★ 6 / 10
Starts and finishes with some astonishing original footage
CinemaSerf
Starts and finishes with some astonishing original footage of the engineering marvel that was the Zeppelin "Hindenburg". The middle is all historical…
Starts and finishes with some astonishing original footage of the engineering marvel that was the Zeppelin "Hindenburg". The middle is all historical circumspection that tries to arrive at precisely what did cause this airship to come to such a conflagrant end. George C. Scott ("Col. Ritter") and Anne Bancroft ("The Countess") lead a cast; some based on real persons, some not, as we leave Frankfurt to head for New York. Once airborne, "Ritter" becomes aware that there may be an attempt to sabotage this symbol of Nazi power by fifth columnists and so we are now in a race against time to save the passengers and crew from this fiery fate... It is a pretty run-of-the-mill thriller; with Bancroft injecting more than a little class to keep the otherwise rather pedestrian plot from crashing far earlier than the ship did. The SFX are actually not too bad, but the dialogue and pace of the whole thing just leave you a little bit cold....
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★ 5 / 10
Great special effects
HotToastyRag
The first movie adaptation of the Hindenburg disaster was made during the heart of the disaster genre popularity. It has all the elements present in The…
The first movie adaptation of the Hindenburg disaster was made during the heart of the disaster genre popularity. It has all the elements present in The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, and Airport: an all-star cast, a large exposition to make you care about every character's backstory, massive special effects, and a long-running time.
George C. Scott is the security officer, and the old flame of Countess Anne Bancroft, traveling to America to visit her daughter. Charles Durning is the captain, Gig Young is an ad man who drinks too much, and Burgess Meredith and Rene Auberjonois are card sharks. Peter Donat and Joanna Cook Moore are a married couple expecting their first child, only taking that mode of travel because they think it'll be safer than a sea voyage. If you usually like the big disaster genre, you'll probably like this one, too; but it's not my favorite. I didn't find the initial "get attached to every character" very interesting, and no one particularly grabbed at my heartstrings.
The last part of the movie is, of course, the most suspenseful, and director Robert Wise chose to turn the final minutes into a mock-newsreel. It's in black-and-white, with overexposed light to make it look like old footage. The original footage taken during the time is occasionally spliced in, and because of the effects to the modern footage, it's nearly impossible to tell the difference. He also included Herb Morrison's famous eye-witness radio broadcast, which is the most emotional part of the film since it's the only part that isn't Hollywood-ized. If you're new to the '70s disaster genre, don't start with this one, but if you're rounding out your collection, go ahead!
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why no 720p?