The Hindenburg

Starring:George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, William Atherton, Roy Thinnes, Gig Young, Burgess Meredith, Charles Durning, Richard A. Dysart, Robert Clary, Rene Auberjonois, Peter Donat, Alan Oppenheimer, Katherine Helmond, Joanna Cook Moore, Stephen Elliott, Joyce Davis, Jean Rasey, Ted Gehring, Lisa Pera, Joe Di Reda
Director: Robert Wise
Studio: Universal Studios
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
"One gasbag meets another" is how critic Pauline Kael described the "flatulent seriousness" that director Robert Wise brought to this 1975 thriller about the ill-fated German zeppelin which exploded while landing in New Jersey in 1937. The great air disaster is speculatively depicted here as an act of sabotage, and the airship's trans-Atlantic journey gives the saboteur's plot plenty of time to unfold while the story introduces a variety of characters aboard for the luxurious flight. While the anti-Nazi message is delivered loud and clear, Anne Bancroft and George C. Scott lead an illustrious cast in what amounts to a pre-World War II episode of The Love Blimp, only there's not much romance and precious little suspense. It's all rather flatly intriguing, but aviation buffs will certainly appreciate the meticulous attention to period detail, and the film won special achievement Oscars for its impressive sound and visual effects. Worth a look, if you're a student of this particular chapter of history, and the movie earns some credit for having at least the kernel of a good idea. --Jeff Shannon

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Manufacturer: Image Entertainment
ProductGroup: DVD
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This definitive ten-part series offers insight and analysis to provide a coherent and strategic military narrative of the worldwide conflict that changed history.

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Don't Buy This DVD
The Hindenburg
The story is enticing, although a bit weak in scope...
An interesting conspiracy thriller in a disastrous DVD transfer
The Hindenburg

The Hindenburg
Starring: George C. Scott , Anne Bancroft , William Atherton , Roy Thinnes , and Gig Young
Director: Robert Wise
Manufacturer: Universal Studios
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

Disaster Films | Action & Adventure | Genres | DVD | Video

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ASIN: 0783229372
Release Date: 1998-10-27

Amazon.com

"One gasbag meets another" is how critic Pauline Kael described the "flatulent seriousness" that director Robert Wise brought to this 1975 thriller about the ill-fated German zeppelin which exploded while landing in New Jersey in 1937. The great air disaster is speculatively depicted here as an act of sabotage, and the airship's trans-Atlantic journey gives the saboteur's plot plenty of time to unfold while the story introduces a variety of characters aboard for the luxurious flight. While the anti-Nazi message is delivered loud and clear, Anne Bancroft and George C. Scott lead an illustrious cast in what amounts to a pre-World War II episode of The Love Blimp, only there's not much romance and precious little suspense. It's all rather flatly intriguing, but aviation buffs will certainly appreciate the meticulous attention to period detail, and the film won special achievement Oscars for its impressive sound and visual effects. Worth a look, if you're a student of this particular chapter of history, and the movie earns some credit for having at least the kernel of a good idea. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

Don't Buy This DVD.......2007-06-02

The movie itself rates maybe 3 stars; but I could barely watch it because the video quality was horrible. Universal should be ashamed at the graininess of the picture. I was so upset that I had been "taken" that I had trouble concentrating on the story. Furthermore, the explosion of the vessel at the end of the movie was filmed in black and white. I understand why -- it allowed for the interspersement of actual historical footage into the movie -- but it took away from what would have been a spectacular visual effect in color. Of course, the video quality was so bad that maybe it would not have mattered. I'm really angry that I bought this clunker.

The Hindenburg.......2007-05-13

The Film was very entertaining. Show details of the actually account. I reall enjoyed it

The story is enticing, although a bit weak in scope..........2007-04-20

Based on true historic events and some conjectured documents come to light in recent years, this may be one of the possible reasons of the catastrophy that befell the legendary "Hindenburg", pride and joy of the Third Reich at the time.

The cast is stellar for its times, including George C. Scott, Anne Bancroft, Gig Young, Charles Durning and a young William Atherton and many others.

But alas, George C. Scott, as a German intelligence Officer is a bit weak and compared with other roles he masterfully played, such as Patton (twice, in "Patton" and "The Last Days of Patton"), or even Mussolini, totally seems out of place. He seems bored with the part, rather than playing it to the hilt.

