In last week's Cinema Sunday, I wrote about the 1996 film, Independence Day. While it is labeled as a science fiction film, I noted in that post that Indpendence Day has more in common with such disaster films like The Poseidon Adventure or The Towering Inferno.
Today's Cinema Sunday takes a look at one of those films, The Towering Inferno.
Now if you're looking for a cogent inciteful assessment of this movie, you will not find one here.
There's a tall building.
It catches fire.
The End.
And we're done.
OK, there is more to this movie than that. When it came out in 1974, The Towering Inferno was a major box office smash with an all star cast headed up by Paul Newman and Steve McQueen and it went on to earn 8 Oscar nominations and winning three awards.
But I was 11 years old when this came out and I really didn't care about any of this.
I experienced The Towering Inferno at a drive in theater.
Now why my parents thought it was a good idea to drag my young impressionable self to see a movie about a really tall building catch fire projected on the side of a wall several feet tall, I have no idea. It was the 1970s and parents were just weird sometimes.
My best memory of the drive in theater was swinging on the big sturdy swing set in the gathering twilight. It was the best time to be a kid on a swing set in the cooling air of a summer evening as day faded into dusk into darkness.
I almost dreaded the moment I would be called back to the car when it got dark enough to start the movie.
A drive in was not an optimal way to experience a movie.
The movie's sound was piped in via box that you attached to the car door with the window rolled down.
You had to find a box that would attach.
And actually produced sound.
That you could actually hear.
It was a bit of a crap shoot to get a good speaker box.
And there was the inevitable spill of soda and popcorn in the car that made nobody happy.
And there was seeing the movie.
My mom and dad were in the front seat with an uninhibited view of the movie.
I'm in the back seat, looking over the front seat.
On one hand, it can be hard to see.
On the other hand, I can see too much!
There's a TALL building!
ON FIRE!!!
I was traumatized!! I was rendered fearful of TALL BUILDINGS and FIRE and STEVE MCQUEEN!!!!
OK, I do remember some details.
There's some smug bastards who think their shiny new tower is indestructible thanks to technology!
There's some frantic guys trying to convince everyone the tower ain't safe at all!
And while all this is being debated, we have cut aways to bits and pieces of the damn tower catching fire!
THE TOWER IS ON FIRE!!!!!
Oh, and 11 year old me may have seen a sex scene? There may have been a sex scene but it's buried under the rubble of my damaged psyche of seeing a TALL BUILDING ON FIRE!!!
Is this why my sex life has been such a mess? Because I equate sex with TALL BUILDINGS ON FIRE?!?!?
How can I think about sex when I'm also thinking about a VERY TALL BUILDING ON FIRE!!!
PEOPLE ARE ON FIRE!!!!
PEOPLE ARE FALLING OUT OF THE VERY TALL BUILDING!!!
WHILE ON FIRE!!!!!
Thinking about this movie is bringing up a lot of repressed child hood trauma! I need to calm down!
What this? A song? Maybe music is just want I need to help me cope with my lifelong trauma about tall buildings on fire!
Oh, that is not funny!
And that is my review of The Towering Inferno.
OK, that is that for today's Cinema Sunday. Until next time, remember to be good to one another and don't hog all the popcorn, will ya?
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