- Directed by Ronald Neame
- Written by Paul Gallico, Stirling Silliphant, Wendell Mayes
- Stars Gene Hackman, Ernest Borgnine, Shelley Winters, Red Buttons
- Run Time: 1 Hour, 57 Minutes
- Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dd03qev59Jo
Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone
It’s an epic disaster adventure with a big cast of powerhouse actors that is still very entertaining fifty years later. It’s not quite in the horror genre, but there’s plenty of people being trapped, drowned, blown up, falling, and burned in a large ship that has completely flipped, so there’s lots of fear and tension.
Synopsis
We’re told that it’s New Year’s Eve and the ship Poseidon went down with only a handful of survivors.
Captain Harrison calls the engine room; the stabilizers aren’t broken, but it’s not good enough. The engineer says the company man Linarcos is the problem, not the stabilizers. The waves are high, and it’s getting rough. The ship leans quite dramatically, and the captain says they’re top-heavy.
The ship’s doctor and nurse go to see Mr. and Mrs. Rogo. She’s very seasick, and he’s a loud-mouthed jerk. He doesn’t know what to do with the suppositories they give his wife. Meanwhile, James Martin is a fitness nut, out jogging on the deck, right past Mrs. and Mr. Rosen, who are headed to Israel to meet their grandson.
Reverend Scott argues with the ship’s chaplain. He no longer believes praying works; he self-describes himself as “angry, rebellious, clinical, a renegade.” He believes in taking control of your own destiny and not relying on God to help you out.
Linarcos orders the captain to go to full speed, but the captain says they don’t have enough ballast. This is the final voyage of the old ship, which is due to be scrapped. Linarcos insists, and the captain does as he’s told.
In the ballroom, Nonnie Parry rehearses her song, “The Morning After.” Mr. Acres, one of the waiters, likes her music. Little Robin annoys his older sister Susan with all the details and facts about the ship; he knows everything about the boat.
Rogo and his wife argue about her former profession; she used to be a hooker, and she’s always afraid of being recognized. Rogo is a cop, and he arrested her six times before she married him.
It’s the big New Year’s Eve dinner, and Mrs. Rosen asks James Martin why he isn’t married– just too busy and a confirmed bachelor. The first mate gets a report of a subsea earthquake not too far away, but the captain is at the dinner. He comes to the bridge and is told that the approaching tidal wave is “Mountainous.”
Midnight comes, and everyone celebrates the New Year. The “enormous wall of water” hits them, and the whole ship rolls over. The captain and crew are killed immediately. People roll, fall, and scream as the huge ballroom slowly turns upside down. People hang from the tables bolted to the now-ceiling, falling one by one.
Reverend Scott immediately sets about helping the injured while the various other characters come to grips with what just happened. Susan is stuck way up high on one of those tables, and Scott gets many of the characters to stretch a tablecloth so she can jump down and land on that.
Martin suggests to Scott that any rescue is going to have to come through the bottom, now top, of the boat, so they all need to climb up. They all work together to move a Christmas tree so they can climb up it to get to the galley. Some climb up, one by one. The purser disagrees with the plan and insists on staying in the ballroom to wait for help. Many agree with him. Scott asks the old Chaplain to go along, but he wants to stay with the dying. There’s some arguing with others, and Scott gives up, climbing the tree himself.
Suddenly, there’s an explosion, and the ship starts rocking again. The ballroom erupts in fire and water, and there’s a mad stampede to the Christmas tree, which soon gets overloaded and collapses. Scott closes the door on the screaming people; it’s time to move on.
Rogo and Scott argue about who’s in charge, but Scott gets his way. They have to walk through a burning kitchen full of bodies, and the water starts pouring in behind them.
Next, they must climb up a ladder in a huge vertical shaft. There’s another explosion, and Acres and Rogo fall off the ladder. Rogo looks for Acres but can’t find him.
They encounter a bunch of survivors who are following the doctor forward, toward the bow of the ship. Scott says they’re going the wrong way, but they don’t listen. Scott and Rogo argue some more about which way to go. Scott goes ahead to scout a path to the engine room, leaving the others behind so they can have dramatic, character-defining moments.
They come to a place that has only recently flooded. Scott says they can just swim the short distance to the other side. Fat Mrs. Rosen says she used to be a swimming champion, and now this is something she can do. Scott thanks her but goes first to the other side. He runs into trouble, and eventually, she goes after him. She saves his life, but she has a heart attack and dies on the other side.
They go across a narrow catwalk that goes to the propeller shaft, and that’s the thinnest part of the hull. Anyone trying to rescue them will come in that way. There’s another explosion, and Mrs. Rogo falls to her death.
Rogo turns on Scott, blaming him for everything, but Mr. Rosen clears that up. Hot steam starts spraying the exit door, so they can’t get out. The only thing to do is turn the relief valve, but in order to do that, Scott jumps to the valve, turns it off, and falls to his death.
With the steam shut down, everyone heads to the exit.
Martin, Noddie, Susan, Robin, Mr. Rosen, and Rogo are soon rescued by men in helicopters who have cut through the hull.
Commentary
Even before the accident, the camera was regularly tilting during the scenes to make us think the boat was rocking gently; but we also noticed the drinks on the table weren’t moving.
They filmed this mostly in sequence, so as the actors’ clothing got dirtier and more torn up, it was consistent between scenes.
This was really good, and it still holds up well. The acting is excellent, even though most of the characters are “types” more than people, and it never really slows down or drags.