Plot: What’s it about?
was one of the best years when a detective was stuck in the middle, an eavesdropper was curious what the meaning of “he’d kill us if he had the chance” was, a raunchy comic was given the biopic treatment, and the continuing tales of everyone’s favorite son of Corleone paralleling with Sr, Corleone himself. 1974 was indeed a great year for movies and those four best picture nominees represented the year well. When it came to nominee #5, it came down to the tallest building ablaze with a cast of stars (including a Brady) and the count of who would make it out alive and who would perish amongst the rising ashes of The Towering Inferno.
It’s opening night in San Francisco and a celebration of the tallest building in the world has every big name and luminary coming out to mark the occasion but what all don’t know and what they slowly but surely realize is that before their arrival, a fire has started in an electrical closet that by each hour gets more dangerous. With nowhere else for the fire to go but up in the higher floors, a fire marshal and his crew rush to the scene of the blaze and sees by the end of the night survivors, victims and casualties all around him and with every effort to get everyone out alive, catastrophe looms its ugly head in the most grisely way.
This viewer recalls the many times on television the film was shown as a special presentation with a 3-4 hour window and in some cases spread across two days and each time seeing it being hooked from minute one on with all the action, unpredictability, and the chatters in between that only a disaster movie of the seventies can provide so well. Acting is not always at the strongest suit in this kind of film but this takes on more of an ensemble level where everyone is on the same track and in this kind of film, that’s a good thing. Yet through all the doom and destruction, there is one question that still looms after so many years of seeing this film and it is this: Does anyone know what happened to the band?? They perform their song and their music and then they disappear throughout the duration of the film. They are the one element that this viewer wonders whether they made it out alive or not. In the answer to how licks to the Tootsie Roll center question, the world may never know.
It is a long movie and the film does have some take a breath moments but once it feels too long to breath, along comes another catastrophe to get the audience back in for more hair raising moments of rescue and regret. Everything here is first rate and more than you can expect from a disaster movie and in the total package, provides better than average cinematic moments as well as hookability that last until the blue screen credits at the end. (even this viewer can recall times waiting for his report card with the ticking clock in the last quarter of the film, mixed with the films score to accompany)
Overall, The Towering Inferno has a combination of talent that may never seem the same again and they all do well amongst the carnage and the heroics and in turn comes to a terrific film of that great era that provides much entertainment that’s all an audience can ask for.
Video: How does it look?
The Towering Inferno has its second run on DVD with an anamorphic 2.35:1 transfer that ranks amongst the best the film has ever looked in any medium. Sure VHS looked good and LD looked decent and even the first release had it’s share of visual quality, but this one takes the errors of that previous release and improves with the grain going to a bare minimum and colors looking stronger than ever with no hint of bleeding in site. When looking at the extras, theres a reminder of all the ways the film looked before and here, this marks the superior transfer amongst it all.
Audio: How does it sound?
The Dolby Digital 4.0 track makes John Williams’ Oscar nominated score sing better than any time with it’s sharpness, room for little effects and blasts here and there and less of a feeling of any studio stock effects that plague a lot of the films of that time. The dialogue come out clear with every word and emotion as expected from a disaster film of the time and there is a boom to be heard on the outer channels when a blaze is called for at the most random times. The track starts off muted but quickly gets clear at the films beginning and never lets up until both logos are seen side by side during the end credits making for a most solid track. This disc also has an English 2.0 Dolby track and a Spanish Mono track along with English and Spanish subtitles.
Supplements: What are the extras?
The previous release of the Towering Inferno only had a theatrical trailer and with the extra disc and a lot more room, the special edition expands greatly starting with a commentary track from film historian F.X. Feeney. There’s hardly a gap in Feeney’s track as following along with the film he offers some great notes and some impressions on scenes and the film as a whole. Even with the long length, Feeney makes a most entertaining track keeping the audience both into the film a learning experience at the same time.
The other two commentary tracks by present day special effects director Mike Vezina and stunt coordinator Branko Racki keep their comments to only some of the scenes in the film and record their take in an amusingly decent manner making a few observations and reactions throughout the track finishing off the extras from Disc 1.
On Disc 2, the Special Edition continues with AMC Backstory:The Towering Inferno, another in the long list of great episodes featuring films for almost 30 minutes and learning the making of the film from the players present day. It’s inclusion is one of the pluses of this fine set for AMC Backstory deserves a set of it’s own someday in a boxset focusing on all the titles it’s covered.
(Sidenote: this episode was delayed on it’s original broadcast as it was scheduled to be shown a week after 9/11)
After, there is a vast featurette section that covers some of the players looking back today with their memories and thoughts of the film today as well as the special effects of the film, the sets, Irwin Allen himself, chatting up about director John Guillermin, elements of making the fire happen in the film along with making the tallest building come alive and finishing off with a few moments about the writer, Stirling Silliphant. The nine featurettes range from 4 to 10 minutes in length and are all full of great stories and goes over the little bits and pieces we’ve heard before but always amused to listen and see again as many times as we’d like.
Moving on, there is a Vintage Promotional Material section which has a NATO Presentation Reel giving the theater owners what to expect with this big spectacle along with two different featurettes during the making of the film itself (one of which this viewer remembers long ago way back when seeing on TV), as well as a nine question interview with Irwin Allen three years after the films success along with the teaser and theatrical trailer to The Towering Inferno along with the trailer to The Poseidon Adventure.
Next there are 33 extended and deleted scenes from the Towering Inferno that all stemmed from it’s broadcast on TV and each one is shown where it would be located in the regular film incorporated to the place it had when it was shown. Some add a few touches, others are just minor character moments but through it all, a fun addition.
(Sidenote: On one of the extended scenes involving William Holden and Robert Wagner, there was one part cut out that this viewer has on VHS from the two part broadcast that goes into Holden looking to postpone the party, but what’s absent is Wagner’s reaction which goes into him telling Holden that the public relations reaction would be damaging and that the senators bill would go bust with the scene finishing off with Wagner presenting the guest list to Holden. Nothing big, worth noting, but surprisingly not included on the DVD)
Finishing off this tremendous set are articles from American Cinematographer magazine, pre and post production photo galleries and storyboard comparisions using six scenes and mixing the storyboards to go along with each appropriate scene.
One last thing to note: BIG kudos go out to the slipcase and cover people for beautifully replicating the poster art on the cast squares on the backcover and the frontcover and an even bigger surprise: The inclusion of a minaturized version of the films original souvenir program which is more than gravy and it’s a great capper to a great edition.
The Towering Inferno gets premier treatment from Fox with an excellent 2 disc Special Edition covering many of the bases (except the fate of that band, which the Oscar winning song was spoofed nicely on SCTV set 4) along with giving superior quality all around in terms of the technical aspects of the film and of the disc extras which there are plenty and make for never enough positive words with this edition coming very well recommended.
