The Poseidon Adventure

Disasters happen for a purpose; though they may have negative aspects they can also prove to be helpful. This is the overall theme of both The Poseidon Adventure and The Poseidon. The Poseidon Adventure clearly and effectively illustrates a sense of teamwork; however The Poseidon is displaying more individualism than teamwork. The most important Aristotelian unities are characters and meaning as they have the biggest differentiating views between these two movies.

Within these movies the characters are similar in several ways the most important being their personalities. Though many of the characters appearances have obviously changed, their personalities are still intact. A primary example would be of Connor from The Poseidon, also known as Robert in The Poseidon Adventure. They are both kids, both are innocent. Finally and most importantly both of these characters are courageous as displayed in the scene where he jumps from the table on onto the table sheet.

Many of the personalities have been changed by the director in the remake. For example James Martin from the original Poseidon Adventure is mentally stable and has had a fairly good life up to the point in which the S.S Poseidon begins to sink. On the other hand his counterpart who in The Poseidon is named Richard Nelson is mentally unstable. As the remake progresses Mr. Nelson becomes more mentally stable than he was at the beginning of the movie. What sets these two actors apart is their mindset. Richard attempts to commit suicide by jumping off the boat but catching sight of the wave he dashes away.

The meaning that in incorporated within this story is very interesting as it does stay true in most of its aspects throughout both of the movies. A widely known similarity between the two is the theory that the movie is trying to convey the message that this ship is a microcosm of the world. It is a smaller version of the world. This is what the world would be if it were to be flipped upside down and only chaos ensued. Another theme that these two movies share is the idea that when another human is in danger, even the people that believe they are alone in the world such as the counterpart of Rogo in The Poseidon, who is Dylan Johns, can prevail and have sympathy towards other living beings. Dylan illustrates this when he goes back to look for Maggie and her son, just as in the original Poseidon Adventure Belle Rosen comes in to save Reverend Scott from the platform in which he is trapped under. A symbol commonly shared between the two movies is the wave that tilts the entire ship. This wave in both of the movies is believed to be the forces of Hell itself attacking the innocent, making the part of the ship completely submerged in water to become a part of Hell. This is ironic as Hell is not usually associated with water but in this case I believe that water is a liquid and so is lava, and even though one is more viscous than the other lava and water seem to relate in both movies when introducing the idea of Hell.

The themes in the remake were also completely different during parts of the movie. An excellent example would be of the theme that the original movie displayed, God wasn`t helping them until the end when the helicopters found them. To put it simply the remake included several times in which God looked as if his hand had performed a miracle right on the ship. In the scene where the paths to the bow thrusters are impenetrable with water, then suddenly there are explosions and the water moves to the other side of the ship allowing them to pass. This clever ploy implicated by the director shows that he is trying to show that faith has helped them. This may be because in the original movie the group had a Jewish couple (Belle Rosen and Manny Rosen) with them but in the remake they didn`t. Therefore it seemed as if God favoured them because he believed that they were not traitors to associate with Jewish people. There are many symbols that have not been implicated from the first movie into the second. The crucifix symbol which is carried around by Elena in the remake is not implicated properly. The cross she wears represents new life and as Belle passed the cross on to her husband Manny Rosen in the original movie it is not passed on in this movie but instead left there with the cadaver. Therefore I believe that this symbol was put to waste, and it could’ve been utilized much better than it was. These stories were both very well developed and the symbols and meanings to both movies had several similarities as well as differences. Thus proving that two different directors reforming the same movie. As well as using the same idea will have differentiating viewpoints on how the movies should flow.