Death Be Not Proud
...nor predictable, nor predetermined...
I have a little crush on The Towering Inferno, having seen it for the first time a few weeks ago. I naively thought it'd be campy fun, like pretty much every other disaster movie (even the many I love).
Instead, I got some good lessons. Mainly how to kill people --er, characters-- in ways that keep an audience surprised, worried, unsure... you know, caring. Here are my top few:
...nor predictable, nor predetermined...
I have a little crush on The Towering Inferno, having seen it for the first time a few weeks ago. I naively thought it'd be campy fun, like pretty much every other disaster movie (even the many I love).
Instead, I got some good lessons. Mainly how to kill people --er, characters-- in ways that keep an audience surprised, worried, unsure... you know, caring. Here are my top few:
- In Inferno, the characters who die do not know they’re going to die. They do not foreshadow their own deaths... they simply act like anyone else under siege. In fact, what seems like a major character (and a top-billed name) in this film is in post-coital bliss when he and his lover realize the fire’s right outside their door and there’s no way out. And then? There's no way out. Bye-bye big name.
- The characters in this film who do not die act like they could die at any moment. The characters do not seem to know that the actors playing them have last names like McQueen, Newman and Dunaway, and are therefore less likely to be burned to death.
- When a character dies, the movie doesn’t take a moment of silence for them... doesn't stop in its tracks... it’s busy dealing with the other people who aren’t dead yet.
- The movie is completely willing to follow a character through a lengthy life-and-death ordeal with a happy ending, only to kill them unceremoniously forty minutes later. Them's the breaks.
- Finally, The Towering Inferno doesn’t seem to believe that “someone must be sacrificed”-- this is about a fire. Who cares who's responsible for it right now? The fire doesn’t know a martyr from a villain, and no death is played as more tragic (or more deserved) than any other.
posted by Jennica at 6:23 p.m.
7 Comments:
Jennica & Towering Inferno
Sitting in a Tree
K-I-S-S-I--err...nevermind
I think you've sold me on this one. Time to rent it!
BTW, have you seen Poseidion Adventure. People were talking about it at breakfast this morning. One woman was talking about it like you talk about Towering Inferno. She called it a "perfect movie". What say you?
I have never seen the original. I have, however, seen the recent TV movie starring Rutger Hauer and C. Thomas Howell. I'm also looking forward to the new one!
I do plan on seeing that original, though... sounds like they did disaster right in the '70s! What went wrong since?
What do you mean, what went wrong since?
A lot of pretty serviceable disaster movies have been made in the last 10 years. Many are flawed but watchable (I'm looking at you, "Dante's Peak" and "Day After Tomorrow") and some are really pretty good ("Deep Impact"). Actually, I can think of dozens of movies that fall into those two categories.
A lot of stinkers, too, but there was no shortage of those in the '70s. Disaster movies are some of the only films that CGI has helped nearly across the board. And story-wise, the best of the recent bunch match up relatively well against "Towering Inferno," wouldn't you say? Only this generation has no Steve McQueen to be towed around by helicopter.
Where *are* our Steve McQueens? Our Paul Newmans? Who comes close? The only one I can think of is the certifiably dreamy George Clooney. But who else? Who of the younger generation is going to step up?
Ashton Kutcher? *ducks*
Jeff: yeah, of course, lots of fun stuff... some more fun than others. But I'm hard pressed to think of a recent example that felt like so much more than "fun"... "Deep Impact" definitely comes the closest.
And I think Bruce Willis is our Steve McQueen. Make of that what you will.
While I am a huge fan of "Towering Inferno," I don't really see anything in it--or your post about it--that suggests that it's "so much more than
'fun'." It's a movie of very high quality, but what is it, then, that puts it in a different class than, say, "Day After Tomorrow"? (I know, "Day" is much more flawed--I'm talking about what it tries to do.) The deaths in Towering Inferno are a lot less predictable, but are the themes so much more sophisticated? The way the story unfolds is really no different--big picture--than its genre-mates.
The points you make in your post are all great, and I agree with every last one. But to me these are the details that make the movie best-in-class, not something that somehow transcends its entire genre.
Great call on Bruce Willis. I'd say he has less of Steve McQueen's smoldering awesomeness, but a much better and more varied career.
Sorry for the long post. I guess I'm calling you out, and I expect to hear a very thoughtful response once you're back from your book tour in three weeks. :)
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