Juggernaut — Juggernaut(Blu Ray)
From the early 1970s Juggernaut is a blend of disaster movie and psychological thriller, with some great moments of suspense/tension, and odd touches of humour. The film focuses on a blackmailer who has placed seven bombs aboard the transatlantic liner Britannic-which is carrying 1200 passages and crew. It blends on-board footage, with back in London police investigation, and taut office interactions- all making for an entertaining, at points hellish tense picture. Here from Eureka is a new Blu-ray release of the film- featuring a new scan, commentary track, and a few other extras.
Juggernaut (aka Terror on the Britannic ) is a 1974 English/ American production. It was directed by Philadelphia-born Richard Lester. He had twenty-three feature credits to his name- these took in the likes of Sci-Fi satire The Mouse On The Moon (1963), musical comedy A Hard Days Night (1964), post-nuke dark comedy The Bed Sitting Room (1969), and superhero films Superman II (1980) and Superman III (1983)
The film was inspired by a bomb threat against Queen Elizabeth 2 on 17 May 1972- the boat was travelling between New York to Cherbourg. An anonymous caller demanded $350,000 in ransom or else six bombs would be detonated on the ship. The caller also claimed that two accomplices were on board. For the film, the story's starting point is switched to leaving from Southampton, with seven bombs instead of six, with the onshore action taking place in the UK.
The one hour and fifty-minute film opens with the boat leaving on a grey British day from the dock in Southampton- with paper banners thrown. Waving goodbye to his wife Susan(Caroline Mortimer), son and daughter is cop Supt John McCleod( Anthony Hopkins). The boat gets underway, and really we only touch on a few passages- there is the already-mentioned Susan- who is rather sullen & suffers from seasickness, and two fairly typical kids. There’s American small-town mayor with a comb-over Corrigan( Clifton James), and having an affair with ship captain Barbra( Shirley Knight).
As for crew, we have the rather stern/cigarette smoking capt Alex Brunnel( Omar Sharif). Entertainment Officer Curtain( Roy Kinnear), and switching ( for some unknown reason) between Indian and cockney accent British waiter Azad (Roshan Seth). We see a few more officers/ crew- but really that’s it.
On land try to sort out who is behind the bombs we have Nicolas Porter( Ian Holm), the already mentioned John McCleod( Hopkins), not wanting to pay the ransom/ smug civil servant Hollingworth( Mark Burns), and on-shore naval explosive expert Cmdr. Geoff Marder (Julian Glover).
For the first half-hour or so the boat gets underway- the sea is fairly choppy, and unlike some cruise ship-based films- there’s not a lot of glamour ‘n’ glitz here. The passages play bingo and ping-pong, with Kinnear adding to the light humour side of things, as he tries to keep the spirits up, and still pigs down food as the seas get worse and the passengers all get seasick.
We then of course get the contract from the bomber via phone calls- he has a softly spoken Irish voice, which at points almost sounds like it’s reading poetry/ story. Then we have the bomb experts being flown out to the cruise boat- taking in the pipe smoking & whisky drinking Lt. Cmdr. Anthony Fallon( Richard Harris), and the pink jumper wearing(!) Charlie Braddock (David Hemmings).
As we move through the film the tension is nicely ratchet up and up- with some great holding-your-breath moments. The nearing two-hour film rushes by, with a neat reveal of who the bomber is, as well as a few other rewarding surprises too. As a disaster movie, it has a rather glum/ grey 70’s British tone- yes in the first quarter we get a few light laughs, but after these things start to tense up.
This recent Blu-Ray release features an HD scan of the film- it's well-defined and crisp throughout, though it can’t take away from the rather grey colourings of the film, and its glum tone in general.
On the extras side we get three new, and most worthy things. First off we have a commentary track from British cinema experts Melanie Williams and James Leggot. They begin by touching on the importance of producer David. V. Picker- we find out he was the mastermind behind UK productions for United Artists- taking in the James Bond Films, the Oscar-winning Tom Jones, and A Hard Days Night. They talk about the almost documentary-like opening scene, and how the original script started out at sea. They discuss how the ship can be seen as a metaphor for the UK in the early 70’s, and for filmmaking in general. They point out the elements of games and game-playing throughout the film, and how one reviewer compared the ship to a Wimpy restaurant at sea. They detail how director Richard Lester became connected with the project- we find out he had three weeks before filming, then the whole thing was done ‘n’ dusted in six weeks and a day. They talk about how both Holm and Hopkins were more known for their TV roles at the time. They discuss how it’s a very male film, discuss the boat used touching on its brief history around filming. Later on, they mention the visual echoes of wartime operations rooms in the latter part of the film. Touch on how the film packs a political punch just below the surface and much more. A most listenable/ interesting track.
Otherwise, we have Down with the Ship( 20.11) which finds film historian Sheldon Hall talking about Juggernaut and the disaster film genre. All Hands on Deck (27.33) it finds film historian Neil Sinyard, author of The Films of Richard Lester discussing the film, and as we’ve come to expect with Mr Sinyard this is a well-observed/ informative/interesting featurette. He starts by talking about when the director came on board they only had hire of the boat for four weeks. We find out the original script was rewritten line by line by the director and screenwriter Alan Plater. He talks about the bombs being a work of art, and when Harris/ Hemmings work on them it’s like brain surgery. He discusses what the director liked about the film- its different character perspectives, and the thriller elements which remain firm throughout. We find out the film didn’t do well in cinema or with critics when it came out, but sees it as one of the great British films of the 70’s.
On the disc, we also get a trailer and image gallery. With the finished release comes with a collector’s booklet featuring new writing on Juggernaut by British film scholar Laura Mayne.
In finishing Juggernaut is a decidedly British/ glum mix of disaster movie and psychological thriller- with some excellent moments of tension along the way. This Eureka release is the first ever UK Blu-Ray release of the film- with a selection of the most interesting/ worthy extras.