- Based on the novel by Paul Gallico, Ronald Neame's The Poseidon Adventure is the quintessential disaster movie. If you want to watch a bunch of people yelling at each other while trapped in hell, this is the movie for you! As in many such films, the characters are archetypes: a righteous preacher (Gene Hackman), a stubborn cop (Ernest Borgnine), a reformed prostitute (Stella Stevens), a shy man (Red Buttons), a helpless woman (Carol Lynley), an older couple (Shelley Winters, Jack Albertson), the injured insider (Roddy McDowall), and two young siblings (Pamela Sue Martin, Eric Shea). And a few dozen other characters (Leslie Nielsen, Arthur O'Connell, Bob Hastings) you probably shouldn't spend too much time getting to know.
- Without a doubt, the best part of The Poseidon Adventure is its tremendously convincing set design, which really does look like a cruise ship that is simultaneously upside-down, flooded, and on fire. In fact, there is so much water, fire, and steam that one imagines parts of the filming must actually have been dangerous, particularly the underwater scenes that are edited to look like the actors could drown at any moment. The acting both in and out of water is generally strong, with Red Buttons and Jack Albertson in particular delivering surprisingly good performances by disaster movie standards. I'm not sure what the overall message of The Poseidon Adventure is, unless it is just that disasters kill people indiscriminately, which the movie also does. The music of John Williams plays on as the ship sinks.
