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The Poseidon Adventure (Special Edition) |  | Directors: Irwin Allen, Ronald Neame
Actors: Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons, Carol Lynley
Studio: 20th Century Fox
List Price: $19.98
Buy Used: $4.41
as of 3/13/2010 13:35 CST details
You Save: $15.57 (78%)
New (13) from $34.97
Rating:  168 reviews
Sales Rank: 10220
Format: Color, DVD, Special Edition, Widescreen, NTSC
Languages: English (Original Language), Hebrew (Original Language), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled)
Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Region: 1
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Number Of Discs: 2
Running Time: 117 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.4 x 0.7
MPN: D2233165D
UPC: 024543231653
EAN: 0024543231653
ASIN: B000EHSVNW
Theatrical Release Date: December 13, 1972
Release Date: May 9, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
Ten survivors struggle to reach safety after an ocean liner capsizes in mid sea.
Genre: Feature Film-Action/Adventure
Rating: PG
Release Date: 9-MAY-2006
Media Type: DVD
Amazon.com essential video
Hands down, this is the best movie (and was one of the first) to come out of the seemingly endless cycle of disaster movies that dominated box offices during the 1970s. It could even be argued that Titanic owes some of its success to the precedent set by this 1972 blockbuster starring Gene Hackman as a priest who leads a small group of survivors to safety from the bowels of a capsized luxury liner. From its stellar cast to its cheesy, Oscar-winning theme song, The Morning After, the movie has all the ingredients of a popular classic, beginning with a New Year's Eve celebration aboard the ill-fated Poseidon and ending as a pop allegory when the Hackman character becomes a Christ-like martyr. Filmed on spectacular sets where everything down is up and the ship's thick hull points in the direction of salvation, this is "a waterlogged Grand Hotel" (in the words of New Yorker film critic Pauline Kael) that is as entertaining as it is unabashedly brainless. The Poseidon Adventure is filled with performances that rise above the limits of the screenplay. It's also the only movie--unless you count her underwater corpse in Night of the Hunter--that lets Shelley Winters strut her stuff as an aquatic heroine. Who could ask for anything more? --Jeff Shannon
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 168
 Bad Acting, Bad Dialogue and Too Much Yelling February 25, 2010
dutchgirldtd (Michigan, USA)
I really wanted to like this movie and after seeing the positive reviews, thought I would. However, I was sadly disappointed. Besides the bad acting, questionable dialogue and irritating amount of scenes which consist of people yelling at each other, there were so few likable characters that by the end I hardly cared whether they made it or not. The upside-down ship was the most intriguing character in the whole film.
 Poseidon Adventure -- Happy New Year! December 25, 2009
Scotman (Sausalito, CA)
New Years Eve 1972 turned out to be a deadly night for the S.S. Poseidon. A brief subplot of some guy who runs the shipping corporation telling the captain (Leslie Neilsen before he got funny) to hurry up, three days behind schedule, blah blah blah. Nothing really exciting until the wave hits.
Thanks to an undersea earthquake, a huge tsunami knocks the ship upside-down. Many die because they don't listen to Gene Hackman. Gene's character steals the show -- a rowdy preacher, he rallies around a small group. As a few die (Roddy McDowell, etc.) the viewer is rooting for the survivors, shocked at the barriers and dismayed at the death and destruction. The preacher curses God, then sacrifices himself. Very sad.
Irwin Allen's film was a big hit in the 70s and opened the door to other disaster flicks such as Airport, Earthquake and the Towering Inferno.
There was a sequel and a couple of remakes, but nothing beats the cheesy plot, the yelling and screaming! You know why Ernest Borgnine won an Oscar in the 50s (wasn't for McHale's Navy!) and that Shelly Winters can swim.
Maureen McGovern's hit song "The Morning After" came from this film. Great movie score by my favorite composer John Williams (Star Wars, etc.).
A bit dated, but an amazing film of survival and sacrifice. Must see.
The Towering Inferno (Special Edition)
Airport (Full Screen Edition)
Earthquake
Theres a better film with Stella Stevens October 27, 2009
harrythompson (Fort Knox Rox)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Look for the film with Jim Brown in it, its called Slaughter, and in the film Stella shows off her headlights for your personal edification and your viewing pleasure.
 Still holds up October 18, 2009
magellan (Santa Clara, CA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I saw this movie for the second time just a few days ago, after seeing it when it first came out 37 years ago in 1972. Amazingly, it still holds up very well and remains one of the great disaster and adventure classics, along with The Towering Inferno and Earthquake, all of which came out during this frenzied period of disaster movie making.
It's funny which subjects seem to catch on in each decade. In the 60s we had cold war thrillers like The Manchurian Candidate, Seven Days in May, Fail Safe, and the last of the epic western movies like The Magnificent Seven and Once Upon a Time in the West. In the 70s we had the disaster and adventure thrillers and the Star Wars series and other sci-fi blockbusters with their amazing special effects started hitting the silver screen. In the 80s we had the musical/dance movies like Flashdance, Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Xanadu, and the martial arts dramas like The Karate Kid. Not sure what caught on during the 90s but I'm sure it was something.
The Poseidon Adventure stands as probably the best of the disaster genre. The tremendous all-star cast had won something like 15 Academy nominations and/or awards between them during their careers, and each gave a memorable performance. Speaking of which, someone told me recently that he heard Ernest Borgnine interviewed at age 94 and he says he feels great and that he still mast_rbates every day. LOL. Too funny. The famous ship rolling over sequence has to be one of the best non-special effects scenes of all time. The sets inside the overturned ship were totally believable and menacing what with all the ruptured pipes spewing hot steam, gas jets flaming, water rushing in and filling the corridors, and the dramatic boiler explosions.
Add to that the tension between Borgnine's and Gene Hackman's character, the tension early on in the movie between Leslie Nielson as the captain and the company representative, the eye candy of Carol Lynley , Pamela Sue Martin, and Stella Stevens (all of whom are running around in pretty skimpy outfits), and Hackman's famously unorthodox religious message that God isn't really listening to our prayers, doesn't want wimps and wants us to be strong and independent, and instead wants us to solve our own problems, and you have a truly entertaining potpourri of a movie.
The one thing that perhaps dates the movie is the religious message, which 60s and 70s movies often had a lot of. Not to mention all the movies with occult stories and themes that came out during that time, including The Omen and its sequels, Rosemary's Baby, The Mephisto Waltz, and so on. But all in all this is still a great movie whose dramatic visuals and sets are still impressive in an age of CGI and computer-generated special effects.
Simply the best!! October 2, 2009
JOHN BOSLEY
What can I say about the GREATEST disaster film
of all time. The film was nominated for 8 Academy Awards and won for best song as well as an honorary award for "Best Visual Effects" and this was all before CGI (blue screen),real fire, real smoke and real water. This film even out grossed it's re-make "Poseidon" with 1972 dollars. Great cast (combining the talents of 15 Academy Award winners) including the BRILLIANT Shelley Winters who gives a heart wrenching performance as a plump jewish grandmother trying to survive to see her grandson. Her underwater sequence alone deserved the Golden Globe win! and the Oscar nomination. Get you copy TODAY!!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 168
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