A large blockbuster of its time, much like Transformers is today, The Towering Inferno was released to theaters in December of 1974.  The award winning disaster film married large stars of the era and a well-known producer, Irwin Allen.  Disaster movies were becoming very popular in this time-period, especially after Irwin Allen’s own Poseidon Adventure came out in 1972.  The Towering Inferno went on to win Oscars for cinematography, editing, and Best Song in 1974, deservedly so.  And now…it lives on forever on the Blu-ray format!

Film 

Steve McQueen, Paul Newman, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, and Fred Astaire are just a few of the big actors to speak of in this film.  The characters and roles vary in the adventure and escape of a super-skyscraper and the fire that consumes it on its opening night. The characters range from the architect that designed the structure, the seedy contractor who installs its faulty wiring, various inhabitants of the building and the fire chief that helps pursue the blaze. Others play supporting roles to make the story more complex, with personal dramas and relationships adding smaller stories within the main.

A lot of careful planning, advanced special effects, an incredible cast of so many talented stars, great writing and a superb producer all made this an explosive hit in its time.

So just how does it all stack up on the Blu-ray format?  Does it all burn down?  I know.  Bad joke!  Let’s roll the proverbial dice of fortune and find out!

Video 

The visual aspect of the film, as recreated for the Blu-ray, is extremely crisp and sharp.  For the time-period of the filming, pops of super-strong colors are expected to keep it more visually stimulating.  However, the transfer to Blu-ray rendered spectacular coloring outside what I think may have been intended in the original.  Most colors are especially saturated, and the high contrast between all colors leaves quite a nice effect.  Reds are almost too red, even skin tones seem more colorized than real-life. There are a few scenes, however, especially during the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the opening of the building, where I think the editing falls short.  Throughout the movie, we don’t see marks and dust as you would in the original film, but I caught a severe difference in contrast between certain angles (as in, where the black is quite rich and colors bright, a different angle of the same objects were quite dull and gray-ish in comparison).  This did not happen much, but was quite noticeable when it did take place.  A great job, overall, restoring this film’s video, and is especially appreciated when compared to the unrestored deleted and extended scenes of the special features.

Audio 

Audio set-up gives you many options, from the simpler Dolby and 4.0 surrounds, to 5.1 DTS HD and even the option of using D-Box Motion Code, if you should be lucky enough to have a Motion Code Platform.  I am not so lucky to own this, but I am intrigued as to how they could tie it into this particular movie, given its age.  Another option in the audio setup is a very interesting commentary by film historian F.X. Feeney, who provides a slew of knowledge of both historical facts pertaining to the film, as well as insightful views as to why certain things were done in the movie to create a desired effect.  This was very interesting to listen to while the movie was playing, and allowed me to appreciate a whole new level of the movie.  There were also many scene-specific commentaries from a present special effects director, Mike Vezina, and a present stunt-coordinator, Branko Racki, who both give insight into how certain action scenes would have been made.

Overall, the movie’s audio was as expected from the period, not as much dimension as more current films, but did have great detail, especially in small things, such as the rustling of clothing.  I could even hear someone scratch his or her head at one point during a dialogue scene.  Now that’s Blu-ray!

Special Features 

There are many features on this disc to keep you busy for a while. The featurettes are the most interesting, ranging from interviews with stars years later, to a History Channel-esque featurette on towers and skyscrapers, to inside looks on the producer or the writer of The Towering Inferno.  An AMC backstory, storyboards, trailers, interviews, and still gallery are just a few of the things you can look forward to watching, as all are quite informative and definitely not as boring as one might think. For the extensive reach of the variety of special features to keep your attention, I recommend devoting some time here.

Final Thoughts 

Overall, I can safely say that any movie buff who enjoys such classic actors and ground-breaking ideas in movies from the past would love this movie to be apart of their collection. And if they want to really enjoy what this movie can offer, owning the Blu-ray is a must, for the mastering and special features alone make it easy to appreciate all that went into making this film, and its role in paving the way to disaster movies of the present.