Rent The Poseidon Adventure (1972)

One Of the Best Of The Disaster Films of the 70s - The Poseidon Adventure review by GI

One of the first and the one of the best of the disaster film cycle that arrived in the 1970s. It remains an exciting survival drama with some really gritty action and a wonderful cast. Set on board the American cruise liner SS Poseidon on its last voyage through the Mediterranean where at the end it will be dismantled. The Captain (a cameo role for Leslie Nielsen) is pressured by the owners to make haste when the ship is struck by a freak wave and turns over. The passengers are all celebrating at a New Year Eve party and after the ship rolls the survivors are urged by a senior crewman to stay put and await rescue. But one of the passengers, a maverick Catholic priest Scott (Gene Hackman) insists they make their way up towards the hull. He persuades eight others to join him, including the always brilliant Ernest Borgnine and Shelly Winters as an unlikely heroine, and the film's plot is their hazardous journey through the upside down ship. It's essentially the classic mythological narrative of the hazardous journey through the labyrinth. Apart from being a tense, realistic and compelling drama it's also a story of people struggling with themselves, about religious faith, doubt and heroism. It really is one of the best films of the 70s and well worth seeking out if you've never seen it. There was a remake in 2006, Poseidon, with Kurt Russell, which is actually pretty good too but this original tops it (Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, a 1979 sequel starring Michael Caine is a bit lacklustre and can be ignored).