With hindsight, American cinema of the 1970s has two major inheritances attached to it. On the one hand, there is The American New Wave Aka the New Hollywood Movement, in which “Five Easy Pieces”, “Klute”, “The French Connection”, and other films like them have avoided the Cinema formula for the mainstream studio in favor of telling stories that were daring and sincere. On the other, there’s the Dawn of the Blockbuster, A Trend that continues to this day and whose beginning is most attributed to Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” from 1975. But While “Jaws” Gets the Lion’s (Er, Shark’s) Share of the Credit for Birting the Blockbus. of Credit Must also go to the other populist trend in American Cinema During the Decade: Catastrophe film.
The catastrophic film had existed before the 1970s in one form or another, but it was the version which was popularized during this decade which allowed the kind to continue to the present day. Although “the airport” of the 1970s is often considered as the catastrophe film of the watershed, the 1972 Poseidon Adventure “The Poseidon Adventure was the point of making gender. Directed by Ronald Neame, the producer of the film Irwin Allen (who would continue to be nicknamed “The Master of the Catastrophe” thanks to the success of this film and its follow-up, “The Tower Inferno”) announced “The Poseidon Adventure” as a Hollywood anti-new film; The promotional production of the image was even entitled “The return of cinema”. Essentially, Allen wanted to play the nature of the show first in the film in order to draw the public in whom the entertainment of escape wanted.
However, the casting of Gene Hackman by Neame as the head of all the stars of the film overthrew the plans of Allen to make “The Poseidon Adventure” a great silly spectacle. In his role as Reverend Frank Scott, one of the many passengers who finds it difficult to survive after the Luxury Poseidon Poseidon is capsized in the middle of the ocean the evening of the New Year, Hackman gives all his considerable prowess as a screenman with performance. Consequently, “The Poseidon Adventure” could not be easily rejected as an lark, and Hackman’s work in the film has not only helped legitimize the catastrophe film, but can also be considered an early example of a great actor raising a successful film.
Hackman makes Reverend Frank Scott an indelible character
To be fair, the script for “The Poseidon Adventure” (as written by Stirling Silliphant and Wendell Mayes) is so overworked and raised that in bad hands, it could indeed have been a feature film in an involuntary camp. Although there are some who still see the film through this objective (helped, without a doubt, by a joke of pop culture that extends Bette Midler At the sitcom of the still popular 90s “Friends”), it is Hackman’s commitment to the role and its performance that helps to silence crying. It is a daring choice to give a film in the event of a disaster on the survivors of a giant wave overthrowing a ship that makes its way through a vessel upside down for safety, a resolutely ecclesiastical hero. It is even more daring to give this character a philosophy who sneaned near being Randian (Scott happily preaches the idea that “God helps those who help themselves”), something that combines with the almost biblical tone of the film and conflicts to end up with someone who, at least on paper, should not be at all nice, much less heroic.
Fortunately, Hackman’s cast as Reverend Scott helps to alleviate all of these potential traps. The natural energy of the actor (a quality that served him incredibly well in almost all the performances he has ever delivered) gives enough edge to the character so that his altruism and generosity seem even more authentic and pronounced. Of course, the sense of authority of Hackman (if not superiority) easily explains that Scott fulfills the role of the leader of the group who tries to make an exodus of the ship instead of waiting. His chemistry with his colleague hard actor Ernest Borgnine (playing a cop, Mike Rogo) gives their moments of conflict an additional intensity, and her tenderness for the teenager Susan (Pamela Sue Martin) as well as the beauty of average age (Shelley Winters) gives the character a very necessary additional dimension of humanity.
In another film, with a lesser actor, the last moment of SCOTT’s sacrifice would seem to be a cheap gadget, and could have left the public remarkably dissatisfied with the film. Instead, Hackman helps make an indelible moment, a highlight of all the heavy themes that the film introduces that he would probably not have been able to pay. It is a scene describing the crisis of faith of a man who doubles the act of indictment by humanity of a supervised superior power. The fact that Hackman was able to deliver such a moment in a special effect show testified to his abilities.
Hackman’s integrity as an actor has extended to each performance he gave
The performance of Gene Hackman in “The Poseidon Adventure” proved in Hollywood how much value in the cast of a star engaged in a leading role in a potential blockbuster. With such a person involved, you don’t just get marked value but also creative value. Although the model has already been built, the success of “Poseidon Adventure” assured that future films in the event of a disaster would make a point of view as possible as a professional and eclectic actor. So we have not only The even more starry cast of “The Totting Inferno”, “ But also the flashy (and play) moldings of films like “Independence Day” and “Armageddon” for years later.
The ironic frosting on the truly large cake of Hackman’s performance in the film is that, for the actor, the concert may have simply been a rental role which he launched with casualness. In an interview in 2020 with VanityBen Stiller remembered Hackman approaching the set of “The Royal Tenenbaums” in order to rent his work in “The Poseidon Adventure”:
“All the shooting, I was waiting to set up the nerve – because he is an intimidating guy – to tell him how much” Poseidon Adventure “meant for me. So, two days before the end of the shooting, well, there is this calm moment. I said:` `Gene, I just want to say that it was incredible” I want to be a filmmaker, to be in movies, and I really saw it, life. “”
As Stiller remembers, Hackman answered this by just looking at him and saying: “Oh yeah. Silver job”, then moving away. Although it is possible that Hackman simply has a bad day of work or that she was not interested in talking about his films spent at that time, it is likely that the sadly famous actor of Bulls *** meant exactly what he said. Stilleur continued:
“My world was broken. Even if it was a work of money for Hackman, it was the most incredible money performance I have ever seen.”
Obviously, I put myself on the side of Stiller’s feelings here. The fact that Hackman considered “Poseidon Adventure” and his appearance in computer science as a simple concert of pay check does not decrease his work in the film. On the contrary, it makes him even more impressive – it is the quality of the work that the guy did when he doesn’t care. With the death of HackmanWe lost one of the titans of the film American Film Aging, an artist who had such an innate competence that he could offer size, regardless of the material. It is a level of craftswept to aspire, and for us moviegoers, it means that the closest thing we can get to a guarantee of pleasure is each time we watch one of his films. Like Scott’s sacrifice, Hackman did everything he did for us.
