In hindsight, the American cinema of the Seventies has two main legacies hooked up to it. On the one hand, there’s the American New Wave aka the New Hollywood motion, wherein “5 Simple Items,” “Klute,” “The French Connection,” and different movies like them eschewed the mainstream studio filmmaking formulation in favor of telling tales that had been creatively daring and heartfelt. On the opposite, there’s the daybreak of the blockbuster, a development that continues to today 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 development in American cinema in the course of the decade: the catastrophe film.
The catastrophe movie had been round earlier than the ’70s in a single kind 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 usually 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 to be able 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 every of 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 offers all of his appreciable prowess as a display screen actor to the efficiency. In consequence, “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 will also be seen as an early instance of an ideal actor elevating a blockbuster film.
Hackman makes Reverend Frank Scott an indelible character
To be honest, the screenplay for “The Poseidon Journey” (as written by Stirling Silliphant and Wendell Mayes) is so overwrought and lofty that within the flawed fingers, it may have certainly been a feature-length train in unintentional camp. Though there are some who nonetheless see the film by way of that lens (helped, little question, by a popular culture joke that extends from Bette Midler to the still-popular ’90s sitcom “Associates”), it is Hackman’s dedication to the function and his efficiency which helps silence would-be chucklers. It is a daring alternative to present a catastrophe film in regards to the survivors of an enormous wave toppling a ship making their approach by way of an the wrong way up vessel to security a decidedly ecclesiastical hero. It is even bolder to present that character a philosophy that skews near being Randian (Scott fortunately preaches the concept “God helps those that assist themselves”), one thing that mixes with the movie’s virtually Biblical tone of hardship and strife to finish up with somebody who, not less than on paper, should not be likable in any respect, a lot much less heroic.
Fortuitously, 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 effectively in nearly each efficiency he ever delivered) offers 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) offers the character a much-needed additional dimension of humanity.
In one other film, with a lesser actor, Scott’s last second of self-sacrifice would appear like an affordable gimmick, and would possibly’ve left audiences remarkably unhappy by the movie. As a substitute, Hackman helps make it an indelible second, a end result of all of the weighty themes that the movie introduces which it in any other case most likely would not have been capable of repay. It is a scene depicting a person’s disaster of religion that doubles as humanity’s indictment of a supposedly benevolent greater energy. That Hackman was capable of ship such a second inside a special-effects spectacle was a testomony to his talents.
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 artistic worth as effectively. 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 obtained the much more star-studded forged of “The Towering Inferno,” but additionally 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 might 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” to be able to reward his work in “The Poseidon Journey”:
“The entire shoot, I used to be ready to stand 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 wish to say it is simply been wonderful 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 wish 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 nasty day at work or wasn’t occupied with talking about his previous movies at that second, it is seemingly 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 essentially the most unbelievable money-job efficiency I’ve ever seen.”
Clearly, I utterly facet with Stiller’s sentiments right here. The truth that Hackman seen “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 every of his movies. Like Scott’s sacrifice, Hackman did all that he did for us.
