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Review of The Poseidon Adventure (John Williams)
FILMTRACKS RECOMMENDS:
Buy it... if you're exploring the early triumphs of John Williams'
transformation into a master of large-scale orchestral action and desire
an early taste of his grim, dissonant style of dread.
Avoid it... on any album other than the 2019 La-La Land Records collection with its sibling score, The Towering Inferno, for all other releases offer unsatisfyingly poor sound quality.
FILMTRACKS EDITORIAL REVIEW:
The Poseidon Adventure: (John Williams) After the
surprising success of Airport in 1970, the stage was set for a
series of highly popular disaster films in that decade, led by a leap
from television to big screen by producer Irwin Allen. Having offered
several documentaries and fantasy TV series in the years prior, Allen
jumped from the massive success of The Poseidon Adventure in 1972
to The Towering Inferno in 1974 before The Swarm several
years later ended his fantastic run. At the height of the genre's
dominance in the early 1970's, however, audiences couldn't get enough of
these films, which usually put stellar casts on display and dazzled with
their mammoth production values for the time. The talented ensemble
cast, led by Gene Hackman, finds itself trapped in an ocean liner
overturned by a mammoth wave, the group one of several trying to find
its way up to bottom hull of the ship to await uncertain rescue odds.
Riding its wave of popularity, The Poseidon Adventure received
nine Academy Award nominations, winning for its song and special
effects, an important recognition of the quality of the film despite its
incredibly outdated technology and cultural elements from today's
perspective. A 2006 remake did not challenge Allen's authority on the
topic even when attempting to address these aspects of the original.
Among the Oscar nominations for the production was one for the score by
John Williams, who had morphed from the "Johnny" Williams of 1960's jazz
into a capable symphonic action composer by the time his collaboration
with Allen reached the big screen. While having no association with the
production of the famous song, Williams incorporated Al Kasha and Joel
Hirschhorn's popular "The Morning After" (performed by Renee Armand for
the screen version but made famous by Maureen McGovern's single version)
into some of his underscore where appropriate, creating a subtle but
important link to the film's lasting musical identity.
Regardless of Williams' soon-to-come reputation, however, casual observers tend to forget that his work for The Poseidon Adventure is largely atmospheric and, in the case of many cues, dialed out in the finished film mix anyway. His harsh, brass theme of epic proportions for the opening shots of the ship is utilized often, best when accompanied by its tumultuous rhythmic figures denoting watery movement in Bernard Herrmann fashion. It stylistically resembles the main theme for The Towering Inferno and inspired chord progressions for Jerry Goldsmith's The Swarm and David Arnold's 1990's disaster music. But unlike The Towering Inferno, in which the main theme receives a glorious performance of optimism in technological advancement before the disaster strikes, Williams gives The Poseidon Adventure a doomed demeanor from the very start. Judging from the composer's earlier recorded versions of the "Main Title" cue, his inclination was to make the score even more dissonant and challenging than what the film eventually received, initially opting not to highlight the theme at all. There is little setup time before the cruise ship is struck by the tidal wave and flipped, and the music that introduces the liner at the opening doesn't vary much from the troubled environment of the escape attempts during the rest of the film. Only a few source cues of light jazz in the early, main dining hall sequence interrupts Williams' perpetually gloomy string and brass rumblings in the deep layers of bass. Even the piano is tethered to these dark bass regions, often crashing to accentuate a hit from the 58 other players or rambling without direction in the more tentative cues. The major effects sequence involving the rogue wave and the capsizing of the ship is scored counter-intuitively, utilizing high string whining, occasional groaning from brass, and intrigue from harp to function as another form of sound effects for the scene. As such, anyone looking blazing Williams action will be left very cold by this listening experience. Not surprisingly, most of this lengthy cue was left out of the film, allowing the sound effects to produce the terror of the moment. For casual appreciation, the plethora of tumultuous underscore in The Poseidon Adventure doesn't have the muscular, more tonal appeal of a work like Black Sunday, instead serving up Williams' avant-garde tendencies without much more than infrequent respites in the form of longing, subdued references, usually on horns, to the main theme. The "Morning After" melody's references in several cues is intentionally subdued and fragmented, a hint of its former, glamourous self. Some sequences are so minimally rendered in general that listeners may not receive enough reminders of Williams' typical mannerisms to satisfy themselves. The composer does excel at creating an atmosphere of dread, however, and no matter what qualms one might have about the score's grim personality, its effectiveness is rarely questioned. The nonstop environment of unease finally yields to a slightly more upbeat variation on the score's memorable, tumbling string rhythms in the finale cue, slowly building in E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial fashion to a cymbal crashing statement of triumph for the main theme during the rescue scene that remains the highlight of the score. Listeners opting to enjoy the more voluminous, tonal passages will want to add the "Main Title" to the final three cues, "The Red Wheel" finally fulfilling the score's opening moments. Be mindful, though, that even when these cues are added to other brief passages of development for the main theme, as in the early capsized ballroom escape scenes involving a Christmas tree, the total sum of time spent by Williams on his primary theme is only about ten minutes. One disappointment of the work is the composer's lack of attention to his watery rhythmic movements despite their incredibly effective application at times, including "Saving Robin" and "Hold Your Breath." The score instead undersells itself in its suspense stance, which is perhaps