The Burning Heaven "The Towering Inferno" is one of the most memorable works in the disaster film genre that I have ever seen. This is probably one of the first works that managed to show so competently, beautifully, frighteningly and on a large scale what a horror a fire in a skyscraper can turn into, which literally turned the sky into a flaming clot of horror. The film runs for almost three hours. It's coming in a big way. You will be able to see all possible rainbow of events on the screen: disaster, drama, thriller. The director of the film was John Gillermin, who would later be known for the dilogy about King Kong and Death on the Nile in 1978. Here, the author showed himself to be a competent leader and visionary, Gillermin used all possible ways to plausibly convey what was happening in a huge skyscraper. The ideological inspiration for the film was two books at once: "Glass Hell" and "The Tower". The project came out really big. Two studios were working on it at once. Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox shared the costs, and then the profits from the rental. Many technologies were used in the work, including rearprojections, a wandering mask, rotoscoping and shooting scale models. All this was successfully integrated into the concept of the work and made it possible to show the tragedy that happened in a multi-storey building as much as possible for its time (and this is 1974). An impressive budget of 14 million. dollars are literally felt in this movie. After all, the creators have done a great job, creating as many as five floors of a screen skyscraper. In general, the film crew did a great job, creating a lot of important interior items, a lot of shots of San Francisco, the location in order to then merge it all together under the clear guidance of the director. The cast is also pleased. The famous Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, William Holden, Faye Dunaway, Fred Astaire, Richard Chamberlain, Jennifer Jones, O. J. Simpson and many others look organically in the film. On the screen, their characters look convincing and make you watch with interest how and who behaves in the emerging extreme situation. But I would especially like to mention the work of McQueen, who perfectly showed the fire chief, and Newman, who acted as the architect of the ill-fated building. They are convincing, they attract, you empathize with them and really stand up for their fate. The characters came out very diverse. It is very interesting to observe a small society of escapees. After all, it is in such extreme conditions that people manifest themselves. Of course, everything is different. Someone will do a lot of good deeds, and someone will reveal himself to be a scoundrel, someone will frankly get lost in the crowd, unable to take responsibility for saving others. Such a scattering of different personalities gives the picture even more interest, successfully combining with the events that are taking place, which, as I said above, were perfectly created with the help of special effects. This approach made it possible to create one of the most memorable films, which will still be watched with special interest today, and there are hardly those who will scold the effects of that time. After all, they were created very coolly, allowing you to believe in the reality of what is happening on the screen. "The Towering Inferno" won three Oscars at once: for best cinematography, best song and best editing. Well-deserved victories. The picture came out strong and memorable. This project seems to have raised the bar to a new level, bringing disaster films closer to modern standards. This is a strong film that evokes emotions and rightfully takes its place of honor among large-scale projects. 9 out of 10