Product Details

• Actors: Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Richard Chamberlain
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: English, Spanish
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• DVD Release Date: July 14, 2009
• Run Time: 165 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0024F08UG
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #7,097 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  #8 in	Movies & TV > Action & Adventure > Action Stars > Steve McQueen
  #15 in	Movies & TV > Classics > Classic Stars > Astaire, Fred
  #20 in	Movies & TV > Action & Adventure > Disaster Films

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

A dedication ceremony at the world's tallest skyscraper turns into a high-rise catastrophe when a defective wire in its systems-control panel causes an electrical flare-up. Within minutes the gala event turns into a hellish inferno, as a raging fire traps society's most prominent citizens on the top floor. Winner of three Academy Awards, this spectacular suspense thriller features dazzling special effects and a star studded cast including Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden and Faye Dunaway.


**Commentary by F.X. Feeney - Film Historian
**Scene Specific Commentary by Mike Vezina, Special Effects Director on X3
**Scene Specific Commentary by Branko Racki, Stunt Coordinator on The Day After Tomorrow
**32 Extended and Deleted Scenes and 1 Alternate Opening Sequence

**Inside the Tower: We Remember Featurette
**Innovating Tower: The SPFX of an Inferno Featurette
**The Art of Towering Featurette
**Irwin Allen: The Great Producer Featurette
**Directing the Inferno Featurette
**Putting out Fire Featurette
**Running on Fire Featurette
**Still the Worlds Tallest Building Featurette
**The Write Stirling Silliphant Featurette
**AMC Backstory: The Towering Inferno Featurette

**6 Storyboard Comparisons

**Vintage Promotional Materials: NATO Presentation Reel, Original 1974 Featurette #1, Original 1974 Featurette #2

**Irwin Allen 1977 Interview

*Trailer Farm: The Towering Inferno Teaser, The Towering Inferno Trailer, The Poseidon Adventure Trailer

**Interactive Galleries:
*American Cinematographer Article
*The Towering Inferno and How It Was Filmed
*Photographing The Dramatic Sequences for "The Towering Inferno"
*"Action Unit" Lives Up To Its Name While Shooting "The Towering Inferno"

**Stills Galleries:
*Shot Compositions
*Publicity
*Behind the scenes
*Conceptual Sketches
*Costumes
*Cross-promo Fox on BD Trailers

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Blu-Ray Breathes New Life into The Towering Inferno, July 20, 2009

By	M. Bishop (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I saw this movie when I was just 16 in 1974. It made a big impression on me then - that such a big, exciting movie could even be made. Now - in 2009 - we get the first hi-def home video version of this film on Blu-ray disc. Let me just say - Fox did a great job! The detail is all there - along with the brilliant 70s colors (check out Fred Astaire's taxi near the beginning for super solid yellow), and, of course, the great John Williams score. All of the extras from the DVD special edition have been ported over as well. Fans of this movie should be ecstatic with this new edition.

Sure, the movie is dated, somewhat overlong, and the acting a bit wooden - but as shear spectacle (and 70s kitsch) - it kept this viewer interested. Another thing that is very refreshing - real models for the special effects work. Some of these models were built 70 feet high in order to ensure realism. If this movie were remade today - I'm afraid it would suffer from overuse of CGI effects (such as in the recent _Poseidon_.)

One other note - the opening menu on the Blu-ray disc is not to be missed. Someone worked really hard on creating a menu that honors the film. Let the disc spin up naturally without clicking ahead. A very nice touch.

11 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars New on Blu-ray: THE TOWERING INFERNO, July 17, 2009

By	allangiven.com - See all my reviews

Coming off of the enormous success of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE in 1972, a film that kick-started the disaster movie craze of the 1970s, producer Irwin Allen set out to bring his next movie to 20th Century Fox, a film dealing simply with a fire breaking out in a high-rise building full of people. The film was originally going to be based on the 1973 Richard Martin Stern novel, THE TOWER, a work that Allen felt would be the perfect basis for his new movie. Unfortunately though, as multiple studios began rushing their own disaster films to market, Allen lost out on the bid for the rights to THE TOWER to Warner Brothers studio. He was able to acquire the rights to an eerily similar book though, 1974's THE GLASS INFERNO, written by Thomas N. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. Today we are used to seeing studios rushing to get their version of a specific disaster based film to the theatre before their rivals, filling the cineplex with movies with almost identical premises. Think about the battle of the "asteroid hitting Earth" movies in 1998 between ARMAGEDDON and DEEP IMPACT, or the "volcano erupting in an unexpected place" head-to-head the previous year between DANTE'S PEAK and VOLCANO. Allen knew that having identical properties in development at both Warner and Fox would end up having an adverse effect on both of the films at the box office, so in an unprecedented move, Allen was able to create a joint venture between the two studios, combining both of their projects and creating one mega-film. The result was THE TOWERING INFERNO in 1974.

