The flying crematorium

Coventry

There simply couldn't have been a better period to turn the case of the Hindenburg into a cinematic event than during the 1970s! It was the glorious heyday of immense and overwhelming disaster movies, and even though the vast majority of classic titles back then were purely fictionalized stories, the fundamentally facts-based story of the last and fatal flight of the legendary passenger zeppelin perfectly fits in the tone and style of the disaster-era. The Hindenburg crash as it occurred in May 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey, is a truly fascinating historical news fact. I read many articles and watched a lot of archive footage, thanks to the well reserved news coverage on the spot, and I'm glad to have finally watched the film. "The Hindenburg" is definitely a showcasing of pure cinematic craftsmanship. The multi-talented and versatile Robert Wise proved himself to be the ideal captain for such a bombastic and politically sensitive movie-flight, and this resulted in a tense atmosphere on board, stupendous acting performances, terrific dialogs, awesome set designs and sound effects and – above everything – some of the best editing ever witnessed on film, during the climax when actual news footage of the burning crash is mixed with sequences of the film in black and white. There exist many theories on what, in fact, caused the dramatic combustion of the mastodon airship (for example static electricity and engine trouble hypothesizes) but the film obviously revolves entirely around the most intriguing theory of them all: sabotage! When a clairvoyant US woman out of the blue claims that the Hindenburg will explode on American soil, former Luftwaffe Colonel Franz Ritter is promptly assigned to board the ship and identify the potential saboteur(s). Ritter has a large number of suspects to choose from, from prominent German citizens to some of his own personal friends, as well as crew members, on-board entertainers and disillusioned Hitlerjugend veterans. With the emphasis on Ritter's complex and delicate investigation, 90% of the film is of course very talkative and slow- paced. Robert Wise, with the help of George C. Scott in great shape and the rest of the excellent ensemble cast, nevertheless keeps the level of suspense quite high and constant and you'll quickly find yourself guessing along with Franz about who on board might have a hidden agenda. Being a perfectionist director, Robert Wise was clearly also obsessed with recreating the era and delivering props, costumes and models to exacting standards, which makes "The Hindenburg" all the more captivating to behold. The last 10-15 minutes are downright phenomenal (and not at all exploitative and sick, like some other reviewers around here suggest) because you are watching a real tragedy and you feel helpless. The vast majority of victims are Nazis, true, but a tragedy nonetheless. In good old 70s disaster-movie tradition, the cast list is full of elite names (George C. Scott, Charles Durning, Anne Bancroft, Burgess Meredith, William Atherton …) and they all deliver.

score 7/10

Coventry 18 February 2015

Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw3186248/