Customer Reviews

Juggernaut

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a deftly handled thriller from veteran director Richard Lester. It inevitably begs comparison with movies of the ilk of The Poseidon Adventure, which is worthy in its own way, but this is in a far superior class. Its Britishness is its real asset - it avoids the schmaltzy, soapy feel of its American forebears in the world of disaster epics. Romantic elements of the story are treated with a grittiness that eschews all melodramatics. The psyches of the characters are not explored in depth, but are nevertheless flesh-and-blood characters, and we never get the feeling that their development is sacrificed to the suspense (of which there is plenty). In a supporting role as the ship's entertainments officer, Roy Kinnear elicits much pathos; Shirley Knight is affecting in a similarly tragic minor role, as the longsuffering mistress of captain, Omar Sharif, whose performance is merely satisfactory next to excellent star turns by (a young) Anthony Hopkins and Richard Harris. Film buffs will also delight in spotting a few other vintage British character actors in among the big names: Michael Hordern, Freddie Jones, Ian Holm and Julian Glover to name a few.

The pace is near-perfect (this is textbook film-making), never lagging or threatening to become tedious. The editing works to create maximal tension at just the right moments; the photography has a grainy and often extemporaneous documentary feel to it (some of the more seemingly spontaneous shots reminded me of Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy, however distant a comparison that might appear). Both editing and camerawork function effectively to hold interest and attention. Ken Thorne's score is subtle and in keeping with the tone of the film. In sum, this is an exciting and dramatic thriller, competently pulled off by a skilled company of talents.

Like many of the other reviewers, this was a film that I recalled with great fondness.
I had seen it when I was younger...not even a teenager...but I remember loving it.
I had been looking for it forEVER when I read that it was being released on DVD.
I happily popped it in my DVD player and put my feet up.

You know how some movies are not NEARLY as good as you once thought? They're not as funny, not as scary, often plain stupid.

Well I'm happy to report that this film is terrific. It STILL raises the blood pressure, and will still having you guessing by the end.

Richard Harris plays the quasi-heroic bomb defuser, Omar Sharif the beleaguered captain and a young Anthony Hopkins has a one-note performance as a stressed out Scotland Yarder.
Roy Kinnear is a painful hoot as the Ship's Steward (think Julie on the Love Boat) who tries to raise everyone's spirits EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW THERE'S BOMBS ON THE SHIP.
Trying to get everyone to sing along to "Roll Out The Barrel"? Priceless.

The script is spare but witty. I loved the comment about "A Night To Remember".

This is among the best "disaster" movies ever made, and a terrific thriller.

With the ever present ticking of a clock and nerve-wracking machine noises in the soundtrack, this is a taut, nifty disaster thriller, with the cruise ship HMS Britannic sailing to America, unknowingly with 7 bombs hidden aboard, set to explode; they have multiple booby traps, and the saboteur wants not only money but revenge against the system that in his twisted mind feels slighted him.
The cast is great, with Richard Harris as the head of a demolition team, David Hemmings as his right-hand man, Omar Sharif as the ship's captain, and Anthony Hopkins as the man in charge of finding the bad guy (whose wife and children are aboard the ship); Shirley Knight, Ian Holm, and Roy Kinnear round out the cast.

The direction by Richard Lester, better known for his comedic musical films with The Beatles and not thrillers, is fast paced, with some superb effects; I especially like the suspenseful moments when the demolition crew arrives on the scene, parachuting into the stormy sea.
The screenplay by producer Richard DeKoker is intelligent, raising this film up from the average production in this genre, and the cinematography by Gerry Fisher excellent. The score by Ken Thorne is also good, but mostly one can only hear the tick...tick...tick...of the bomb.
Total running time is 109 minutes.

