“Is it bad?” “It’s a fire. All fires are bad.”

Andie’s rating: If it meant Paul Newman and Steve McQueen would come to my rescue, I’d start my hair on fire

Andie’s review: The Towering Inferno is the classic disaster movie. It takes a horrible natural occurrence (fire) and puts it in an “unburnable” setting, then gives us lots of likeable characters we don’t want to see burnt to a crisp, and brings in big name hottie action stars to fight it. It’s kind of like Titanic, only in a building with fire instead of a boat with water. Especially because only the architect realizes how dangerous the fire could be. The stupid owner at the party thinks they’re totally safe up on the 120th floor.

It all takes place during the gala opening of The Glass Tower, San Francisco’s new highrise apartment/office building. Fire breaks out on the 81st floor and it is up to architect Doug Roberts (Newman) and Fire Chief O’Hallorhan (McQueen) to try to fight the fire and evacuate the party on the 120-something floor.

I won’t say that this movie is a fine piece of cinematic genius, but it is a well-done action movie. The plot is exciting and suspense-filled, the rescues are dangerous, the acting is pretty good, the special effects (considering it is 1974) are realistic looking. It’s 2 hrs 45 mins long, but it really flew by. I didn’t even realize that it was so long because I was so enthralled with the movie. It has quite the all-star cast as well.

Along with Paul Newman and Steve McQueen (have I mentioned they’re in this movie?) there is Newman’s wife Susan played by Faye Dunaway, the building owner Jim Duncan played by screen Golden Boy William Holden, and a great older man character played by dancing legend Fred Astaire. There are also smaller roles played by Robert Vaughn and Robert Wagner.

There are some unexpected plot twists and unexpected deaths that totally have you guessing. I also didn’t have the climax figured out at all, it was very slickly pulled off. This is one of those movies that people should definitely check out, especially if you’re a fan of disaster movies. The daring stairwell fall and subsequent climb made by Paul Newman is just one of the great moments and the climax, where they finally put out the fire, is amazing. It’s a well-crafted story that will keep you riveted for all 165 minutes.