Richard Lester's Juggernaut (1974) stands apart from other all-star disaster movies of the 1970s such as The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, Earthquake and Airport in that it downplays the spectacle, depending more on offbeat relationships, wry humor and well-developed suspense than heroic characters, epic action scenes and special effects. Like such other Lester credits as A Hard Day's Night (1964), A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966), Petulia (1968) and The Three Musketeers (1974), Juggernaut is directed with visual flair and edited with imagination (especially in the bomb-defusing sequences).

The threatened disaster is the blowing up of a transAtlantic ocean liner, the "Britannic," by a mad terrorist who calls himself "Juggernaut" and demands a half-million pounds in ransom. The cast includes the requisite number of stars, all of whom also happen to be solid actors. Omar Sharif is the ship's captain; Anthony Hopkins is a navigation-company official whose wife and children are aboard; Richard Harris and David Hemmings are part of the bomb-disposal team; and Shirley Knight is a passenger who happens to be Shariff's mistress. Harris comes near to stealing the show as the wisecracking explosives expert, although Roy Kinnear gives him some competition as a bumbling social director charged with distracting the passengers from the danger at hand.

Kinnear was an actor much favored by Lester, who cast him in no less than nine movies. In the year that Juggernaut was released by United Artists, Hopkins came to the U.S. for his first lengthy stay, appearing on Broadway in Equus and working in American films. In the "Goofs" department, Hopkins' friend Cyril Cusack, appearing in Juggernaut in the unbilled role of Major O'Neill, greets his pal in one scene by saying, "Hello, Tony." (Hopkins' moniker in the film is "Johnny.")

Producer: Richard DeKoker, David V. Picker, Denis O'Dell (Associate)
Director: Richard Lester
Screenplay: Richard DeKoker, Alan Plater (additional dialogue)
Cinematography: Gerry Fisher
Production Design: Terence Marsh
Art Direction: Alan Tomkins
Original Music: Ken Thorne
Editing: Antony Gibbs
Costume Design: Evangeline Harrison
Principal Cast: Richard Harris (Commander Anthony Fallon), Omar sharif (Captain Alex Brunel), David Hemmings (Charlie Braddock), Anthony Hopkins (Supt. John McCleod), Shirley Knight (Barbara Banister), Ian Holm (Nicholas Porter), Clifton James (Corrigan), Roy Kinnear (Social Director Curtain).
C-110m. Letterboxed. Closed Captioning.

by Roger Fristoe