A taught tense adventure of a mad bomber who holds an oceanliner for ransom after he plants a series of bombs aboard. The villian is known, as each bomb has a signiture style. Richard Harris leads the team who attempt to defuse the bombs, only somewhat successful. As the countdown continues, the tension mounts, and it becomes more a cat and mouse game between the bomber and the police expert as they debate whether to cut the red or the blue wire. The final minutes are excrusiating.

I saw this on the big screen in 1974 and could convince no one to go to a free showing in Lansing, Michigan with me on a Sunday afternoon. An overlooked gem, I recall this film fondly. The plot is somewhat predictable, but Richard Harris is surrounded with major British actors who give good support to this tension filled adventure. Try it. It has to be better than any of the US dissaster picts of the period.

I originally saw this in the theater when it first came out, and several times on TV. Unfortunately it seems to have disappeared from network programming, and my local video store both.
This was one of the most intense "cat and mouse" type thillers of it's day. The battle of wits between Fallon (R. Harris) and the bomber will keep your eyes locked on the screen to keep from missing anything. The plot and storyline are as intricate as the bombs themselves.
If you enjoyed the more recent movie "Blown Away" then you will enjoy this one. Blown Away used many of the same techniques developed in Juggernaut, and is the logical film decendant of this classic.

Those of you wanting to upgrade your old VHS copies of Richard Lester's taut nautical thriller should now do so: MGM has given Juggernaut a sterling DVD transfer, in 1.66:1 widescreen, with good color balance and nary a blemish in sight (ah, the wonders of digital restoration). Hardly any edge enhancement either, as far as I can see. Way to go MGM!

RIP David Hemmings (1941-2003)

Here we go again with yet another disaster style epic from the 1970s. You know how the routine goes, don't you? Hire a bunch of big Hollywood names, some up and comers and some over the hill, and plop them down in the middle of a life-threatening situation. Irwin Allen made a career out of these types of films, weighing in with movies like "Earthquake," "The Swarm," "When Time Ran Out," "The Towering Inferno," and a bunch of other titles. Some chap named Ronald Neame brought us a movie about an ocean liner turned upside down by a tidal wave in the 1972 classic "The Poseidon Adventure," which Irwin Allen promptly followed up a few years later with "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure." Obviously, the law of diminishing returns kicked in with this much product floating around, and the disaster movie quietly slipped into coma until Hollywood resurrected the formula at the end of the 1990s with movies like "Armageddon," "Dante's Peak," and several others. One film that seems to have slipped through the cracks, however, is Richard Lester's 1974 thriller "Juggernaut." Here it is, given to us on DVD by none other than MGM. It's an interesting entry in the disaster genre.

It's important to note that Lester readily subscribed to the idea that a disaster film needs an all-star cast. To meet this goal he hired Omar Sharif, Richard Harris, David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins, Ian Holm, Freddie Jones, Shirley Knight, Clifton James, Julian Glover, and Roy Kinnear to play major and minor parts. If you don't recognize some of these names, you'll likely recognize their faces. Taken together these actors have made probably a few thousand films. Anyway, the plot is incredibly simple. An ocean liner called the Britannic sets sail from England with some 1,200 passengers aboard. Unfortunately for these folks there are also seven bombs in seven steel drums scattered throughout the ship. The first sign of trouble arrives when Nicholas Porter (Holm), the chief executive of the travel company that owns the Britannic, receives a terrifying phone call from an individual calling himself Juggernaut. This man tells Porter about the bombs on the boat, and demands that the company pay him half a million pounds within twenty-four hours. If someone decides to drag their feet, the bombs will detonate and sink the ship. Yummy. Predictably the cops and the government enter the picture, namely in the form of Scotland Yard investigator John McCleod (Hopkins) and bomb disposal expert Anthony Fallon (Harris).

