puzzle solving: what the 70s got right

[sab]

I watched the remake of Flight of the Phoenix again last night -- a movie which, like The Poseidon Adventure and Oceans 11, is inferior to the original if for no other reason than the puzzles in the original are better. I love a movie about a bunch of people stuck in a situation they have to solve with a series of quote-unquote puzzles (Shelley Winters needs to swim a long distance under water! The electrical guy needs to shut off the power to all of Las Vegas! The engineer needs to make sense of ancient schematics! &c &c) and all of these remakes have weak-ass puzzles in exchange for shiny-faced celebs and mood music.

So I watched Flight of the Phoenix last night, mostly because I was having a Hugh Laurie jag, and I totally forgot -- if I ever put it together to begin with -- that Jared Padalecki dies an awesomely gruesome death early on.

But the thing about the remake of FOTP, among others, is that only the plane designer (Giovanni Ribisi, art-directed as what can only be described as a Nazi) gets puzzles, and we don't see him grapple with them; nothing goes wrong with the design of the plane (as it does in the original), no other individuals have to help him design/troubleshoot the plane (as they do in the original) and in fact the only time another individual is singled out is for the very, very, very specious "only the crew's chef can affix this wing to the fuselage! We need you, chef!"

Thus, where the punchline of the original FOTP is "look what we made!" and is about hope in hopelessness and a bunch of people who escaped death by building a crazy sled-plane, the remake is about a bunch of people who, under the orders of a pseudo-Nazi, build a large-scale model of a model plane and fly it away. The punchline therefore being something like, "listen to the Nazi with control issues and you'll be just fine."

Now I need to go watch another 70s disaster movie with good puzzles to cleanse my palate before I can watch any lame-ass remakes again.

What's your favorite 70s teamwork puzzle-solving disaster movie?

Comments

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

It's not a disaster movie, but a great '70s investigation movie -- which is entirely about both good guys and villain using their considerable intelligence at a variety of tasks -- is "The Day of the Jackal." Really brilliant stuff.

And, to say a kind word for remakes, I find the Pierce Brosnan "The Thomas Crown Affair" superior to the Steve McQueen version, in large part because in that case, it's the remake that has more intriguing twists. (Not to mention that I can more easily buy Pierce Brosnan as a bored, whimsical billionaire. I never quite believe in Steve McQueen without some grease on his knuckles.)

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

Hah! I always say that The Thomas Crown Affair is one of the few where the remake outstrips the original. The remake DOES have more twists! And also, hello Rene Russo's wardrobe.

YOu know, I haven't seen The Day of the Jackal in a LOOOOONG time. (Yet another one where Bruce Willis did a remake [I think it was him?] that was inferior) But I do love a movie where the characters are smarter than the audience and when the plot is revealed it's a surprise to us TOO, just how clever the Jackal was.

I am getting my hands on that one ASAP.