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- Real Name
- Ronald Epstein
Along with an extremely well remastered DVD release of The Towering Inferno,
comes Irwin Allen's first theatrical blockbuster, The Poseidon
Adventure, released theatrically in 1972.
I never had the opportunity to see this film on the big screen.
Instead, my first introduction to this film was on broadcast televsion,
which by the mid-late '70s seeing a blockbuster on network TV was
actually a huge event within itself. Even under those circumstances,
I was immediately captivated by this story of a capsized ocean liner
which was inspired by a true incident which occurred aboard the Queen
Mary during World War II.
I only had a brief opportunity to look over this brand new Special
Edition release. It was my goal to give all of you a short overview
of how this new version stacks up against the original 1998 DVD
release.
When I viewed both old and new releases of The Towering Inferno,
I was amazed at just how much better the Special Edition transfer
looked. The same thing can easily be said for this new transfer of
The Poseidon Adventure which looks better by leaps and
bounds over the original release.
If you compare both the OLD and NEW releases, the differences are
apparant right from the first scene where we are looking at the
Captain's control room. In the original DVD the scene is not only
littered with a small amount of debris, but there is a distractive amount
of visible grain/noise in the picture -- particularly as you look at the
whites in the ship windows. In this new remastered Special Edition,
all of that is cleaned up and for the first time, we are looking at a
miraculously clean, detailed print that is miles ahead of the old.
Let's take a look at some pictures of OLD vs. NEW.
Before we begin, let me note that these screenshots are compressed
and they don't do the comparisons full justice. While some of you may
prefer the sharpness of the original photos, they are actually extremely
grainy, whereas the newer photos are cleaner and softer.
Here is a look at the menus from Disc One and Disc Two...
Fox has put a wealth of extra material on this 2-disc DVD set that
includes two audio commentaries....the first from Director Ronald
Neame and the second, from stars Pamela Sue Martin, Stella Stevens
and Carol Lynley.
More of a gimmick than anything vital to the storyline, is a Follow
The Escape feature that gives you 3-D access views and schematics
of the ship as you watch the film. You set it all up in the SPECIAL
FEATURES menu and it looks something like this example...
As you watch the film and the passengers progress to a new escape
route on the ship, an icon appears on the lower right of your screen.
Click on the icon and you are taken out of the film and branched off
to a schematic of the ship, where the passengers are located, and
their present status indicated.
I gave a brief overview of the Supplements on Disc Two which
include 9 all-new featurettes, an AMC BACKSTORY, storyboard-to-film
comparisons, trailers, production stills and more!
One of the most interesting featurettes is entitled The Cast Looks
Back, which seems to be a brand-new featurette though actor
Roddy McDowell, now long deceased, is featured. Doesn't seem like
any of the major stars are featured here (not even Shelley Winters
prior to her recent death). The NEW interviews are basically with
Red Buttons, Pamela Sue Martin and Stella Stevens.
There's also a great original 1972 featurette that is as interesting
to watch as the 1974 featurette found on The Towering Inferno DVD.
I enjoy these features because they give you a rare glimpse of
what it was like to actually be on the set of a disaster film in the
making.
Finally, I should note that the DVD contains a stereo track that
has been long missing from the presentation of this film. I really
haven't had the opportunity to evaluate it, but I do know it is
something fans have been asking the studio to include and it's nice
to see that they did.
What else can I say other than the obvious? The Poseidon
Adventure is certainly worthy of a double-dip and a full
commendation should be given to Fox for doing such a marvelous
job here!
