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The Poseidon Adventure

By Corey Spring

There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the new Kurt Russell film, Poseidon, which opens this Friday. However, Poseidon is one of many Hollywood movies of late that owes every shred of it’s existence to a movie that came before it, which in this case, is the 1972 masterpiece, The Poseidon Adventure. The problem with Hollywood, though, is that they never seem to get it quite right. In the new version of the film, all the original characters have been scrapped in favor of completely new ones to give the film a ‘fresh’ update. This is insane, because the characters in The Poseidon Adventure were what made it one of the greatest movies of all time – and this is why I am going to recommend you rent or buy the newly released DVD Special Edition of the original film instead.

(L-R) MIKE VOGEL as Christian, KURT RUSSELL as Robert Ramsey, EMMY ROSSUM as Jennifer Ramsey, JOSH LUCAS as Dylan Johns, JACINDA BARRETT as Maggie James, JIMMY BENNETT as Conor James and RICHARD DREYFUSS as Richard Nelson in Poseidon. Photo courtesy of movieweb.com

It’s New Year’s Eve on the luxury cruise liner, the S.S. Poseidon. The film opens on, I kid you not, Leslie Nielson as the captain of the ship. From him we learn that the Poseidon is on its last voyage ever, and slated to be retired and dismantled at the end of the journey. Meanwhile, a large underwater earthquake occurs, setting off a flood of nearby tidal waves. The waves grow as high as ninety feet tall and slam directly into the Poseidon, capsizing it (In the updated release, there is no earthquake and the offending tidal wave is attributed to just being a ‘rogue wave,’ which is about as likely to happen as me paying to see Richard Dreyfus play a homosexual in the new update).

Most of the ship’s occupants are in the ballroom celebrating when the S.S. Poseidon is flipped completely over. Once the smoke clears, the survivors must make the decision of staying put and hope to be rescued or of trying to escape from the ship. Those who decide to risk it and venture out of the ship are led by the liberally minded Reverend Frank Scott (played by a not-quite-so-old Gene Hackman).

Like any survival movie, each member of the party has a widely different background. There’s Mike Rogo (played by Ernest Borgnine), a know it all stubborn cop who is constantly butting heads with the reverend about which one of them is really in charge. Then of course there is Rogo’s wife, who is an ex-prostitute and another can of worms entirely. Most important to the group’s survival, however, is teenager Robin Shelby. Before the ship capsized, he was taken on a tour of the vessel by one of the engineers, and as such, is the only person in the group who knows where to go.

It is this eclectic group of characters and their interpersonal relationships that occur while trying to escape from a watery coffin that make this movie such a timeless classic, and saw actors like Shelly Winters nominated for several awards because of it. The dialogue is a little cheesy in many parts, but this is something that was pretty indicative of 70’s action movies, and does not really take away from the film. Adding to the movie’s success and timeless classic status is an original score by none other than John Williams, who was nominated for an Oscar because of it.

After taking so many successful key elements and metaphors away from the original story, it’s really anyone’s guess as to how the latest update of the Poseidon story will fare. What is certain, however, is that The Poseidon Adventure has withstood the test of time, and looks even better now in the remastered video of this Special Edition DVD. Go see this movie.

Originally Published: May 10, 2006

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