Denouement Renouement

Tag: 1974

  • Theme!: Disaster Movies — The Towering Inferno (1974)

    By C. Ramsay

    Taking its sweet time to situate the audience, even occasionally going so far as to lull us into distraction with the lighter, spoken character dramas the film begins with, The Towering Inferno is two hours and forty-five minutes of slow, creeping tension capable of being set off at any moment. Standing at a total of 138 stories, a short circuit causes a fire on the 81st floor of the tower during the evening of its dedication ceremony, trapping dozens of guests celebrating on the 135th floor and leaving the building’s architect, Doug Roberts (Paul Newman), and San Francisco Fire Department Chief O’Hallorhan (Steve McQueen) as the individuals best equipped to navigate the situation.

    From the opening sequence of a helicopter traversing San Francisco to eventually deposit a well-dressed and nonchalant Roberts onto the roof of his creation, the level of chicness and style in the film is palpable, conveyed as much through how scenes are pieced together as through the set design and costuming. There are many background details used as a means to better inform the viewer about the time period and the primary class of people involved in the story, and different areas and aspects of the tower have different colour schemes to help orient the audience while the film moves around its central setting. Burnt orange is most often shown in association with the architectural offices of the building, marking a convergence of industry and artistry. Sage green is regularly used in guest-facing areas, particularly acting as the backdrop for the opulence of the Promenade Room where the guests are celebrating. Pastel yellows or neutral whites are typically used in liminal areas like hallways or stairwells. Candy red is used to mark interactive technical components throughout the building, such as buttons, knobs, and handles, whereas pale blue tends to mark the paneling behind which the broader mechanical and electrical layouts exist. Newman’s character is also notably clothed in a burnt orange dress shirt and pale blue suit, relegating his authority to only stand within the sections of the building viewed as being of lower status by those in charge. Despite his expertise and persistence, his social sway is also weakened until it’s too late.

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  • A-One: The Parallax View (1974)

    By C. Ramsay

    Spoilers!

    An incredibly stylish overview of individualistic American exceptionalism and the paranoia of established institutions. Beginning with the assassination of a U.S. senator with presidential aspirations, an event witnessed by numerous people including Warren Beatty’s investigative reporter Joseph Frady, the film builds to getting so swept up in its dualities that it begs the viewer to question their own complicity.

    After the opening events of the film, Frady is shown to have had to re-attain his position of employment after having previously faced repercussions for a drinking problem, evoking the American ethos of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps. That with enough introspection, application, and grind, self-actualization will be achieved—but with previous faults rendered inconsequential. The emphasis is not on the growth of a person, but their supposed reinvention. It is on their ability to adjust not because of a catalyst, but in spite of it. With any prolonged bout of introspection, though, is the risk of aggrandized self-assurance, something Frady exhibits from the start of the film to its bitter end. 

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