Builder James Duncan (William Holden) is dedicating his latest creation, the 138 storey Glass Tower, the world’s tallest building.
On the night of the dedication, a fire starts on the 81st floor and starts to spread.
As the fire grows and starts rising toward the party on the top floor, it falls to Fire Chief Michael O'Halloran (Steve McQueen) and the building’s architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman) to stop it.
Right from the beginning, The Towering Inferno presents itself as the biggest and most prestigious example of its genre:
The unique double billing of Newman and McQueen, the multiple studios (the result of a rare case of synthesising separate skyscraper projects), the widescreen aerial photography of a helicopter crossing San Francisco’s iconic skyline while John Williams’ triumphant main theme booms under it.
Producer Irwin Allen’s followup to The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno feels like a spiritual sequel - bigger in scale, more expensive and filled with stars.
This is big four quadrant entertainment, with an ensemble of stars.
The story covers the situation from multiple angles.
The first time I watched The Towering Inferno, I enjoyed it but compared with The Poseidon Adventure, it seemed a little ponderous.
On this viewing, it flew by.The fire starts 12 minutes in and the action builds from there.
No one is particularly memorable, but no one is awful.
The seventies was a time of change: the oil crisis, the end of the postwar boom.
It makes sense that disaster movies - in which familiar vehicles, environments and movie stars are destroyed - became so popular.
They feel like reflections of societal unease.
They also put the lie to the idea that Jaws and Star Wars inaugurated the blockbuster.
The Towering Inferno and the other disaster movies of the time are also platforms for spectacle.
While it is long, the movie never drags. Directed by John Guillermin (who I have covered before), the film manages to maintain and escalate the tension as the film progresses.
The fire effects add to a genuine sense of danger - mostly because it is real stuntmen interacting with real fire - as do the miniature effects for the elevator and escape line subplots.
And while the movie is based around trying to deal with the fire, the film includes some solid antagonists - Richard Chamberlain’s contemptible electric engineer Roger Simmons, and his father in law, Duncan (William Holden). Duncan is positioned as somewhat sympathetic - he takes some responsibility for the disaster - but Simmons is completely irredeemable.
Another movie might have found a way for either of the film’s heroes, O'Halloran (McQueen) or building architect Roberts (Newman) to deal with him - here, Simmons is undone by his own selfishness. The film even teases the audience with an early death, but he survives for a suitably dramatic fall (pun intended).
The film ends on a somewhat pat note - a promise for ethical building practices, and a humbling of boundless ambition. In its scope and scale, the film cannot help but refute that idea - but it makes for a more entertaining viewing experience!
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