The passengers, despite the best efforts of Social Director Curtain (Kinnear) to cheer them up, soon discover exactly what's going on. They can't leave the ship, however, since a storm in the North Atlantic makes using the lifeboats a risky proposition. All they can do is sit helplessly by as Fallon and his crack commandos parachute into the sea and climb aboard the ship to defuse the explosives. Standing by to assist in the tricky operation is the ship's captain Alex Brunel (Sharif), his main squeeze Barbara Bannister (Knight), and McCleod's wife and two children who just happen to be passengers on the boat. Fallon soon discovers that Juggernaut is a crafty devil, an expert bomb maker with abilities that may well surpass his own. The movie from this point forward falls into the predictable pattern of showing us the passengers moving about the boat at the behest of Social Director Curtain, scenes of McCleod trying to track down Juggernaut back in London, and Nicholas Porter arguing with the government over the effectiveness of caving into the demands of the terrorist. Seeing as how "Juggernaut" is a bomb thriller, you can bet your bottom dollar that we'll see a scene where Fallon agonizes over which wire to cut. Red or blue? Times a wastin'!

I went back and forth with "Juggernaut." No one can argue with the level of talent here, as every one involved turns in a solid performance. Unintentional snickers, though, must go to Roy Kinnear for his spirited rendition of "Roll Out the Barrels." It's also nice to see Roshan Seth in a small role as Azad, a lowly servant on the ship who makes the ultimate sacrifice (love that Al Pacino haircut too, man!). What I do take exception with is the uneven character development. I suspect a lot of footage ended up on the cutting room floor in order to make the film move along faster because some of the interactions between characters don't carry much weight. You'd think McCleod would be on edge with his wife and kids on the boat, but he looks like he's ready for a nap. Too, the relationship between Bannister and Brunel seems superficial and doesn't add anything to the plot. Perhaps the greatest sin committed by Lester's movie involves what I call Annoying Kid Syndrome. I kept waiting for someone to strap McCleod's offspring to one of the bombs, or at least throw them overboard. These two are like fingernails on a chalkboard! But the tension works at times, Harris hams it up every chance he gets, and the ending is riveting despite being a cliché.

MGM saw fit to give us "Juggernaut" with a trailer as the only extra, sad to say, but the picture quality looks very sharp. It's letterboxed, too. If you're a nut for these types of movies--the disaster movies of the 1970s, that is--I say give this one a shot. I'm struggling about how many stars I should give the movie. "Juggernaut" hovers somewhere between three and four due to the problems cited above, but the fact that it redeems itself at the end should count for something. Most importantly, it lacks the utter ridiculousness of many of Irwin Allen's destruction epics. Let's round up and say four for the overall effort. It's a good way to spend a couple of hours.

i have been hunting this movie for many years.. i finally had a chance at a beaten up copy from my local video shop and was about to buy it when i found it on amazon.com in dvd format..

its an awsome thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the entire movie..

i would reccomend it to anyone who likes the disaster move genre..

I had seen the movie years and years ago, it had not lost any interest as far as I can see, That is why I ordered it. I reaally enjoyed it. If you are looking for the a fast paced movie where it keeps you glued to your deat I would say look no further because of the cast it has some of the silver s creens greatest.

After Richard Lester directed the two Beatles films he was a hot talent, much in-demand at the time. Unfortunately for his career, he spent a lot of time and money on the surreal 'The Bed Sitting Room', and found himself without a film for a few years. His version of 'The Three Musketeers' returned him to favour, and he followed it up with this, an unjustly-obscure bomb disposal thriller. Based on a true story (in 1972 the SAS were parachuted onto the QE2 to deal with a bomb threat which later turned out to be a hoax), this is a solid, interesting thriller with a fantastic cast - where else do you get David Hemmings, Richard Harris, Omar Sharif *and* Roy Kinnear in one film? And, for that matter, Ian Holm, Clifton James (J W Pepper from 'The Man with the Golden Gun'), Julian Glover and Freddie Jones! The film itself is a clever, taut thriller, much better than the 'disaster movies' the editorial review above compares it with. It's one of the classic 'bomb disposal' films. As the other reviewer mentions, it should really be released on DVD.