In hindsight, the American cinema of the Nineteen Seventies has two main legacies connected to it. On the one hand, there’s the American New Wave aka the New Hollywood motion, during which “5 Simple Items,” “Klute,” “The French Connection,” and different movies like them eschewed the mainstream studio filmmaking components in favor of telling tales that had been creatively daring and heartfelt. On the opposite, there’s the daybreak of the blockbuster, a pattern that continues to at the present time and whose starting is most frequently attributed to Steven Spielberg’s “Jaws” from 1975. However whereas “Jaws” will get the lion’s (er, shark’s) share of the credit score for birthing the blockbuster, dollop of credit score should additionally go to the opposite populist pattern in American cinema through the decade: the catastrophe film.
The catastrophe movie had been round earlier than the ’70s in a single type or one other, however it’s the model that was popularized throughout that decade which has allowed the style to proceed to the current day. Though 1970’s “Airport” is commonly thought-about the watershed catastrophe movie, it is 1972’s “The Poseidon Journey” which was the style’s make-or-break level. Directed by Ronald Neame, the movie’s producer Irwin Allen (who would go on to be dubbed “The Grasp of Catastrophe” due to the success of this movie and its follow-up, “The Towering Inferno”) marketed “The Poseidon Journey” as an anti-New Hollywood movie; the image’s promotional making-of quick was even titled “The Return of the Film Film.” Primarily, Allen wished to play up the movie’s spectacle-first nature with a view to draw audiences in who wished some escapist leisure.
Nonetheless, Neame’s casting of Gene Hackman because the lead of the film’s all-star ensemble subverted Allen’s plans to make “The Poseidon Journey” an enormous, foolish spectacle. In his function as Reverend Frank Scott, one in all a number of passengers who struggles to outlive after the posh liner Poseidon is capsized in the course of the ocean on New Yr’s Eve, Hackman provides all of his appreciable prowess as a display screen actor to the efficiency. Because of this, “The Poseidon Journey” could not be simply dismissed as a lark, and Hackman’s work within the movie not solely helped legitimize the catastrophe film however may also be seen as an early instance of an important actor elevating a blockbuster film.
Hackman makes Reverend Frank Scott an indelible character
To be truthful, the screenplay for “The Poseidon Journey” (as written by Stirling Silliphant and Wendell Mayes) is so overwrought and lofty that within the mistaken palms, it may have certainly been a feature-length train in unintentional camp. Though there are some who nonetheless see the film via that lens (helped, little doubt, by a popular culture joke that extends from Bette Midler to the still-popular ’90s sitcom “Mates”), it is Hackman’s dedication to the function and his efficiency which helps silence would-be chucklers. It is a daring selection to offer a catastrophe film in regards to the survivors of a large wave toppling a ship making their approach via an the wrong way up vessel to security a decidedly ecclesiastical hero. It is even bolder to offer that character a philosophy that skews near being Randian (Scott fortunately preaches the concept that “God helps those that assist themselves”), one thing that mixes with the movie’s nearly Biblical tone of hardship and strife to finish up with somebody who, at the least on paper, should not be likable in any respect, a lot much less heroic.
Thankfully, the casting of Hackman as Reverend Scott helps alleviate all these potential pitfalls. The actor’s pure orneriness (a high quality which served him extremely properly in nearly each efficiency he ever delivered) provides sufficient edge to the character in order that his selflessness and generosity appears that rather more real and pronounced. In fact, Hackman’s sense of authority (if not superiority) simply explains Scott filling the function of the chief of the group that try and make an exodus from the ship as a substitute of ready it out. His chemistry with fellow tough-guy actor Ernest Borgnine (taking part in a cop, Mike Rogo) lends their moments of battle an additional depth, and his tenderness towards the teenage Susan (Pamela Sue Martin) in addition to the middle-aged Belle (Shelley Winters) provides the character a much-needed further dimension of humanity.
In one other film, with a lesser actor, Scott’s closing second of self-sacrifice would appear like an affordable gimmick, and may’ve left audiences remarkably unhappy by the movie. As an alternative, Hackman helps make it an indelible second, a fruits of all of the weighty themes that the movie introduces which it in any other case in all probability would not have been in a position to repay. It is a scene depicting a person’s disaster of religion that doubles as humanity’s indictment of a supposedly benevolent increased energy. That Hackman was in a position to ship such a second inside a special-effects spectacle was a testomony to his skills.
Hackman’s integrity as an actor prolonged to each efficiency he gave
Gene Hackman’s efficiency in “The Poseidon Journey” proved to Hollywood simply how a lot worth there was in casting a dedicated star in a number one function of a would-be blockbuster. With such an individual concerned, you were not simply getting marquee worth however inventive worth as properly. Although the template was already constructed, the success of “Poseidon Journey” ensured that future catastrophe motion pictures would make a degree out of placing collectively as skilled and eclectic an performing ensemble as potential. Thus, we not solely received the much more star-studded solid of “The Towering Inferno,” but in addition the flashy (and sport) casts of movies like “Independence Day” and “Armageddon” years later.
The ironic icing on the genuinely nice cake of Hackman’s efficiency within the movie is that, for the actor, the gig could have merely been a for-hire function he casually tossed off. In a 2020 interview with Self-importance Truthful, Ben Stiller recalled approaching Hackman on the set of “The Royal Tenenbaums” with a view to reward his work in “The Poseidon Journey”:
“The entire shoot, I used to be ready to rise up the nerve — as a result of he is an intimidating man — to inform him how a lot ‘Poseidon Journey’ meant to me. So, two days earlier than the shoot was over, lastly, there’s this quiet second. I mentioned, ‘Gene, I simply need to say it is simply been superb working with you — and I did not say this earlier than, however actually for me, ‘Poseidon Journey’ might be probably the most necessary motion pictures for me, ever, as a result of it actually made me need to be a filmmaker, to be in motion pictures, and I noticed it a number of occasions and it simply actually, actually modified my life.”
As Stiller recalled, Hackman responded to this by merely him and saying, “Oh yeah. Cash job,” after which strolling away. Whereas it is potential that Hackman was merely having a foul day at work or wasn’t taken with talking about his previous movies at that second, it is doubtless that the infamously no-bulls*** actor meant precisely what he mentioned. Stiller continued:
“My world was shattered. Even when it was a cash job for Hackman, it was probably the most unimaginable money-job efficiency I’ve ever seen.”
Clearly, I fully aspect with Stiller’s sentiments right here. The truth that Hackman considered “Poseidon Journey” and his look in it as merely a paycheck gig does not diminish his work within the movie. Quite the opposite, it makes it much more spectacular — that is the standard of labor the man did when he did not care. With Hackman’s passing, we have misplaced one of many titans of American movie performing, an artist who had such innate talent that he may ship greatness regardless of the fabric. It is a stage of craft to aspire to, and for us cinephiles, it means the closest factor we are able to get to a assure of enjoyment is at any time when we watch any one in all his movies. Like Scott’s sacrifice, Hackman did all that he did for us.
