 ...
|
Wow what a flashback! This would have to be one of the best films
for demonstrating the epitome of 70’s flare and gawdyiness. And of course a line up
of mentionable performers to rival any film including Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, Fred
Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, O.J. Simpson and Robert Wagner to name but a few.
The film is based on the night of the opening of the Glass Tower in
San Francisco, then the tallest building in the world. The architect Doug Roberts (Paul
Newman) who has designed and followed the buildings construction comes to learn that the
electrical contractor Roger Simmons (Richard Chamberlain) has used substandard wiring
instead of the better quality required for the building.
While all the Celebrities in town are partying away high up in the
building a small fire breaks out about halfway up the building. Yes this is a result of
the poor electrical wiring installed by the
sparkys. It’s not long before there are little blazes going all over place and the
entire building is under threat.
Bring on O.J. as the security guard and Steve McQueen as the fire
chief to get the situation under control. Alas
not so easy every time they think it’s working in their favour they find another
blaze started somewhere else in the building.
The film continues into growing body counts, explosions, helicopters
and of course the final suspense of what happens to the multitude of people partying way
up in the building.
There are some small holes in this far from believable story but
I’ll leave them for you to pick up.
So how does this transfer hold up?
... |
VIDEO
It’s surprising to see a film as
old as me (now that’s giving it away) has been presented in it’s original
2.35:1 ratio and is Anamorphic Widescreen. This must have been a big time
selection for dvd release. The transfer quality is quite amazing, sharp and clear at all
times. There are no problems with grain at any time which is amazing for the age of the
film.
Unfortunately the beginning of the film is plagued with ailiasing
and shimmering but this tends to become less of a problem towards the second half of the
film. The only other great problem was around the time of the reel change at 21 mins,
where there are prolific film artefacts and wobble to the image.
The Colour Palette was good but did seem to be somewhat washed out
even though there is a great potential for glaring and gawdy colours with all the lavish
seventies decore and fashion on show here.
AUDIO
The dolby 2.0 surround track
was a little less impressive. Given the high action nature of the film a remastered 5.1
track would have been of great benefit. There are so many occassions where a .1 boost
would have been great.
Dialogue was mostly sharp and clear with only the occassional scene
where background noise washed out the clarity a little.
The Soundtrack from the amazing John
Williams is fantastic and emotion provoking, one of many of his memorable efforts
to date.
The surrounds were used on some occassions but certainly not to full
potential, and as for the .1 track well you can basically forget it. The bulk of the audio
was based in the front sound stage and while it was used widely still missed the added
support of the surrounds and low frequency.
There
is as expected little use of the surrounds and of course no use of the .1 channel.
EXTRAS
- Trailer
OVERALL
I was impressed with the video
transfer here and it is quite a classic film but not so much my cup of tea.
| PICTURE
QUALITY |
7.5/10 impressive for it’s age |
| SOUND Quality |
6/10 a tad on the dull side |
| EXTRAS |
1/10 one lonely little ol’ trailer |
| OVERALL |
7/10 the Score is the best feature. |
Review Equipment
TV: GE 68cm (16:9 selectable)
DVD: Pioneer DV737 (via S-Video)
Receiver: Yamaha DTS RX-V595a (Sweeeeet)
Speakers:-
Fronts: Wharfdale Diamond R6 (on a pair of custom made stands you'd KILL for)
Centre: Venturi
Rears: Sony bookshelf
Subby: M&K V75
- Reviewed 9th March 2001
*The Towering Inferno jpeg files
for internet promotion use only. Copyright© exists on all aspects of these files by
Warner Home Video |
