Matt's Big Oscar Challenge Days 215-216: A Couple of Major Disasters

Back when I was reviewing films from the 1930s it appeared as if the major studios were competing against each other in making disaster movies. Films such as San Francisco and In Old Chicago explored events like earthquakes and floods, putting major stars at the front of these disasters. However, the definite golden age of the disaster movie was the 1970s in which all-star casts were forced to deal with disasters ranging from fires to floods as well as plenty of mishaps up in the air. These disaster films did particularly well at the Oscars with two of them being nominated for Best Picture.

 The first of these was Airport, which arguably started the whole disaster movie craze. Though not focusing on a particular disaster, Airport was definitely influential due to its all-star cast being put in peril as well as its focus on special effects. The plot of the film is all based around a Chicago airport which is managed by Burt Lancaster's Mel Bakersfield, a man who spends more time at work than he does at home. Mel is besieged by issues such as snow grounding several of his planes, complaints from local residents that planes are flying too low over their houses and the fact that his staff have recently apprehended a stowaway. Mel doesn't take the stowaway case too easily when he discovers that the culprit in his a little old lady in the form of Helen Hayes' Ada Quonsett. Though Mel's loyal assistant/love interest Tanya doesn't share his views and wants Ada watched at all times, though this doesn't happen and the stowaway soon escapes and boards a plane to Rome. The plane to Rome is also where D.O. Guerrero plans to end his life after a string of financial failures and onset depression. Guerrero feels the best way to help his wife his to blow up a plane, with his death meaning that his wife will be able to cash in on his life insurance. Mel and Tanya soon learn of Guerrero's plan and inform Dean Martin's Captain who devices a plan to try and stop Guerrero. From there its a race against time to try to prevent an explosion and get all of the passengers to safety. 

Having some obvious knowledge of the disaster genre I would definitely say that Airport wouldn't classify in the same league as some of them. Despite this, I feel that writer/director George Seaton set up enough peril in the form of Guerrero's bomb to have me on the edge of my seat. I also felt like Seaton had introduced just enough characters for me to know who everybody was and who was in secretly in a relationship with who. Burt Lancaster was the perfect person to play Mel as he was an assured lead who attempted to keep everything at the airport running smoothly while dealing with one problem after another. He was perfectly supported by the much more suave Dean Martin as the captain who was having an affair with one of his stewardesses played by the equally glamorous Jacqueline Bisset. However, the two Oscar-nominated performances came from the supporting actresses who played very different roles. The brilliant Helen Hayes was perfect as comic criminal Mrs Quonsett who was quite matter-of-fact about her stowaway exploits. The fact that Ada later gets to play heroine adds another layer to a character who could've easily been a one-note supporting player without Hayes' performance. Meanwhile Maureen Stapleton adds an air of humanity to the film as Guerrero's wife who attempts to stop his plan before it's too late. Despite its over-the-top nature I still really enjoyed Airport as a film in its own right though I wouldn't particularly class it as a disaster film in the traditional sense of the genre.

The disaster genre itself really began with The Poseidon Adventure, which was nominated for several Oscars but not Best Picture. Two years later we had possibly the ultimate disaster film The Towering Inferno, which had so many stars that they couldn't decide who should receive top billing. Indeed, one of the most infamous stories about the film was that Paul Newman and Steve McQueen both considered themselves to be the leading man so both the poster and the opening credits had their names diagonally placed so as to insinuate that both were taking the lead. In addition, both actors were appeased by having the exact same number of lines of dialogue so the audience would feel satisfied that both were on an equal footing. Personally I would consider Newman the star just because his character, architect Doug Roberts has more of a pivotal role as he discovers that his newly designed building has plenty of electrical faults. It soon transpires that the tower's builder, James Duncan, cut many corners in order to cut costs. These cost-cutting measures included concreting over fire exits and having his son-in-law, electrical engineer Roger Simmons cut as many corners as possible. As a fire breaks out on one of the floors, Roberts attempts to warn Duncan about the incident but he refuses to end his luxury party just because of a small blaze. Predictably the fire is soon out of control and the party-goers are trapped with more and more of their possible exits being trapped. Thankfully McQueen's fire chief O'Hallorhan has several ideas how to rescue the party, with differing results, and at the end of the day some of the more expendable characters have perished. 

While Aiport's body count was extremely minimal, there were plenty of deaths in The Towering Inferno to satisfy those who feel a disaster film should have a life-threatening incident at the centre of it. Unlike Airport though, I didn't feel that I got to know all of the characters before the fire began to take shape. Indeed, aside from Roberts, O'Hallorhan and Duncan the rest of the characters felt a little clichéd. For example, Fred Astaire's conman, who obviously shares a lot of similarities with Helen Hayes' Airport character, isn't given a lot of backstory. While the characters played by Robert Wagner, Jennifer Jones and Robert Vaughn are similarly one-note creations. As Roberts' long-suffering love interest, Faye Dunaway does have a little bit to do but the latter scenes involve her simply worrying about things. Worst of all is Richard Chamberlain's Simmons, who is the smirking British villain of the piece, as I found him to be a very poorly-written antagonist. Despite the wealth of two-dimensional characters, The Towering Inferno was still an enjoyable thanks to the impressively choreographed fire sequences. The peril was steadily built up as the exterior shots of the building saw more and more flames break out, while the more dangerous methods of escape had me on the edge of my seat. The film won well-deserved awards for cinematography and editing while its central theme 'We May Never Love Like This Again' was also rewarded with Best Original Song. While The Towering Inferno may seem cheesy by today's action movie standards, I still felt it provided enough peril to pass the time and, looking at it now, it can be held up as an incredibly influential piece of film-making. 

Next time I'll present a double bill that you won't be able to refuse.