The Poseidon Adventure

One Gene Hackman movie that popped up on my radar that I had never planned on seeing, but thought it would be light enough to keep on in the background while I did some other work was The Poseidon Adventure (1972).

I blame the hilarious Zucker Brother's comedy Airplane (1980) for never seeing this movie.  That movie mocked disaster movies such as Airport and The Towering Inferno so thoroughly that I could never take the originals seriously.  And current disaster movies bore me, for the most part.  The tropes.  The running.  The yelling.  The insistent scientist that no one is listening to.  The one kid crying in the middle of the street until someone snatches him to bring him to safety. (Can we PLEASE lose that trope??  We’ve seen it in movies since the 1920s in every genre.  When one of the Ewok baby was crying in the middle of the street in The Last Jedi, I wanted to throw popcorn at the screen. And they continue to use that trope well into the 21st century.)

I started watching while looking at my cell phone.  Eventually, I had to put my phone down. Why did I cry like three times in this movie?! It takes a lot for me to cry over movies (although admittedly, as I get older I do cry more than I used to).  My first tear was shed when Han Solo was sealed in carbonite in The Empire Strikes Back.  And yes, I had seen E.T. the year before.  It was good, but I was not moved to tears.

What a wild and interesting movie!  It never felt put on nor did it ever pander to the audience.  And it was so entertaining to see all of the biggest stars of the day in one movie. It's been decades since I've laid eyes on Red Buttons onscreen.

A standout scene for me was when Carol Lynley's character, Nonnie, trusted that Red Buttons' character, James, would bring her to safety by saying, “All you have to do is hold your breath.”  Really, dude?  I’m a swimmer, but I don’t know if I would be able to just close my eyes, hold my breath and hang on to someone else while he dragged me under water.

Gene Hackman's Reverend Scott is the one who started me crying.  I was shocked at myself!  (I said out loud: "I'm crying over Gene Hackman???") His monologue after the excellent Shelly Winters’ Belle Rosen saves his life (I won’t spoil it beyond that) set me off.  I had to pause the movie to grab a tissues from the other room. 

The next time I was crying, it was over Mike Rogo's (Ernest Bornine) devastation over something that happens late in the picture.

But Gene had me crying again in his final scene.  What on earth…?  He was a little arrogant in this movie, but at least I understood his motivation.  The most shocking thing to me was that he was a reverend.  You mostly forget he was a man of God as the movie goes on, but there’s a huge reminder in the last scene.  And it's a tear jerker. Amazing.

If you have never seen The Poseidon Adventure, make it your business and let me know what you think.