By today's action movie standards, with rapid fire cuts and a blaring soundtrack used to intensify the action, and with tons of CGI, THE TOWERING INFERNO seems tame, and can honestly seem to be, well, boring to a modern audience. The fact is though, the film needs to be looked at for exactly what it is. True, there is no hit song to underscore the plight of the main characters, and the scenes do go on for seemingly forever, but looking at what the movie is, and especially comparing it to other similar films in the genre at the time, the film does hold up remarkably well. This is due primarily to two very distinctive aspects: the cast that Irwin was able to assemble and the stunt work on display.

The cast of THE TOWERING INFERNO is not what you would typically find in a disaster film. It is chock-a-block full of Hollywood A-listers, with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman, two of the biggest stars of the day, sharing the bill. But it doesn't stop there. The cast also includes William Holden, Fred Astaire, Robert Vaughn, Faye Dunaway, Richard Chamberlain, Robert Wagner, Jennifer Jones and yes, a pre-incarcerated O.J. Simpson. Even Bobby Brady is in the film. While the casting alone is a juggernaut of star power, the acting is actually solid. While much has been made about the battle between Steve McQueen and Paul Newman for screen dominance, and who came across as more macho, the fact is, their performances are not swallowed up by the special effects of the film. Allen allowed the acting to co-exist along with the action, even hiring a separate director, John Guillermin, to handle the scenes with dialogue, while Allen himself helmed the action sequences. The result is some genuinely well fleshed out acting moments. Fred Astaire is of course a screen legend and rightfully so, but his performance as the elderly con-man Harlee Caliborne has some real depth and tenderness to it, and the heart that Astaire would always imbue into his characters in the 30s and 40s is allowed to be seen here as well. Giving the actors the space to do what they do best, instead of using them as merely set dressing to draw in viewers, is one of the strongest elements of THE TOWERING INFERNO, and helps to strengthen the film, giving it a believable realism and not letting it devolve into looking like nothing more than an expensive episode of "The Love Boat."

The special effects of the film are second to none for the time, and the techniques used would go on to inspire a generation of filmmakers afterwards. It has to be remembered that this is long before the days of CGI, and whereas we may not even bat an eye seeing computer generated dinosaurs battling wizards in space on the screen today, in 1974, THE TOWERING INFERNO's action sequences are suspenseful and breath taking. Just as in BACKDRAFT, the fire here is allowed to take on the aspects of being a character itself, becoming the antagonist of the film. What must be highlighted though is the work of stunt coordinator Paul Stader who developed some amazing stunts and some of the most incredible full burns seen on screen still to this day. There are no computer generated flames here, and no wirework for the stunt people. They were actually being set on fire and then asked to jump through windows to complete a high fall. This was stunt work at its finest, and watching the film for this alone is a pleasure.

The film is definitely fun to revisit to see what a big budget Hollywood action flick looked like in a previous era. Costing an unprecedented $14 million, the film topped the $116 million mark for its gross, marking it as a rousing success. Yes, the pacing is slow, and the movie is way too long, but it is fun and I recommend picking it up and watching it. With a great cast, and amazing visual effects and stunt work, you really can't go wrong.

The Blu-ray release features extensive bonus features including: nine featurettes, scene specific commentary by modern day special effects directors and stunt coordinators, audio commentary by a film historian, storyboard to film comparisons, the AMC documentary "Backstory: THE TOWERING INFERNO," vintage promotional materials and features including a 1977 interview with Irwin Allen, promotional material from THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE, interactive articles from "American Cinematographer" and a still gallery. The materials here are exhaustive, and combing through all of them should be enough to write your dissertation on the film.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Classic Action Film-Stunning Blu-Ray Disc., September 2, 2009

By	Chris P. Decostanza - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

When i bought my blu-ray player and high def t.v. there were a number of titles
in my dvd collection that were prime candidates for getting the blu-ray treatment.
THE TOWERING INFERNO was at the top of the list and i'm happy to report they did
a stellar job.

For instance little bits of dialogue never understood before are now clearly
audible. In addition the intricate design/pattern of many of the costumes are
now eye poppingly clear.

If i had to choose one scene that shows off the blue ray transfer best its the
scene where Paul Newman, Jennifer Jones and the two kids take turns climbing
down the busted staircase railing. a total audio/visual experience. For instance
water from a pipe busted in the explosion is raining down on them and the nearby
exposed brick wall. The sound of the water is sooooooooooo realistically clear
and sharp you'll check to see if its raining in your living room.

If you like classic action flicks on blu-ray this an absolute must for your
collection.