Anne Bancroft as a Jewish German aristocrat, fleeing her home country, plays her role well, but you never get the sense that she truly has to fight for her life.

The rest of the cast is professional, but lacks luster.

Even the actors playing the Gestapo henchmen, seem totally miscast and weak.

Except for a couple of very tense scenes towards the end of the movie, everything seems centered on the "flying" model of the Hindenburg.

At the end, and thank Heaven's for that, the producers decided to include some vintage - cleaned up - material of the actual disaster, intertwining it with studio filmed recreations of the panic and mayhem it caused.

In scope, the picture could have been a masterpiece, if only the characters had been recast and the story a bit more thrilling.

Suppose they had cast Maximilian Schell as the Intelligence Officer and Derren Nesbitt (remember him as SS-Sturmbannführer Von Hapen in "Where Eagles Dare" or as Colonel Hartmann in "The Naked Runner"), or even Karl-Otto Alberty (as Major von Diepel in "Battle of the Bulge", or the German Tiger Tank Commander in "Kelly's Heroes") as his Gestapo Nemesis, and you would have had a true and murderous Thriller in your hands.

Also, although I admire William Atherton's work as an actor, he simply never takes a bite at his role, as the main saboteur suspect. I am sure that Andrew Robinson, Ian Bannen or Tom Courtney would have made a far more convincing suspect.

All in all this is a watchable movie, although it takes a lot of liberties with historical facts, even if just down memory lane, to meet again some old glories at their peak of their respective careers.

It would also have helped, if before transferring this movie to DVD, they had cleaned up the special effects, which remain untouched and it shows.
The sound is mere Stereo, when we all know that the original presentation was in a Surround sound, which greatly enhanced the passages of the overflying Hindenburg and the sounds of its engines passing by.

A very weak effort by Universal to present its own glories in their digitalized format.
Like "Midway" and "MacArthur", Universal just slams their pictures on DVD as is.

They don't care to clean up defects, streaks, jumps, or even to check color continuity. Their movies, especially those of the mid-seventies, which especially in their epic and monumental ones, were originally produced with a Sensurround process are simply transferred with a 2-channel mono process.

While I can understand that reprocessing multi-channel Sensurround sound can be an expensive affair, especially when editing it with new digital 5.1 Dolby sound, and perhaps even in DTS process, I as a marketing consultant, would refrain them from releasing such movies in the state they are in nowadays, unless we had the money to restore them as they originally were shown.

Also missing from this release, and which was included in the LaserDisc of many moons ago, is a Black & White 60 minutes documentary on the evolution of the Zeppelin and the full story of the historic Hindenburg flights.

Why this is suddenly missing, is as much your guess as mine.

But for the price, what could you ask more? It is just 9 dollars, and for this price anything is right, although I would have wished for something more, even if at a higher price.

This choice is yours. Buy it or leave it, and hope that one day Universal may wake up and smell the coffee...

An interesting conspiracy thriller in a disastrous DVD transfer.......2007-03-05

No film that Pauline Kael despised on principle (in this case the principle that it was directed by Robert Wise) can be all bad, and so it proves with The Hindenburg, which falls somewhere between a countdown-to-catastrophe period political thriller a la Tora! Tora! Tora!, 70s conspiracy movie and by-the-numbers disaster movie. It's as a disaster movie that it fails the most: the destruction of the Hindenburg was simply too quick to make for much of a climax, and playing the famous black and white newsreel footage intercut with unimpressive cutaways to the less than stellar cast at the end feels like a real cheat, especially since it's often clumsily handled. On the plus side it offers a clever screen story from legendary Monday Mystery Movie TV scribes William Levinson and Richard Link that sees George C. Scott's reluctant Luftwaffe Colonel sent by Goebbels on the airship's last voyage to uncover a plot to destroy the ship and thus embarrass the Nazi regime that uses it for their own propaganda. While the real investigations in Germany and America give the film some momentum, unfortunately the search for suspects among this particular sedately paced Airship of Fools is less than urgent: indeed, it's pretty obvious who is behind the plot and how Scott will react when he uncovers him.

