringing phone] Roberts.
Chief O'Hallorhan: It's out of control, and it's coming your way. You got about fifteen minutes. Now, they wanna try somethin'. They wanna blow those water tanks two floors above you. They think it might kill the fire.
Doug Roberts: [surveys room] How're they gonna get the explosives up here?
Chief O'Hallorhan: [after already having been given the task] Oh, they'll find some dumb son of a bitch to bring it up.
Doug Roberts: I thought we were building something that... where people could work and live and be SAFE! If you had to cut costs, why didn't you cut floors instead of corners?
James Duncan: Now listen. Any decisions that were made for the use of alternate building materials were made because I as a builder have a right to make those decisions; if I remain within the building code and god-dammit, I did!
Doug Roberts: [Chuckling] Building code? Jesus. Building code. Come on, Dunc, I mean that's a standard cop-out when you're in trouble. I was crawling around up there. I mean, duct holes weren't fire-stopped! Corridors without fire doors in it, sprinklers won't work, and an electrical system that's good for what? I mean, it's good for starting fires! Hoo boy, where was I when all this was going on? Because I'm just as guilty as you and that god-damned son-in-law of yours! What do they call it when you kill people?
Trivia
Paul Newman later regretted his decision to co-star with 'Steve McQueen' (I) because of the rivalry between the two, created by Steve. As a result, the fireman role dominates over Newman's architect. Three contributing factors are 1) Both characters have the same number of lines (at McQueen's insistence); 2) McQueen's character doesn't appear until 43 minutes into the film. As a result, Newman had used almost half his lines before McQueen enters. And 3) the fire chief is the authoritative hero that outranks and captures center stage over all other characters. During filming, Newman was quoted as saying, "For the 1st time, I fell for the ******* numbers. I did this turkey for a million and 10% of the gross, but it's the 1st and last time, I swear."
Paul Newman's and Steve McQueen's names are staggered in the opening credits, closing credits, and on the posters so that, depending on which way you read it (top to bottom or left to right), both appear to get top billing. This is known as "diagonal billing", This strategy was being worked on when Newman and McQueen almost co-starred together in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), but McQueen eventually dropped out of the project and was replaced by the lesser known Robert Redford.
For years, during the 80's and 90's, this is the movie Swedish TV used to show on New Years Eve, just after midnight.
Trailer
Director: John Guillermin
Cast overview: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen
Running time: 165 minutes
The 1970s saw a spate of disaster films, some admittedly better than others. This is one of the best of the lot, I reckon. I first watched it with my dad when I was about eight, and loved it. It's a very long film, but it's one of the most entertaining films of the seventies, even if not everything works. It also boasts one of the biggest-name casts I've seen in a film, with Newman and McQueen leading the billing, but with Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Vaughn, Robert Wagner, Faye Dunaway, William Holden, OJ Simpson all chipping in at one time or another. The sheer cast alone is astounding.
Anyway, about the film: a new 135-story building has gone up in San Francisco, and a huge fire breaks out at its unveiling. On the 135th floor, hundreds of people gather for a party. Of course, as with all disaster films, they are now in mortal danger and the local fire crew, ably assisted by Steve McQueen's character, Doug Halloran, come to the rescue, although it's far from straightforward.
It's suspenseful and tense, with scenes such as that in the elevator shaft and the helicopter pick-up scene leaving you sweating as much as those near the fire. The script does occasionally verge into the melodramatic, although the usual disaster-film hamminess doesn't appear as much as it might in other films. This was big-budget, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. CGI was an unheard-of concept in the seventies, and it makes this film even more of a great achievement.
In short, this is one of my favourite films, even though I don't watch it as much as I used to, and it stands up as one of the best disaster films ever, with its all-star cast and effective, suspenseful writing and direction coming together to create a very entertaining film. It's not perfect, and it's perhaps overlong, but it's still an old favourite for me.
Quotes
James Duncan: [smiling genially, sure that he can smarm his way out of the situation] Everything under control?
Chief O'Hallorhan: You've gotta move all these people out of here.
James Duncan: Aw, now, just how bad is it?
Chief O'Hallorhan: It's a fire, mister, and all fires are bad.
Doug Roberts: [picks up ringing phone] Roberts.
Chief O'Hallorhan: It's out of control, and it's coming your way. You got about fifteen minutes. Now, they wanna try somethin'. They wanna blow those water tanks two floors above you. They think it might kill the fire.
Doug Roberts: [surveys room] How're they gonna get the explosives up here?
Chief O'Hallorhan: [after already having been given the task] Oh, they'll find some dumb son of a bitch to bring it up.
Doug Roberts: I thought we were building something that... where people could work and live and be SAFE! If you had to cut costs, why didn't you cut floors instead of corners?
James Duncan: Now listen. Any decisions that were made for the use of alternate building materials were made because I as a builder have a right to make those decisions; if I remain within the building code and god-dammit, I did!
Doug Roberts: [Chuckling] Building code? Jesus. Building code. Come on, Dunc, I mean that's a standard cop-out when you're in trouble. I was crawling around up there. I mean, duct holes weren't fire-stopped! Corridors without fire doors in it, sprinklers won't work, and an electrical system that's good for what? I mean, it's good for starting fires! Hoo boy, where was I when all this was going on? Because I'm just as guilty as you and that god-damned son-in-law of yours! What do they call it when you kill people?
Trivia
Paul Newman later regretted his decision to co-star with 'Steve McQueen' (I) because of the rivalry between the two, created by Steve. As a result, the fireman role dominates over Newman's architect. Three contributing factors are 1) Both characters have the same number of lines (at McQueen's insistence); 2) McQueen's character doesn't appear until 43 minutes into the film. As a result, Newman had used almost half his lines before McQueen enters. And 3) the fire chief is the authoritative hero that outranks and captures center stage over all other characters. During filming, Newman was quoted as saying, "For the 1st time, I fell for the ******* numbers. I did this turkey for a million and 10% of the gross, but it's the 1st and last time, I swear."
Paul Newman's and Steve McQueen's names are staggered in the opening credits, closing credits, and on the posters so that, depending on which way you read it (top to bottom or left to right), both appear to get top billing. This is known as "diagonal billing", This strategy was being worked on when Newman and McQueen almost co-starred together in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), but McQueen eventually dropped out of the project and was replaced by the lesser known Robert Redford.
For years, during the 80's and 90's, this is the movie Swedish TV used to show on New Years Eve, just after midnight.
Trailer