why a fair amount of it was abandoned in the final mix of the movie. Still, the work is an important stepping stone for any appreciation of Williams' 1970's output, especially in its foreshadowing of its superior sibling, The Towering Inferno. Since it's a score that relies upon textures, though, poor sound quality was a significant drawback for album appreciation. On album, The Poseidon Adventure suffered from sound quality and availability issues for many years. During "The Aftermath" on some albums, for instance, it was difficult to tell if electronic clicking sounds in the background of the dissonant blanket of strings is an intended Williams effect or simply an artifact of the poor sound quality and the efforts to master the surviving tapes into a presentable form. A 40-minute bootleg was released in 1995 with all pertinent cues, and although its sound quality was horrendous, it remained the only available source of music from the film and sold for as much as $150 in the years that followed. In 1998, the Film Score Monthly magazine was introducing its fledgling Silver Age Classics CD series to collectors, and its well-received second entry consisted of a compilation of three Williams scores of the early 1970's. The selling point of the album was The Poseidon Adventure, with a source cue added to the bootleg material and the entire score transferred directly from the original tapes; unfortunately, only the mono backup recordings remained viable at that time for most cues. Listeners of that album will note a significant improvement in quality for two seemingly random cues in the middle of the score for which the stereo tapes were available. The album also featured premier releases of The Paper Chase and Conrack, both of which differ in style from the disaster classic. The contemporary drama The Paper Chase exhibits both some of Williams' more romantic, jazzy pop themes and modern classical interpretations. An unassuming, relaxing score, its pop-influenced love theme is genuinely enjoyable, swinging with a small ensemble through an eclectic collection of cues that includes some classical source material. The societal commentary of Conrack, on the other hand, runs parallel musically to Sugarland Express, and its heartfelt theme is dominated by vibrant solos. Presented on the album was the only surviving music from the film (roughly a third of the overall length of Williams' composition for the project), but easily the most important. This cue, as Jon Voight prepares to teach school in a backwards Southern community, features guitar and flute solos that mark some of the best thematic material Williams composed for small-scale drama in that period. Still, even with the popularity of the 1998 FSM album, issues of sound quality continued. Especially when you consider John Barry's scores of the era, the recordings of the 1970's were often worse than those of the 1960's, and The Poseidon Adventure is clear evidence of that quirk. Contrary to early rumors, the 1998 album featured better sound quality than the bootleg, but still not satisfying by any means. Nevertheless, the three scores together sound equivalent in their muted qualities, and this shouldn't stop any ardent Williams fan from seeking the FSM offering. Along with FSM's even more impressive release of The Towering Inferno, the limited The Poseidon Adventure edition of 3,000 copies disappeared within a short time and quickly escalated in price on the secondary market. As technology in the music mastering process matured over another decade, the opportunity to finally clean up the surviving stereo masters and make them suitable for another album release finally came. La-La Land Records presented this update of The Poseidon Adventure in another limited 3,000-copy run in 2010, also adding numerous alternate takes and the film versions of the song. More importantly, the entire score was offered in stereo; the only trouble spot unfortunately remained "End Title," for which the stereo version is really warped beyond listenability, a truly unfortunate coincidence given that it is easily the highlight of the score. (Black Sunday's finale suffered a similar fate.) For those who had grown accustomed to the decent but still mono presentation on the 1998 FSM album, the 2010 product may seem redundant, especially with the additional, alternate takes and source cues not really offering much more than a curiosity factor for those inclined to study these works from an intellectual standpoint. Many collectors didn't have the opportunity to purchase the 2010 album at all; it sold out within weeks and became yet another source of income for speculators at online auctions. Fortunately, La-La Land returned to the score with even better mastering in 2019, including mostly the same presentation (subtracting an alternate "End Title" track and adding the McGovern song performance) but finally prevailing with better sound. This 5,000-copy "Disaster Movie Soundtrack Collection" includes The Towering Inferno and Earthquake as well, making it a highly recommended companion to Black Sunday for listeners angling to get a taste of Williams in full dread mode.
TRACK LISTINGS:
1995 Bootleg Album:
Total Time: 38:46
1998 FSM Album: Total Time: 75:51
* contains music not used in the film ** not used in the film *** stereo 2010 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 60:39
2019 La-La Land Album: Total Time: 61:25
* monaural source ** partial monaural source
NOTES & QUOTES:
The 1995 bootleg insert includes no extra information about the
score or film. The 1998 Film Score Monthly album includes the label's
usual standard of in-depth notes about the films and music for all three
scores represented on the product. The 2010 La-La Land album's insert
also features an extensive analysis of the film and score. The 2019
La-La Land album contains this score in its own jewel case separate from
the outer sleeve that also houses the other scores in the set. Its
booklet contains extensive information about the score and film as well.
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The reviews and other textual content contained on the filmtracks.com site may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Christian Clemmensen at Filmtracks Publications. All artwork and sound clips from The Poseidon Adventure are Copyright © 1995, 1998, 2010, 2019, Johnny Boy Bootleg, Film Score Monthly, La-La Land Records, La-La Land Records and cannot be redistributed without the label's expressed written consent. Page created 9/24/96 and last updated 4/9/21. |