That the supporting cast is more solid than glittering doesn't help: Anne Bancroft's aristocratic old flame has little to do but bemoan the way the Nazis have taken over her estate, cheat at cards and smoke the kind of cigarettes you don't get over the counter, but still manages to make more of her part than the script does; Roy Thinnes does well as the Gestapo man hitting on a young Jewish passenger because "I'm anxious to try one before they run out"; Richard Dysart does the good German wondering what's happening to his country routine as one of the owners (who historically was more than happy to cosy up to the Nazis if it was good for business); Charles Durning keeps the glowering to a minimum as the pro-Nazi captain; Gig Young is clearly drunk in a couple of scenes (yes, I know he's playing a drunk, but he slurs even when he's supposed to be sober half the time); while star-that-never-was William Atherton lurks in the rigging moodily before saving the ship from the danger that his own incompetence puts it in the first place. Shame they couldn't have afforded a couple of British actors for Burgess Meredith and Rene Auberjonois' parts. However, it does boast one of Scott's more natural and likeably underplayed performances before his penchant for drunken Long John Silver impersonations took over, managing to keep it all together until things go bang. The production design is excellent, Albert Whitlock's special effects, while dated, are often impressive and there's a lovely score by David Shire that's recently been released as an extremely limited edition CD. And it's hard to write off a film entirely that has one nervous passenger suggest "Next time, let's take the Titanic."

Sadly, Universal's DVD is an appalling transfer: it may be in the original 2.35:1 widescreen ratio, but it looks like a public domain videocassette, with ghosting, edge enhancement problems and serious problems dealing with the airship's struts. It's watchable, but added to the lack of extras (aside from some production notes), it makes this one a reluctant purchase for the film's more ardent fans only until it gets remastered.

The Hindenburg.......2007-01-10

A superb video that should definitely be reproduced in DVD form!

Hindenburg Disaster Films DVD: Hydrogen Blimp and Zeppelin Explosion Footage

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Hindenburg Disaster Films DVD: Hydrogen Blimp and Zeppelin Explosion Footage

Manufacturer: Quality Information Publishers, Inc.
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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The Hindenburg

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Hindenburg Explodes (1937)
Pathe News Digest (1937, No. 3) (1937)

ASIN: B000I3SWKE

Product Description

This DVD includes astounding vintage footage of the Hindenburg, both before, during and after its tragic explosion! There are some especially rare shots of the ship above New York City. Of course, the explosion footage is amazingly tragic. This is a very important piece of video documentation. Don't miss it! Running time is 18 minutes. TABLE OF CONTENTS: Hindenburg Explodes (1937) - 6 minutes running time (no audio) - This silent film shows great extended footage of the disaster as it occurs. 6 amazing minutes of Hindenburg coverage. Pathe News Digest (1937, No. 3) (1937) - 12 minutes running time - This is a general newsreel compilation of the newsworthy events of 1937. Great footage of the Hindenburg explosion, and also includes footage of Amelia Earhart, Joseph Stalin and the Coronation of George VI.

Vintage Newsreels - Hindenburg, War, Social Events of the 1920s to the 1940s Film Library DVD

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Vintage Newsreels - Hindenburg, War, Social Events of the 1920s to the 1940s Film Library DVD

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ASIN: B000NL40BG

Product Description

This DVD contains a variety of 1920's to 1940's newsreel collections produced by various organizations showing the life and times of these eras. They cover a wide mix of events that were important to the people of that era. Some are silent and some have sound - and all are fascinating to watch. Here are some of the exciting film clips that make up this historical collection: President Coolidge having a White House reception - Runner Paavo Nurmi from Finland comes to the U.S. to train for a race - Saint Louis 45th annual carnical - Mrs. Coolidge is granted an honorary Doctor of Laws from BU - San Francisco police show how an arrest is made - Display of Russia's mastery of the air with skydiver demos - Learn how milk wool is made - The 1937 World's Pro Crown between the Washington Redskins and the Chicago Bears - Hindenburg disaster - The War in Madrid - King George abdicating - Amelia Earhart's last flight - and much more

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The Hindenburg Disaster
Starring: Hindenburg Disaster
Manufacturer: Classic Pictures
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The Hindenburg
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ASIN: B000244FCI
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Description

New York / Lakehurst, May 6th 1937, 7 pm: The "Hindenburg" has come all the way from Europe - a luxurious flying hotel, faster than any ship. The pride of the Third Reich prepares to land, and hundreds of onlookers have gathered to watch. Then, all of a sudden, a burst of flame appeared on the outer cover, just forward of the upper fin. In a matter of seconds, the largest airship ever built goes down in a fiery blaze. With the assistance of NASA experts, this compelling documentary follows the course of the Hindenburg's last flight and unravels the mystery of one of the greatest disasters this century.

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