Flaming inferno
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Flaming inferno |
| Original title | The Towering Inferno |
| Country of production | United States |
| original language | English |
| Publishing year | 1974 |
| length | Cinema: 165 minutes DVD: 158 minutes |
| Age rating | FSK 16 |
| Rod | |
| Director | John Guillermin |
| script | Stirling Silliphant |
| production | Irwin Allen |
| music | John Williams |
| camera | Fred J. Koenekamp |
| cut |
Harold F. Kress Carl Kress |
| occupation | |
| |
Flammendes Inferno (Original title: The Towering Inferno ) is a disaster film from 1974 by director John Guillermin with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman in the lead roles. The screenplay is based on the two novels The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson . Great emphasis was placed on realistic-looking special effects. After the fire in the Grenfell Tower in London in 2017, parallels to the film were drawn in terms of both the safety deficiencies and the course of the fire and rescue, as the details were similar to the real fire.
action
In San Francisco the 138-story skyscraper by Duncan Enterprises is inaugurated - the tallest building in the world. Even before the celebration began, there was a short circuit in the technical control room of the building due to inadequate cable insulation .
The skyscraper's architect, Doug Roberts, is investigating the incident and, to his annoyance, finds that the builder and company owner Jim Duncan and his son-in-law Roger Simmons, who was responsible for the electrical installations, met the standards required by Roberts for electrical, safety and have reduced fire protection systems to the minimum required by law in order to save costs. Duncan brushes the safety concerns aside and lets the housewarming party begin on time in the promenade room on the 135th floor. Among the more than 300 guests are Mayor Robert Ramsay, Senator Gary Parker, CEO Duncan, his daughter Patty and her husband Roger Simmons and the partner of the architect Susan Franklin.
At the same time as the first incident, there was also a short circuit in a storage room on the 81st floor, which started a fire, which initially went unnoticed. The fire is only discovered when Roberts and his colleague Will Giddings inspect some distribution boxes in the high-rise building. Giddings is burned from the fire and later dies from his injuries. The fire brigade is notified and tries to contain the fire. Fire chief O'Hallorhan asks the guests of the housewarming party to go to the ground floor as a precaution, which Duncan only reluctantly does and wastes time. He shies away from the loss of prestige for his Glass Tower (in the original: Glass Tower ). The fire brigade is setting up a command center in the architect's office on the 79th floor.
The fire is spreading faster and faster. Dan Bigelow, responsible for Duncan's public relations, and his secretary Lorrie are trapped in the flames during a secret shepherd's hour in their office and perish in it. An elevator going down with guests is caught in the flames, leaving more victims. When an outside elevator is torn from its guidance by an explosion as it is leaving, the rich widow Lisolette Müller falls to her death. In order to save the remaining passengers in the elevator, O'Hallorhan takes the elevator gondola on a hook with a helicopter and brings the survivors to the ground. All elevators are now unusable. Since the stairwells are blocked, an attempt is first made to rescue the people from the roof by helicopter, but this fails due to the stormy wind: the helicopter crashes. A rope is then stretched to the opposite skyscraper in order to continue evacuating the people with a lifebuoy hung on a rope. Since only one person can be promoted at the same time, Duncan has numbers raffled among the survivors to regulate the order.
The fire has now almost reached the 135th floor. There is no longer enough time to get everyone to safety with the lifebuoy in good time. When there was little hope of getting people to safety in time, a daring plan was made: By blowing up the water tanks on the roof, which contain a million gallons of water, there was a chance of putting out the fires, but the falling ones were preventing the falling Masses of water also pose a threat to people. But there is no other choice. When the survivors are told what they are planning to do and that the remaining 15 minutes are no longer enough to rescue everyone via the lifebuoy, panic breaks out. A group around Roger Simmons ignored the established order and tried to storm the lifebuoy prematurely. When Senator Parker tries to stop him, he falls into the depths, and after the rope breaks due to the overload, Roger follows him to his death. The remaining party guests are instructed to tie themselves with ropes so that they are not washed away by the masses of water. The demolition is carried out by Roberts and O'Hallorhan.
The project is successful, the flood of water extinguishes the fire. Some people die again, killed by falling debris or washed out of the window by the water, including Mayor Ramsay. Fire chief O'Hallorhan explains that you were lucky with fewer than 200 deaths in the end and predicts that one day 10,000 people will die in a high-rise if it is not built more safely in the future.
synchronization
When it was re-released on the multilingual Blu-ray Disc in 2009, only the dubbed version from 2003 was recorded on the data carrier of the German versions, which was criticized by some film fans.
background
- After the great success of the 1972 disaster film The Poseidon's Infernal Journey , the Warner Bros. film studio bought the film rights to the book "The Tower" for $ 390,000. A few weeks later, Irwin Allen bought the film rights to the book "The Glass Inferno" for 20th Century Fox for $ 400,000. Instead of competing in the cinemas with two disaster films with similar content, the decision was made to work together on a joint project and to share the production costs. This made the film the first joint production between Warner and Fox and the first joint production by two major film studios at all. Fox received the rights and income for the film in cinemas in the USA and Warner from countries outside the USA.
