The British should have made more disaster flicks

sandpuppy

This is a nice little rarity from the 70's - a disaster film that's actually good. It's about a bomber who plants several drums of high powered explosives on a British ocean liner and threatens to use it to sink the ship if payment of a half million pounds is not made. Cue Dr. Evil.

What's interesting about this movie, is that instead of boring us with the usual soap-opera antics (the edge-of-divorce couple, the terminally-ill child, etc.) the cruise itself turns into a disaster for everyone before the bombs are ever revealed. The ship immediately sails into a storm to which the captain learns that the new gyros they upgraded to are not working, causing the ship to pitch heavily, getting most everybody on board seasick. The weather outside is bad, so all the guests are moping around, shutting themselves up in their cabins or braving the lounge and the overenthusiastic entertainment director, played by Roy Kinnear, who always seemed to find himself in these kind of roles. Those who venture out onto the rolling decks can't prevent their shuffleboard games from drifting into the tennis court, both of which are placed in an area about the size of a three-car garage. In short, these people could use a good bomb crisis to liven things up.

Richard Harris plays the bomb-squad expert who is called upon along with his team to disarm the explosives. Perhaps 'expert' is not the right choice of words, as his crew end up setting off a couple of the bombs in trying to deactivate them. That, and the fact that Harris drinks on the job and at one point recommends throwing in the towel. And that is what makes this movie work - there are no typical heroics you would find in all the other standard-issue disaster flicks of the era. Even the paratroop-like arrival of Harris' team is sufficiently deflated when one of them clumsily loses his dive mask as he jumps from the plane. The ship's captain (Omar Sharif) is carrying on an adulterous affair, some of the bomb squad members get seasick on the ship, and the entertainment director eventually just gives up trying to raise the morale. Nobody is allowed any glory. One of my favorite moments is when a young boy, after being given a book about ships to pass the time with, correctly identifies an innocuous subtly-marked raised flag noting the presence of explosives on the liner, then nonchalantly exclaims "That's 15 points for me."

The movie does eventually button down and give a good, honest and tense bomb-defusing sequence at the end. There's the usual 'which wire to cut' business, but by the time the movie gets there, it has well established that it's not going to be quite that predictable about it. A good British cast is included as well. In addition to Harris and Sharif (who isn't British), Ian Holm and Anthony Hopkins are present, playing landlubber executives trying to help catch and prevent the bomber from fulfilling his threat. I couldn't find Michael Caine, however. He might have been off making a Jaws movie or something. At any rate, this is an excellent thriller that also provides some choice sardonic humor along the way.

score 9/10

sandpuppy 2 August 2004

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw0136297/