Anytime I saw that kid "Dylan" or his sister "Shelby", or whenever they said something, I felt like beating the *beep* out of someone. Preferable either of them. Sorry but their acting was so horrible not to mention their lines........
Aaaarghhh I can't believe I watched this turd!
Just take satisfaction in the fact that in the book, the boy, named Robin Shelby, was lost attempting to go to the restroom (which became comedy relief in the '72 movie), and his sister (again in the book), Susan Shelby, was raped, and foolishly felt sorry for her attacker and thought the assault was something beautiful.
Yeah. The whole "gosh, he's a rapist but hey, he's just a boy, a scared boy!" was so strikingly bizarre, so much that I briefly entertained serious questions about the personal history of the author.
It was the late sixties and everything before that had to be challenged to the fullest extent, but truthfully, was at times re-enforcing male dominance.
Whether in this book or on the American soap opera General Hospital (the enormously popular Luke and Laura couple began with him raping her, which would be dealt with on the show near twenty years later, after two kids, and she is now institutionalized for killing her step-father), there is still a conclusion that women can like it rough (i. e. rape!) and maybe they just don't know it.
Of course this had to be the focus all throughout the 1970s, with the previous belief being that the woman liked to enter the bedroom wearing a full flannel nightgown, I guess, as pure and as innocent as the driven snow.
Other conclusions are found in "Seven Brides For Seven Brothers" (1954) and even in a Madonna movie, where as long as the woman fights back, its okay for the guy to do as he pleases, whether it is Howard Keel and his brothers dragging the six women back into the mountains, the women throw rocks at the brothers and pour wash water on them (that'll teach'em!) or Madonna wrestling with some joker on a beach. She is resisting, so it seems to be okay for him to attack her.
Hollywood will do a movie for an hour and ten minutes, showing a woman terrorized, then she shoots the guy in the last five minutes, so she fought back, but hey, what image did we get for over an hour?
A woman as the victim.
The kid dies in the original? That's pretty damn depressing. I don't think children dying is ever funny, even if the kid's annoying as hell.
And jeez, the Shelby character was raped? I wish I had actually seen the original before watching this. Or maybe not. As sappy and sentimental as this version was, at least there was no virgin-violating.
Interesting and disturbing, richard.
The minute you start pointing fingers, somebody's going to get poked.
EILavinia: "The kid dies in the original? That's pretty damn depressing. I don't think children dying is ever funny, even if the kid's annoying as hell.
And jeez, the Shelby character was raped? I wish I had actually seen the original before watching this. Or maybe not. As sappy and sentimental as this version was, at least there was no virgin-violating.
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NOT the 1972 Movie, the incidents I described took place in the BOOK the movie was BASED on, but several things were changed.
IN THE BOOK: The boy, Robin Shelby, was lost when the lights went out and surviving passengers were running all around in the dark. He had gone off to go to the bathroom by himself.
IN THE 1972 MOVIE: Robin would wander off to go to the bathroom, but this was comedy relief, as he found the toilets to now be on the ceiling. Robin was ALMOST lost in the '72 movie, but Gene Hackman found him, making for one very split-second dramatic moment which I believe was accidental. Hackman and Robin (Eric O'Shea) are suddenly caught in a torrent of water.
IN THE BOOK: Susan Shelby was raped when she had gone off by herself, perhaps to look for Robin, and she was raped by a young, curly haired steward. Awwww. It was utterly pathetic. I don't even want to talk about that anymore. But this was in THE BOOK, NOT the MOVIE.
IN THE MOVIE: Susan Shelby (Pamela Sue Martin) had a crush on the Reverend (Hackman).
IN THE BOOK: A character NOT in the movie, Miss Kinsale, was infatuated with the Reverend. After the Reverend's death, she told the other survivors she was secretly married to the Reverend. They didn't believe her.
IN THE BOOK: Belle Rosen did the underwater swim bit first. She didn't have to save anyone. She would be very weak after this.
Linda Rogo was very foul-mouthed, and swore at her husband, MIke Rogo, when she fell and was impaled on a piece of metal.
Reverend Scott would do the heroic sacrifice bit not long afterward.
Belle Rosen died just as the rescuers were cutting thru the bottom of the ship.
IN THE MOVIE: Belle Rosen (Shelly Winters) did the swim, rescuing the trapped Reverend, then died right after.
Linda Rogo (Stella Stevens) while a bit harsh (she calls Belle Rosen 'fatass' at one time) is sympathetic later on when Belle dies.
Linda Rogo's death from a fall would be the catalyst for Reverend Scott's tirade against God, then his own death would follow.
Then the survivors are rescued.
And don't worry. I havent spoiled the original film for you. You can still check it out sometime. I have it on tape, one of the first movies I obtained, and I am seriously tempted to buy the dvd and hear the commentary from Winters, Stevens and I believe Carol Lynley, three of the women from the movie.
And you want to really enjoy yourself, try to check out the 1979 sequel "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" with Michael Caine, sally Field, Telly Savalas, Shirley Jones, Slim Pickens, Shirley Knight, Veronica Hamel, Jack Warden, Mark Harmon, Angela Cartwright, Karl Malden and Peter Boyle.
I think four of the castmembers do the Shelly Winters sacrifice here.
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