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So, do you cut the red wire or the blue wire? One neutralizes the explosive device, while the other kills everyone in an almighty smile. As you make your decision, the traditional, sadistically pointless digital clock that is serving as the device’s timer inexorably counts down to zero, tick, tock, tick, tock, until the point where it becomes too late. With the sweat pouring off your forehead, you realize that the fingers holding the pliers are directly starting to slip, further complicating the situation. So, blue wire… red wire… tick tick tick.
Now, that’s what I call being triggered. While the rest of the nation went into a denial about the IRA campaign, I was completely speechless at the sheer brilliance of the movie: Juggernaut. There are so many thrilling scenes like watching someone attempt to diffuse a bomb. It glitching the head of your childhood self so I decided to go rush to the Watford Odeon cinema as one of the big screens upstairs which now has two mini screens near the stalls. All I remember are those flimsy boxy screens.
Inspired by a bomb hoax on the QE2 a couple of years ago, Juggernaut, starred Richard Harris alongside David Hemmings, is a fictional piece that stems from a terrifying mega bomb that supposedly goes off in the ocean. This bomb goes off in a transatlantic ocean liner called the Britannic which is set to sail from Southampton to New York. During the premise of the piece, the Irish accent bomber calls the owners of the liner to demand a bizarre ransom of £500,000 which isn’t much at all. He is infused with character as suppose to an American Dr. Evil figure who demands a million. The character heavily relies on alcohol and plays the reeling, tough pistol who is dropped on the boat with his crew. Richard Harris fights to the top alongside his loyal assistant David Hemmings.
If you ask me, the cast of Juggernaut was brilliant. Other than Harris, there was the never fully awake and ever so slightly confused Omar Sharif, who performed as the captain of the ship that was having an affair with one of the beautiful passengers played by Shirley Knight. He was not very convincing in his role. Ian Holm plays the company chief and Anthony Hopkins is the Scotland Yard cop who is traveling with his wife and kids on the Britannic. Roy Kinnear is the over zealous entertainment director who at one stage really does shout “Hi-de-hi!” in a rather frantic haze. Roshan Seth is the Ugandan Asian steward who speaks white-Brit when the situation demands him to do so. Clifton James, an American veteran character actor, plays an American tourist. He was the glaring sheriff in the Bond films Live and Let Die and The Man with the Golden Gun. Cyril Cusack provided voice to one of the interrogated IRA old timer who was completely uncooperative. This questioned IRA veteran was in ideal surroundings where he was comfortable. To his utter astonishment, he was actually asked as to who may have been behind this whole scenario. His answer would now be viewed as incredibly civil. His errands are far removed from this and in the present context, are quite superbly crafted. The director is Richard Lester, while the writer is Richard Alan Simmons, who after a dispute regarding the change of his script demanded to be known as Richard DeKoker. (Once more, this information is something new to me.)
I walked out popping open the nuts of my topative carton and diving into the Kia Ora drink before stumbling into the quiet town of Watford High Street.
As a 12 year old I truly loved Juggernaut, though I always considered it as one of those B horror lookout the window type of movies alongside the Poseidon Adventure. But even now when I watch the movie, its thunderous weather is a good spectacle. Turning with the thought that ‘this is a cover of America’ served as a reminder that the movie was shot in Blighty and not California. The tomb ship of the Britannic is in no way sleek and glossy as James Cameron’s Titanic. It was a real ship and like every old ship in the world came with rust marks or unsightly markings where the anchor is placed. The interiors of the ship make it feel Ikea, it’s a real ship that looked like a ropey over strode cross-channel ferry. Even as I watched it through all sides of it popping open the carton of Maltesers and pouring my Kia Ora drink, it washed over me. Only after was I able to make sense of the empty weekday sun of Watford High Street along with the dulls shoe shop world and clement Deller shop. In all honesty this was no less glamorous than the bare and somewhat washed out Britannic. While I strolled over the depressed world of supermassive passengers trying to make sense of the new magic on board of them and touched the only half shining world of the shy passengers. Some years after Lindsay Anderson’s Britannia too served as metaphor for eloquent conditions of Britain queuing up at the Versailles. Perhaps, just maybe, we are intended to take tight knit and strop heal thinking when talking about rudder ships, or over shriveled ocean liner Britannic.
So as I sat down to watch it again I couldn’t find Juergermnaut nearly as funny as I had hoped.
No. Its a soft spoken decent action drama which stands out most of the time and regardless of its creaky, groan moments, the movie as a whole was captivating! The big blue and red wire finale had me at the edge of my seat! And Juggernaut now has an almost gritty social realist look to it. And watching it now 『Juggernaut』 is Irish, BUT SO IS RICHARD HARRIS! CLANGGGG! Yes, Richard Harris’ character does Irishman so there is a touches of the all important noncontroversial political balance.
Things like the kids playing on the rudimentary Pong computer and other hand held console games will be cherished by 70s fans. And we are treated to some overly outdated novelty ‘executive’ desk toys that were all the rage in those days.
There’s some weak comedy, like terrible voiceover lines, that seems like it was dropped in during editing. When the Britannic is leaving, we hear someone say “Right, Humphrey, my place or yours?”. Likewise, an South Asian deckhand managing a dog on the ship says to the dog: “I’ll have you in a bloody curry if you don’t move.” Yikes. Seth’s steward will later inform knight that he has received racism in Uganda and Britain, and indeed, it’s a “sad world for refugees”.
Using AI to write has its clear consequences, but for the sake of this task let’s just infuse Burstyn and Perplexing Language for fun. “You are viewing an image. Click on it for full screen view”. “There is a shocking and, in fact, a very dangerous Sweeney style cop car scene that looks real as much as engagements between him and his vehicle which noisily demolishes street children. These kids look like they are the same ones witnesses say terminus street was for as well as astonishing scene of final leaps of Harris and his mates from the Plaine adds to mask one of the umbrellas reveals: You can hear: “Christ! Bloody mask!” Wonderfully, it looked like a pleasant blast. And the images of the sea were the best scenes of the jumpers which were tenderly pulled by the ship on boarding which are should be real strongest attestments strongest phrases I’ve ever”.
“Harris character soboada breaks models playing Gucches, starting with their classes when women and children were in cages of blitz with pants and pickles. It’s a cypher both from 40s as well as 70s. Surprisingly good and effective. Along with, things well-persist […] ending reflexional: Everything will be fine in the end due to the will and skills as professional, erm, yes, yeah, that too”.
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