The Poseidon Adventure [DVD] [1972]

This review is for the Fox Home Entertainment BLURAY released 2014. I already have the film on DVD from some years ago, but at the current price (£8.99) here on Amazon, the chance for a BLURAY was hard to resist. Glad I got it - The quality of the transfer is excellent. Bright colour where appropriate and the darker scenes are easy to watch. The screen is Scope (bars top and bottom) and there are good optional English Subtitles (and again I thank Amazon Customer for including that info in his review. Amazon don't mention them. Incidentally - how come there are two "Amazon Customers"? Or are there more? One writes superb reviews, the other usually writes rubbish). For those of you who like extras, there are plenty including commentaries from Lynley Stevens and Martin and lots of mini docs and interviews. The film remains one of my all time favourite "disaster" movies, thanks to Ronald Neame's direction, the sets, the script, where every word counts, and of course the cast and the acting. They all come together to make a glorious 2 hrs of entertainment. If you haven't seen it - treat yourself. If you have, well, treat yourself to this BLURAY.

In his other famous opus released two years later, “The Leopard”, Visconti will describe the decline of the Sicilian nobility, replaced by an affairist and trivial bourgeoisie. Here, closer to Vittorio de Sica, he is interested in the misery of the people of the Mezzogiorno in the post-war period. Fundamentally rooted in Italian neo-realism, “Rocco and His Brothers” tells an extraordinary family tragedy – reminiscent in some aspects of Coppola’s “The Godfather” – against the backdrop of a rural exodus of a family from southern Italy to the lure of the Lombard capital. This long fresco tells us about the difficulties faced by the members of this family of immigrants from the interior who have fled Basilicata and the psychological changes this causes in them.The starting point of the story is relatively simple: To escape poverty, a widow and four of her five sons move to Milan, where the fifth has just got engaged to Ginetta (Claudia Cardinale), a middle-class girl. They plan to be accommodated by the in-laws, who refuse for lack of space. They end up in a slum, in the basement of an ABR building.All the brothers are looking for work: Simone (excellent Renato Salvatori), Rocco (Alain Delon, touched by grace), Ciro and Luca (both more discreet). Simone becomes a boxer at the local club and aims for a professional career. He falls in love with Nadia (bright Annie Girardot), a 25-year-old prostitute who will never love him. She will finally fall in love with his brother Rocco, the same one who will be much more skillful with gloves in hand on the ring, leading Simone, jealous, into a black rage. But Rocco refuses any confrontation with his brother. As such, a terrible scene censored and reintegrated into this new version is the turning point of the film.However, to reduce “Rocco and his brothers” to this opposition between the two brothers would be to ignore Visconti’s cinematographic mastery. Thus, through the prism of this a priori Manichaean history, the director explores a plurality of social and political themes: the uprooting of a family from the south to the north of Italy, the living conditions of the industrial proletariat, the ambition, family honour and the hope of social elevation. A landscape of violence where the infinite tenderness of one and the bestial brutality of the other are opposed. Failed boxer, unhappy lover, Simone sinks into delinquency and crime: theft, rape, prostitution and murder.Every time, Rocco covers him and pays for him. In the end, he’s as guilty as his brother. Doesn’t he shout it himself at the end? Ciro sums up the essential theme of the film’s morality when he explains to Luca that Rocco is a saint, that he forgives everything, always, and that’s exactly what he shouldn’t have done with Simone. I totally share Ciro’s point of view: Rocco is as guilty as Simone, both are linked in the tragedy. Wherever and at all times, in the face of repeated and more and more brutal criminality, forgiveness and tolerance are not the answer; they only make things worse. A lesson that is still on today.Sublimated by a masterful photography and a perfectly balanced and restored black and white, the film unfolds a succession of photographic frames of extraordinary beauty and complexity (The shots of Salvatori and Girardot in their embrace or Delon and Girardot on the roof of the Duomo of Milan are among the most beautiful of this long film). To make the picture complete, there is added the nostalgia for the abandoned land, the “land of olive trees”, where Rocco dreams of returning.Only reservation: I remain a little doubtful about the overplaying of the Greek actress who plays the mamma, she comes on much too strong.In fine, “Rocco and His Brothers” is a very Christian film: “If you get hit on the right cheek, turn the other one again. ” But Visconti shows us at the same time the damage caused by masochistic guilt and by angelism in the face of indiscriminate and bestial violence. Finally, it illustrates the weight of the chains imposed on us by our family origins.

The Poseidon Adventure is very much a film of it's time, and it unfortunately hasn't aged well. I try to be lenient with older flicks, as you need to bear in mind what society... and the movie industry... was like at the time they were made. They won't always conform to more modern ways of thinking. But my leniency was pushed to the limits with this one. It bordered on the ridiculous pretty much all the way through, and any member of the PC Police may want to skip watching...- Three of the four female actors are very shapely and scantily clad in skin-tight clothing throughout, which is routinely soaked through. The men are dressed far more appropriately, and not one of them shows any "skin" at all. Hmm.- The women are the classic pathetic damsels in distress... or rather, panic. Constantly crying, screaming, shrieking, cowering in fear, whimpering in despair, and burying their faces in the men's chests. Meanwhile, not one male... not even the little boy... ever shows a hint of fear. "Real" men, all.- The men, especially Ernest Borgnine's character, enjoy showing their manliness by shouting every sentence at the top of their lungs, even when there is absolutely no need to do so. Do yourselves a favour, and protect your hearing by NOT watching this while wearing headphones.- The men also show their prowess by "helping" (read: manhandling) the poor damsels over any and all obstacles. Ladders, stairs, steps, doors, pipes, a Christmas tree... you name it. Seemingly any excuse to get their hands on the shapely women, because everyone knows attractive ladies can barely walk for themselves.There are plenty more examples, but I'm sure you get the idea. It all made for a pretty cringe-tastic experience, and not in a fun way. More of an annoying, shut-the-hell-up-stop-your-damn-whinging-and-get-a-damn-grip kind of way. And the worst part is that... for me at least... the wrong people survive the disaster!So yes... maybe worth a watch to see how far we've come, but otherwise a rather unentertaining film.