- Producer Irwin Allen wanted to direct himself, but the film studios refused him and preferred to rely on someone with more directing experience. However, he was able to get through to direct the action scenes as Second Unit Director , which he also did in the disaster film The Poseidon Infernal Journey. Allen's wife Sheila (mentioned in the credits as Sheila Mathews) plays Paula Ramsay, the mayor's wife, in the film.
- The Building Owners and Managers Association ( BOMA ) asked producer Irwin Allen to point out in the credits of the film that such a catastrophe could not happen in a modern office building. Everyone would only accept this if BOMA would then also put a sign with the note “This house is not fire-safe” on all buildings that are not equipped with a sprinkler system. As a result, the agreement did not come about.
- The fictional Glass Tower with 138 floors and 104 elevators would have been around 1,800 feet (about 550 meters) high and would have been the tallest building in the world at the time. At the time the film was released, the tallest buildings were the World Trade Center (417 meters), completed in 1973, and the Sears Tower (442 meters), completed in 1974 .
- The two main actors Steve McQueen and Paul Newman each received the same fee: $ 1 million and 7.5% of the income. In order to present McQueen and Newman as equally as possible when naming their names, special care has been taken: If placed next to each other, McQueen (viewed from left to right) would be read before Newman. That's why Newman's name is not on the same level on the right, but slightly upwards, so that it appears a little earlier than McQueen's in the credits (which runs from bottom to top).
- Paul Newman's son Scott plays a young firefighter in the film. Since Scott died four years later, this was the only feature film that featured a father and son.
- The song We May Never Love Like This Again , composed by Al Kasha and Joel Hirschhorn for the film, was sung by Maureen McGovern . She has a short guest appearance in the film and sings the title during the opening ceremony.
- Filming in California began on May 9, 1974 and ended on September 11, 1974.
- The production costs of around 20 million US dollars were recovered within the first three weeks of movie theater in the USA. Other sources estimated the cost of production to be just $ 14 million. The film grossed a total of 116 million US dollars in cinemas in the United States.
- It was released in the US on December 14, 1974, in the Federal Republic of Germany on March 6, 1975 and in the GDR on November 13, 1981.
Reviews
“The fire in a 137-story, insufficiently secured high-rise in San Francisco serves as the occasion for the sensational depiction of human trials. Disaster and rescue spectacle perfectly painted in technical realism, which uses every opportunity to show values. Very popular entertainment. "
“The trick shots, staged with oppressive perfection by Irwin Allen, are among the best in film history. The viewer never loses the illusion of experiencing an absolutely authentic apocalypse. In view of the insane technical effort, the numerous main and sub-plots look all the more bland and conventional. The awkwardly drawn figures only serve as key words for spectacular actions. A film for pyromaniacs. "
Roger Ebert awarded 3 out of 4 stars and in his 1974 review praised the stunt coordination and special effects that made the fire details look real. The fact that the telephone system continues to work despite the fire and thus allows McQueen and Newman to maintain contact with each other ensures the necessary story development. The film is by far the best of the disaster films of the mid-1970s.
Awards
- At the Academy Awards in 1975 , the film won a prize in three categories: Best Cinematography , Best Editing and Best Original Song (title: We may never love like this again ). In addition, the film was nominated for an Oscar in another five categories: Best Picture , Best Supporting Actor (Fred Astaire), Best Score (John Williams), Best Production Design and Best Sound .
- At the 1975 Golden Globe Awards , the film won a Golden Globe Award in two categories : Fred Astaire for Best Supporting Actor and Susan Flannery for Best New Actress . The film was also nominated in three categories: Best Movie Song , Best Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Jones).
- In Germany, the film was awarded the Golden Screen in 1978 for reaching 3 million moviegoers in 18 months .
Web links
- Towering Inferno in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Flaming Inferno at rotten tomatoes (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Review in Pantoffel-TV by Holger Kreymeier et al., Episode 88, May 1, 2017
- ↑ a b film: The last days of mankind . In: Der Spiegel . No. 9 , 1975, p. 120-126 ( Online - Feb. 24, 1975 ).
- ↑ DVD bonus material
- ↑ Flaming Inferno. (No longer available online.) In: arte.tv. Archived from the original on December 6, 2015 ; Retrieved March 15, 2012 .
- ^ The Towering Inferno (1974). In: boxofficemojo.com. Retrieved March 15, 2012 .
- ↑ Flaming Inferno. In: Lexicon of International Films . Film service , accessed March 2, 2017 .
- ↑ Film tips. In: Zeit edition 11/1975. March 7, 1975, Retrieved March 15, 2012 .
- ^ Roger Ebert: The Towering Inferno. January 1, 1974. Retrieved July 3, 2017 .