Review for Juggernaut

Introduction

I had no concept of how the entertainment industry worked when I was a child, quite understandably so. All I knew was that I’d see films that I liked on television, and once a year at first, then every few months, the films would be repeated, and I’d look forward to watching them once more. Then suddenly, the channels (there were only three of them then) would move onto something else, and I’d never see those films again. I’d never have considered back then that forty odd years later, I’d be able to revisit some of my favourites on something like Blu-ray, with the films looking even better now in high definition and with modern audio, than they did on a wooden surround 21 inch mono audio colour TV.


When it came to sea-bound thrillers, I had a couple of go-to favourites in the seventies and eighties, back when I was first forming my appreciation of cinema. North Sea Hijack and Raise the Titanic were staples in the eighties, but they replaced this film, Juggernaut in TV schedules, which was a mainstay matinee feature in the late seventies. The thing is that Juggernaut dates from 1974, and probably would have made it to TV a couple of years later. I wouldn’t have had the experience with cinema to have anything to compare it to. Now that I have decades of movie watching under my belt, I could say, “as long as it’s better than Speed 2: Cruise Control” but I’ve never actually seen the latter.


The Britannic has just finished a refit, but it’s not the best day to set sail on a cruise across the Atlantic to America. It’s sailing into stormy weather, both literally and figuratively. Not long after its departure, the managing director of the company gets a phone call from ‘Juggernaut’, claiming that there are seven bombs on board the ship, and there is just until dawn the next day to pay a ransom. The stormy weather means that none of the 1200 passengers and crew can be taken off the ship, and it’s going to be the devil’s time trying to get Lt Cmdr Anthony Fallon’s bomb disposal squad aboard. And these bombs have been created by a demolitions artist...

The Disc

Juggernaut gets a 1.85:1 widescreen 1080p transfer on this disc, with PCM 2.0 Mono English audio and optional English subtitles. The image is clear and sharp, although the look of the film is somewhat drab and grey, no doubt reflecting the stormy cruise, coupled with early seventies Britain. The look of the movie is properly filmic, with a nice level of grain, although there is flicker in a few scenes. The audio is excellent, clear and well balanced, keeping the important dialogue clear throughout, although there is a lot of easy-to-miss background dialogue given the film’s somewhat documentary style.

The images in this review were kindly supplied by Eureka Entertainment.

Extras

The disc boots to an animated menu and you’ll find the following extras.

Down With The Ship – Sheldon Hall on Juggernaut (20:17)
All Hand On Deck – Neil Sinyard on Juggernaut (27:33)
Still Gallery (19:58 slideshow)
Original Theatrical Trailer (2:54)
Audio Commentary with Melanie Williams and James Leggott

The first run release of 2000 copies will also get o-card packaging and a collector’s booklet with writing on the film from Laura Mayne.

Conclusion

Was the “red wire or blue wire” bomb defusing cliché a cliché back in 1974? Certainly I would have yet to encounter my first cliché the first time I watched this film aged four or five. I’ve rolled my eyes at four decades of clichés since then, and Juggernaut doesn’t quite enthral me the same way. It’s a competent enough thriller, a well put together story, but the pace is glacial, and the documentary storytelling style does little to add to the suspense. It has an amazing cast, Richard Harris, Omar Sharif, David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins, and Ian Holm among others, but the energy just isn’t there.


You can hear in the extras how this film was marketed as, and in some quarters seen as a disaster movie, but it’s more an ‘avert the disaster’ movie, and is better described as a crime thriller. But it does take a page out of many of the period disaster movies, and makes something of a soap opera of its characters’ lives before the proverbial hits the fan.


For its genre, it’s not one for stunts and action. Instead its conflicts are of the cerebral sort, as the authorities race to find Juggernaut on the mainland, as Fallon’s team play chess-games with the seven bombs aboard ship, hoping to defuse them. You wind up relying on the characters to make the film come to life, and alas that only sporadically happens. I love the Fallon character, and Richard Harris plays him with a fatalistic joie de vivre that seems self-contradictory but given the character, the gleeful gallows humour is appropriate. Ian Holm’s shipping boss is put upon from all sides, dealing with a mad bomber, and a representative of HM Government who keeps reminding him that said government doesn’t negotiate with terrorists.


Oddly enough, after all this time, the best thing about Juggernaut turns out to be Roy Kinnear, who plays the ship’s entertainment officer. He has a hard enough time lifting spirits in the middle of a gale that has rendered most of the passengers seasick, but then he has the impossible task of raising morale in the face of imminent explosive death.


This is one of those films where I get a thrill from watching them just for the nostalgia factor. For an hour or so, I’m transported back to the little boy that would sit attentively on the carpet in front of the wooden box in the corner of the room, and that’s always a good feeling. But if you lack those particular rose tinted specs, Juggernaut might be something of a disappointment.

You can get Juggernaut direct from Eureka Entertainment and from mainstream retailers.