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List Price: $19.98 | | Label: 20th Century Fox
Salesrank: 48276
Released: May 9, 2006 |
| Our Price: $44.98 |
| Used Price: $5.99 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
One of the most gripping disaster films of all time follows ten survivors as they struggle to escape from an ocean liner capsized by a tidal wave. Suspenseful terror, combined with the victims' intimate and personal stories, results in compelling and hear
Description of The Poseidon Adventure (Special Edition):
Hands down, this is the best movie (and was one of the first) to come out of the seemingly endless cycle of disaster movies that dominated box offices during the 1970s. It could even be argued that Titanic owes some of its success to the precedent set by this 1972 blockbuster starring Gene Hackman as a priest who leads a small group of survivors to safety from the bowels of a capsized luxury liner. From its stellar cast to its cheesy, Oscar-winning theme song, The Morning After, the movie has all the ingredients of a popular classic, beginning with a New Year's Eve celebration aboard the ill-fated Poseidon and ending as a pop allegory when the Hackman character becomes a Christ-like martyr. Filmed on spectacular sets where everything down is up and the ship's thick hull points in the direction of salvation, this is "a waterlogged Grand Hotel" (in the words of New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael) that is as entertaining as it is unabashedly brainless. The Poseidon Adventure is filled with performances that rise above the limits of the screenplay. It's also the only movie--unless you count her underwater corpse in Night of the Hunter--that lets Shelley Winters strut her stuff as an aquatic heroine. Who could ask for anything more? --Jeff Shannon
The Poseidon Adventure (Special Edition) Reviews:
Theres a better film with Stella Stevens 
2009-10-27 - Look for the film with Jim Brown in it, its called Slaughter, and in the film Stella shows off her headlights for your personal edification and your viewing pleasure.
Still holds up 
2009-10-18 - I saw this movie for the second time just a few days ago, after seeing it when it first came out 37 years ago in 1972. Amazingly, it still holds up very well and remains one of the great disaster and adventure classics, along with The Towering Inferno and Earthquake, all of which came out during this frenzied period of disaster movie making.
It's funny which subjects seem to catch on in each decade. In the 60s we had cold war thrillers like The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, Fail Safe, and the last of the epic western movies like The Magnificent Seven and Once Upon a Time in the West. In the 70s we had the disaster and adventure thrillers and the Star Wars series and other sci-fi blockbusters with their amazing special effects started hitting the silver screen. In the 80s we had the musical/dance movies like Flashdance, Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Xanadu, and the martial arts dramas like The Karate Kid. Not sure what caught on during the 90s but I'm sure it was something.
The Poseidon Adventure stands as probably the best of the disaster genre. The tremendous all-star cast had won something like 15 Academy nominations and/or awards between them during their careers, and each gave a memorable performance. Speaking of which, someone told me recently that he heard Ernest Borgnine interviewed at age 94 and he says he feels great and that he still mast_rbates every day. LOL. Too funny. The famous ship rolling over sequence has to be one of the best non-special effects scenes of all time. The sets inside the overturned ship were totally believable and menacing what with all the ruptured pipes spewing hot steam, gas jets flaming, water rushing in and filling the corridors, and the dramatic boiler explosions.
Add to that the tension between Borgnine's and Gene Hackman's character, the tension early on in the movie between Leslie Nielson as the captain and the company representative, the eye candy of Carol Lynley , Pamela Sue Martin, and Stella Stevens (all of whom are running around in pretty skimpy outfits), and Hackman's famously unorthodox religious message that God isn't really listening to our prayers, doesn't want wimps and wants us to be strong and independent, and instead wants us to solve our own problems, and you have a truly entertaining potpourri of a movie.
The one thing that perhaps dates the movie is the religious message, which 60s and 70s movies often had a lot of. Not to mention all the movies with occult stories and themes that came out during that time, including The Omen and its sequels, Rosemary's Baby, The Mephisto Waltz, and so on. But all in all this is still a great movie whose dramatic visuals and sets are still impressive in an age of CGI and computer-generated special effects.
Simply the best!!
2009-10-02 - What can I say about the GREATEST disaster film
of all time. The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won for best song as well as an honorary award for "Best Visual Effects" and this was all before CGI (blue screen),real fire, real smoke and real water. This film even out grossed it's re-make "Poseidon" with 1972 dollars. Great cast (combining the talents of 15 Academy Award winners) including the BRILLIANT Shelley Winters who gives a heart wrenching performance as a plump jewish grandmother trying to survive to see her grandson. Her underwater sequence alone deserved the Golden Globe win! and the Oscar nomination. Get you copy TODAY!!
All That Star Power and Only One Oscar!?
2009-08-11 - Out of all the diaster flicks of the 70s, this has got to be the best. Not that Towering Inferno wasn't good, it was just too long for my tastes. There's only so many times I can see an exterior shot of the same building on fire. Anyway, unlike the recent remakes, this version makes you actually care about who survives. Hackman, Borgnine and Winters give the best performances. Some bits with Hackman are his talks with his priest friend about being renegade in the beginning along with his sermon. My absolute favorite scenes with Hackman are when he cries over the loss of Winters and when he sacrifices himself and denounces God. You can feel that he is furious that He would violently take away Stevens' and Winters' characters just when they're about to escape. He's upset about McDowell's death too but that wasn't as moving or gripping like the others. Borgnine is brilliant as Rogo. My two favorite scenes with him is at the end when they're about to be rescued. He just gazes in awe about what's happening but then glances back into the engine room, knowing what he's just lost, and cries and when starts yelling at Hackman, blaming him for the death of his wife. And Winters, her performance is excellent. You cheer her for saving Hackman one minute, then grieving as she lay dieing in his arms and gives him her necklace. This is when Albertson gives a great performance when he emerges from the water and sees his dead wife and breaks down. The one character I wish that they stuck with that died in the book is the boy. I know he is helpful, but he is just annoying. Not that I just hate all kid actors but if did die, like in the book, it would be a shocking moment and, at least in my opinion, add better development to his sister. Another film that really doesn't use a lot of music except for a few occasions. If only the remakes could've been this enjoyable with great performances.
Although dated, I liked it 
2009-02-02 - Even though this movie seems dated in technique, I thought the filmmakers - Ronald Neame (director) , Wendell Mayes (screenwriter) and Paul Gallico ( novel) did an excellent job.
It was great to see a younger Gene Hackman , Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons and Shelley Winters.
The FX worked and I was interested all the way through.
And John WIlliams did the music!
