Directed by Ronald Neame
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Fox)
The best of the disaster movies from the 1970s is still a riveting experience. It is the journey of a group of survivors in an upside-down luxury cruise ship overturned by a tidal wave on New Year's Eve. Each character has a story, but it is really Gene Hackman's film. He is a priest who has been reassigned to a new mission in Africa, apparently punishment for his free thinking approach to religion. In a sermon before the disaster strikes, he tells people not to ask God for help, but to help themselves, and puts those words to action when he assumes the leadership role after the wave hits. His antagonist is Rogo, played by Ernest Borgnine, who questions his authority and challenges his beliefs. Shelley Winters is the middle aged, overweight woman who believes in him despite all of her self-doubts, and because of it performs the ultimate act of heroism, fulfilling the promise of his sermon. And there is the final act of sacrifice by Hackman himself, accompanied by his direct questioning of God, and in reply he falls into a pit of flames as if being banished to Hell itself.
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