Poseidon 2006

Here is a movie that I am eagerly awaiting--a remake of The Poseidon Adventure, a movie often credited with starting the whole disaster film genre. I can’t tell you why exactly, but the 1972 version is a movie that I always loved watching; one of those movies I just can’t turn off when I see it on. It was full of tense moments and did such an magnificent job making us care about the fate of those people. That is hard to do in a movie that features so many characters. It’s like establishing a deep and dynamic character in a very short story; the time and space in which you have to accomplish this feat is so limited. Friday Night Light’s was a great example of a movie that tried to make the audience connect with a multitude of characters and just couldn’t pull it off. The Poseidon Adventure, however, with a tightly written script and some amazing acting showed us how to do it. It was the kind of movie where you expected that some of them wouldn’t make it but you absolutely dreaded that moment in the movie when you would find out for whom the bell was tolling. I was so young when I saw it but can still distinctly remember feeling chilled as Shelly Winters panicked at the prospect of having to swim an extremely long distance to safety. The brilliant direction in this movie gave us all moments of claustrophobia and really helped us to empathize with Winters dread and panic. But then there was the steady and soothing Ernest Borgnine, the guy that made us feel like maybe they all could make it. Red Buttons was the jittery little guy with the big heart, I was pulling for him all the way. It was such a terrific movie, such moments of tension and disbelief. All in the age before special effects really took off, when most films still HAD to be plot/ character-centric to survive at all.
Poseidon 2006
The new version is simply titled Poseidon. It’s going to be directed by Wolfgang Petersen who was masterful with Enemy Mine and In the Line of Fire but a bit bombastic directing Air Force One and Troy—both enjoyable films, they simply could have been much better. He certainly has a heck of a cast to work with. This lineup includes Richard Dreyfus, Kurt Russell, Josh Lucas, Kevin Dillon and Jacinda Barrett (Bridget Jones, The Human Stain). It’s curious, but in the original the desperate passengers rallied around a priest who exhibited natural leadership and calm, his name was Rev. Frank Scott, incredibly well acted by Gene Hackman. In the cast listing for 2006’s version there is no Frank Scott listed as a character, not sure if he’s been replaced by a new character or just renamed and stripped of his collar. We’ll see. I hope they aren’t going to monkey with the original version too much. In case you aren’t aware of the plot, it’s a bit Titanic like, without the sappy romantic interludes. An enormous cruise ship is hit by an even larger tidal wave and capsizes, killing many passengers in the process. Pockets of survivors exist in the air pockets now mainly existing along the floor of the ship, which is now the ceiling, and try making their way out of the ship to be rescued. They weren’t just a bunch of random characters or empty-headed hot chicks with convenient white t-shirts soaked through either. They were interesting and compelling people such as: an old Jewish couple on their way to Israel to see their grandson, a young boy, a strong willed and shockingly cold priest, and a NYC Cop with an ex-hooker as his new wife. Well, Wolfgang Petersen’s resume is solid and compels me to trust him with this remake. Just keep the original in site Mr. Petersen, it’s not simply an action extravaganza, it doesn’t need to be peppered with bizarre plot twists and out-of-the-blue villains. It’s all about the characters and making us root for their survival. The original really was that simple and it worked just fine.