The Hindenburg
Dir: Robert Wise
1975
****
The Hindenburg has been heavily critisied and in my view, unfairly treated since its release in 1975. Among the countless disaster films of the mid 70s, The Hindenburg is probably one of the best. It takes liberties with history, playing on the fact that it has never been 100% proven as to why the Hindenburg exploded but none of the scenarios are unrealistic or without merit. It's formulaic, much like the other disaster films of the era and it has its fair share of misleading sub-plots but the ensemble cast make it very enjoyable. With films like this it is all about the big build up and then the pay off and for my money Robert Wise achieved both. Maybe it was rejected as being too clever, 'The thinking mans disaster film' possibly. The sad truth is that people just want to see it burn at the end of the day. I'll take this over Titanic, Towering Inferno and the rest of them any day. Robert Wise is one of the unappreciated directors of all time too, he deserves much more credit than he is remembered for.