JUGGERNAUT

US, 1974, 110 minutes, Colour.
Richard Harris, Omar Shariff, David Hemmings, Anthony Hopkins, Ian Holm, Shirley Knight, Roy Kinnear.
Directed by Richard Lester.

Juggernaut is one of the best of the disaster films so far. It is more modest in intention and execution and more solidly successful. The basic situation is ordinary enough: bombs on a transatlantic liner! But the film makes a lot of the characters, Richard Harris as the blustering defuser, Anthony Hopkins and Ian Holm as Scotland Yard and shipping men, cameos by Cyril Cusack, Michael Hordern, Freddie Jones. Omar Shariff is a bland ship's captain. Roy Kinnear stands out in his attempts to keep people enjoying the voyage. Suspense is well generated, the passenger response to the threats quite credible, dialogue, especially Harris's, has a strongly wry tone.

1. The tone of the title for a disaster film? How good an adventure was it? The style of the film - its heroics? The disaster itself and the threats, how interesting?

2. Why do disaster films appeal to modern audiences? Identification with the situation, the risk of death, the drive for survival, the suspense, the cross-section of ordinary people involved?

3. How successful was this film as a disaster epic? Its economy of style and characterisation? Its precision and briskness in the adventure? Its use of character and humour?

4. How plausible was the entire story? Getting the explosives on to the ship? The landing on the ship? The unclocking of the bombs? Did it matter during the film whether the story was plausible or not? Why?

5. How did the director create the atmosphere of the shipboard life? The opening sequences of people and the ship leaving? Especially with the social director and his attempts at humour and goodwill? How important was the character of the social director for the success of the film?

6. How interesting a hero was Fallon? How well could audiences identify with him and his enterprise and profession? The examples of his skill in the early part of the film? His style of work? His attitudes towards authority? As a hero with achievement? The character of his assistant Charlie Braddock - as following in Fallon's steps? His being killed in the explosion? Audience reaction to this? How important was Richard Harris's style, his Irish banter, his caustic comments and wit? How well do audiences identify with him in his final decision?

7. How well did the film draw the characters of the police? Superintendent McCloud? with his wife and children on the ship? His anxiety, his skill in getting leads, his handling of the whole case? Also Mr. Porter and the insurance money? His responsibility for the ship and the peoples lives? (The importance of the sequence of him at home with his children and the dither, contrasting with his handling of the case?) What was your response to the government official and his unwillingness to pay the money? How interesting was the searching out of possible suspects, the interviews with the potential exploders in prison, at the races, with Mr. Buckland at home?

8. How important was the character of Mr. Buckland for the film? Did you suspect him of being Juggernaut? How mad was he? What motivated his madness? Did he have a just case against the government? Why was he so malicious in order to achieve the explosion? His deception of Fallon and Fallon's ringing him correctly?

9. The importance of the characters on the ship for the enjoyment of the film -the captain and Omar Sharif's personality? Did the captain contribute anything to the film? His clash with Fallon? The rest of the crew and their relationships with the passengers?

10. How interesting were the passengers as characters? Mrs. Bannister and her cynicism and her relating to the captain? Her relationship to the social director and their dancing together? The children - especially with Azad and his being killed? Mr. Corrigan and his American style and suspicion?

11. How did the film portray the fear of the passengers and their coping with the crisis? The importance of the details of ship life? The importance of the party sequence and the social director's hilarity with Mrs. Bannister? (After the background of the storm at sea etc.?)

12. How interesting was the detail of the portrayal of ship life, explosives, the intricacy of the explosives and the work at diffusing the bombs. the mid-Atlantic dropping of the squad and the difficulty of getting them aboard etc.?

13. Was the happy ending appropriate and satisfying for audiences? Why?