I am more scared by things that could plausibly happen than by horror movie monsters, and that’s why I am always on the edge of my seat the entire runtime (and it’s rather long - set some time aside for it!). The millionaires on the floor that scrapes the skies deny reality in such a manner that feels all too real and all too infuriating. As in so many domains of human existence, the rich are insulated from the pain that other people suffer from until it is far, far too late. You have the rich people on top, quite literally, at a fancy dress party on the top floor of the building, while the working class people who actually end up saving the day work on the lower floors. That’s one of the things that struck me so much about The Towering Inferno: that tower is a literalization of the class divides that define America.
This turns out to have happened because of shoddy construction undertaken to save money - and the people who provided the capital for this tower are, of course, filthy rich. It feels almost perfect - almost - until a fire begins on one of its myriad floors. The press is there, the mayor of San Francisco is there (for that is where this gargantuan edifice was built), and rich people of all stripes are there. The Towering Inferno starts at a gala, those hoity-toity parties for the rich and famous to gather, to see, and to be seen. It is a great credit to screenwriter Stirling Silliphant (who, incidentally, has a name that ought to be that of a pulp adventure hero) that the integration of the two plots into a single cohesive storyline goes on without a hitch. Robinson seeing the titles, it becomes clear that the film’s title is a portmanteau. These are The Tower by Richard Martin Stern and The Glass Inferno by Thomas N. This is a strange chimera of a film, although it isn’t obvious upon actually watching it’s adapted from two novels unrelated other than details of their plots. Released in 1973, directed by John Guillermin, produced by Irwin Allen, and starring Paul Newman and Steve McQueen. Such is the fear that The Towering Inferno exploits. I’m often just a tad overwhelmed when I go to New York or Chicago and see how humankind has dared to grope towards the heavens.
area where there are strict building codes about how high you can go so that the great buildings of the District are not dwarved. There’s something terrifying on a gut level about skyscrapers - or, at least, I have some unease when I encounter them I’m from the Washington, D.
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