What I Watched Today: "The Hindenburg" (1975) and "The Sterile Cuckoo" (1969)

When you make a film about a true-life event, for example, the explosion of the German airship The Hindenburg, you can approach the material one of two ways: either you can base your story on evidence and fact, or you can create an entire fictional world that just features the event as a plot point.  Director Robert Wise evidently did a lot of research into the disaster, and that shows in the impressive details of art direction and visual effects that are presented in the film.  However, the complete lack of character development robs the audience of any emotional impact that was so important to the disaster movies of the 1970's.  Also, knowing how the story eventually ends (as is also the case with Titanic movies) makes it even harder to maintain suspense, as everybody already knows the outcome.

George C. Scott gives his usual intense performance as Col. Franz Ritter, who is aboard the ship as a special security agent in response to the threats that have been made prior to the voyage.  Anne Bancroft co-stars as a German countess fleeing the country because of her distaste for the Nazis, but until the end of the movie she appears bored and thinking of how much money she must've been paid for this horribly underwritten role.  There are a lot of familiar character actors present as well: Charles Durning as the Captain, Richard Dysart as the designer, Burgess Meredith as an elderly gambler, and other faces (if not the names themselves) that you may recognize from other film and television roles.

The best part of the picture is, of course, the ship's fiery finale as it attempted to dock at Lakehurst, New Jersey.  At this point, the cinematography changes from Technicolor to black and white, and director Wise mixes in actual newsreel footage of the disaster with his own shots.  The change in color is impressive, and gives the scenes of destruction and hysteria a realism that other parts of the film are seriously lacking in.  And despite the historical details and chilling final scenes, I consider it one of the lesser entries in the 70's disaster film era.

Liza Minnelli earned a Best Actress Oscar nomination in 1969 as 'Pookie' Adams in the film "The Sterile Cuckoo", and the nomination was deserved just by the amount of acting that she does in the movie.  The girl acts up a storm the whole way through.

Pookie is meant to be a loveable oddball; somewhat of a misfit, with quirky behavior who pushes her way into an affair with a nice, well-meaning young man (Wendell Burton) she meets on the bus as the pair of them are on their way to their first year at neighboring colleges.  The problem is that Pookie's quirkiness grows old very quickly, and becomes exhausting.  I grew tired of her character long before Burton's did, and some of her behavior would be considered more erratic and worthy of examination rather than charming and lighthearted.

Liza has herself always been known for having a rather "outsize" personality, and perhaps she identified with Pookie for that reason, but I do wish director Alan J. Pakula had toned down some of that 'personality' and given us more of a character than a caricature.

Now, on the other hand, knowing that we often reject traits in others that we don't like in ourselves, I freely admit that I identified with Pookie's feelings of being something of an outcast, and entirely too needy and clingy.  Maybe this movie (and especially the character) hits too close to the bone for me to be able to look at it objectively.  Watching how desperately this girl longs to be part of something, to have someone love her, can be quite painful, and Minnelli has a few moments where she is genuinely moving, but then the very next scene she's right back to over the top and annoying.

The cinematography and title song "Come Saturday Morning", are both, however, quite beautiful.