BEFORE: Another scorcher today in the big city. It was as hot as...well, I don't have a metaphor handy right now but I'm sure I'll think of something. Ending the Paul Newman chain tonight but keeping the heat-related theme going. Last year I watched "Earthquake", "The Poseidon Adventure" and all the "Airport" films, but I didn't have this one available at the time. They don't run this one much on TV, I wonder if that's because of 9/11.
THE PLOT: During the opening party of a colossal, but poorly constructed, office building, a massive fire breaks out that threatens to destroy the tower and everyone in it.
AFTER: This film makes a giant case against mixed-use zoning laws. Whose bright idea was it to top off an office tower with residential space, up to 135 floors? And renting space on the lower floors to that fireworks factory, plus including a wax museum exhibit up in the penthouse - really short-sighted, guys.
All kidding aside, there probably was a well-intentioned word of warning here, for those who would build skyscrapers and skimp on the wiring, or the fire prevention systems. The builder hired his shifty son-in-law to do the electrical work, while also telling him to cut millions from the budget - where did he THINK the savings would come from? Some bean-counter says, "Look, we can just put a firehose on every OTHER floor, and just like that, we've cut the cost in half."
But this film seems to be all about karma - the fire seems to have a knack for bringing about the deaths of the people who authorized the cuts, or paid the bribes, or took the kickbacks. Oh, sure, there are probably some good people who died in the background, and a couple bad ones who made it, but for the lead players in the foreground, the inferno is their reckoning. It's kind of like how Jason only goes after those sexed-up teens in the "Friday the 13th" films. There's not as much religious claptrap as there was in "The Poseideon Adventure", but a Tower of Babel reference doesn't seem like much of a stretch.
I loved how the builder doesn't want to interrupt his gala party just because there's a fire on the 81st floor - while he's safe on floor 135. That's like chopping down a tree and assuming that the bird's nest in the top branches is going to be just fine.
And it's hard to NOT think about the World Trade Center (in fact, two novels were combined to make this screenplay, and both were inspired by the then-recent construction of the WTC). The film edges close to 3 hours in length, and, assuming events play out in something close to real time, we all unfortunately know that's a gross over-estimate of how long a skyscraper can burn and not collapse. I do wish there had been a few more technical details on fire-fighting techniques, other than showing firefighters with hoses, there are scant details here on how a fire brigade would tackle something of this nature. Maybe nobody knew?
But it's worth sticking with it to see Paul Newman, the architect, and Steve McQueen (last seen in "Bullitt"), the fire chief, teaming up. Put these two together, and there's no limit to what their combined manliness can accomplish - it's like watching Superman and Batman team up.
NITPICK POINT: The film is set on the opening night of the tower - but some of those residents look pretty settled in already. What exactly constitutes opening night?
NITPICK POINT #2: Newman's character calls the builder to tell him that a man's been burned on the 81st floor. Shouldn't your first sentence be "The 81st floor is ON FIRE!" ?? Damn, way to bury the lead!
NITPICK POINT #3: An elevator is hanging on the outside of the building, held only by a thin cable. Steve McQueen's character attempts a rescue from a helicopter with a cable and winch, but in order to do so, he jumps ONTO the car, adding his weight to an already fragile situation. Seriously, is he really willing to gamble that the cable can take another 200+ pounds?
NITPICK POINT #4: When said elevator is lowering the elevator car, it takes it all the way to the ground. Wouldn't the roof of the nearby building be a quicker, and therefore safer, destination?
NITPICK POINT #5: Weren't the 1970's the decade of equal rights? Women demanding equal pay and such? So how come when there was a rescue it was still "women and children first"? Where's your E.R.A. then? Shouldn't the senator and the mayor get rescued first?
NITPICK POINT #6: The choppers are on the way - so the first group to be rescued needs to get out to the helipad on the roof, fast. Is there really time to line up 100 people single-file and draw numbers out of a big glass bowl? Can't you just go alphabetically or by height or something?
NITPICK POINT #7: Man, that zoning thing is really bugging me. Anyone who's played "Sim City" knows that any plot of land is zoned for residential OR commercial use, but not both. Does San Francisco have some kind of exemption for that? It just doesn't make financial sense - you'd need twice the staff for a building like that, since an office building would need certain workers that a residential building wouldn't.
I was reading in the newspaper about the construction of the Freedom Tower, being built on the old WTC site. Maybe the Daily News phrased it poorly, but the article said something about how the construction was plagued by missed deadlines and cost overruns, so they decided to scrap the unrealistic timeline, and since that point the work's been coming in on time and under budget. Yeah, it's funny how eliminating deadlines makes them a lot easier to meet. I call shenanigans, since everyone knows that time is money - so extending the time-frame should automatically result in higher costs, any time construction labor is involved.
Also starring William Holden (last seen in "The Bridge on the River Kwai"), Faye Dunaway (last seen in "The Chamber"), Richard Chamberlain (taking over the "sullen alcoholic who might be secretly gay" role also seen in last night's film), Robert Vaughn (also last seen in "Bullitt"), Robert Wagner (last seen in "The Concorde - Airport '79"), Fred Astaire, O.J. Simpson, with cameos from Dabney Coleman (last seen in "Modern Problems") and Mike "Bobby Brady" Lookinland.
RATING: 4 out of 10 oxygen masks
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