Review of The Towering Inferno (1974) by Justin M — 31 Aug 2006

Cool Hand Luke and the Cooler King lead the fight against the hottest blaze this side of Backdraft. Shortly after Irwin Allen built the world's biggest ship and sunk it to the bottom of the sea in The Poseidon Adventure, he swapped elements and built the world's tallest building instead.

The movie takes its time getting going -- the fire doesn't really take off until about 45mins, which means McQueen doesn't enter the picture 'til after that. But it's a better movie for it, really taking it's time to draw and define its characters, and raising the stakes for us to really feel the heat once the blaze begins.

Newman is the brilliant architect who designed the thing, McQueen the fire chief trying to quench the flames. Faye Dunaway is Newman's girlfriend, and her Network co-star William Holden is the corrupt builder, who strayed from Newman's specs and is paying the price for it. This has to be one of the greater casts ever assembled, also including Robert Wagner, Richard Chamberlain, an Oscar-nominated Fred Astaire, and...errr...OJ Simpson... And unlike The Poseidon Adventure, there's no scenery chewing here -- the cast plays the drama straight, bringing real gravitas to a movie that could have just as easily been completely ridiculous. But the real star here is the special effects, with some absolutely stunning fire scenes, all of which were practically shot with real fire.

It's thrilling, visually impressive, and damn well-acted. We'd be lucky to get a blockbuster like this in the modern era.