moonspinner55 Fictionalized account of the lives that were lost and those who survived after the German airship Hindenburg crashed in flames just prior to landing at Lakehurst Naval Air Station in New Jersey on May 6, 1937, having just completed its first round trip between Europe and North America. Director Robert Wise delivers a handsome film here, yet humorless, methodical Wise was probably the wrong filmmaker to take on this melodrama. Despite his effective usage of actual newsreel footage that gives the picture its third-act punch, "The Hindenburg" is basically a disaster movie in the sky, recognized on its release as part of the disaster movie cycle popular in the 1970s. But these movies were popular because they were trashy, popcorn entertainments. Wise doesn't stoop to such vulgar lows; he wants his film to be prestigious, a masterpiece, but after spending two arduous hours with the various 'colorful' characters on the guest list, one isn't inclined to be emotionally involved in the who-lived-and-who-died wrap-up. Most of the actors are miscast, anyway, particularly Anne Bancroft as a German Countess (by way of the Bronx) and Joanna Moore as a pregnant Broadway show-person with a Dalmatian (the Hindenburg did have two dogs aboard, but their fates differ from the happy ending given this screen pooch). Charles Durning has a thankless role as the ship's captain, barking commands until the disaster arrives, when he suddenly becomes human and shouts "No!" George C. Scott is effective as a colonel assigned to board the airship as a security officer in response to a bomb threat and Roy Thinnes does a good job as the ship's photographer who may not be what he seems. The cinematography by Robert Surtees is indeed marvelous, but the picture just doesn't deliver the genre thrills or suspense you may be hoping for. Wise mounts the proceedings carefully but without any flair. The idle chit-chat up in the air seems monotonous and pointless, and the only thing to look forward to is the finale, a long time in coming. ** from ****

Ed-Shullivan This is a pretty good dramatization of an historical and tragic event based on theory only and not all factual is known about that fatal day on May 06th, in 1937. George C. Scott is very good as the leading actor as is Anne Bancroft as the leading actress.There are some very suspenseful scenes in the film that grab the audiences attention and you cannot let go until you see what happens next. An example of which is when the flight crew discover there is a gaping hole in the outer skin of the Hindenburg and two brave crew men go out on top of the Hindenburg as it is flying low and slow. The two crew men are tied to a rope around their waste in an attempt to seal the gaping hole before the captain of the Hindenburg gives the order to go full throttle to avoid the Hindenburg crashing and killing everyone aboard.Hindenburg began its last flight on May 3, 1937, carrying 36 passengers and 61 officers, crew members, and trainees. It was the airship's 63rd flight. The film quality on Blu Ray is excellent and the film makers designed the Hindenburg's seating and viewing area identical to the actual air ship. Although this is more of a dramatization of certain events the facts are true that the Hindenburg exploded at Lakehurst, New Jersey on May 6, 1937, caught fire as it was filled with hydrogen and burned to the ground. This was a very tragic day for aviation history and it caused the deaths of thirteen (13) of the 36 passengers, and twenty-two (22) of the 61 crew, who died as a result of the zeppelin's crash.Historically, there is no evidence of sabotage that was ever found, and no convincing theory of sabotaged has ever been advanced. George C. Scott plays the lead investigator Colonel Franz Ritter charged with determining if the written warning the Kremlin received prior to the Hindenburg flight departing that the Hindenburg was going to be destroyed and Colonel Franz Ritter's known relationship with the passenger Countess Ursula von Reugen (Anne Bancroft) who chose to travel on the Hindenburg in an attempt to escape to New Jersey with her most valuable jewels to stay with her daughter who was away at boarding school.Will these two characters and the many other interesting passengers survive, and who is responsible if there is in fact a bomb aboard the Hindenburg? This is a suspenseful film worth watching.I give The Hindenburg a 7/10 rating.

Coventry There simply couldn't have been a better period to turn the case of the Hindenburg into a cinematic event than during the 1970s! It was the glorious heyday of immense and overwhelming disaster movies, and even though the vast majority of classic titles back then were purely fictionalized stories, the fundamentally facts-based story of the last and fatal flight of the legendary passenger zeppelin perfectly fits in the tone and style of the disaster-era. The Hindenburg crash as it occurred in May 1937 in Lakehurst, New Jersey, is a truly fascinating historical news fact. I read many articles and watched a lot of archive footage, thanks to the well reserved news coverage on the spot, and I'm glad to have finally watched the film. "The Hindenburg" is definitely a showcasing of pure cinematic craftsmanship. The multi-talented and versatile Robert Wise proved himself to be the ideal captain for such a bombastic and politically sensitive movie-flight, and this resulted in a tense atmosphere on board, stupendous acting performances, terrific dialogs, awesome set designs and sound effects and – above everything – some of the best editing ever witnessed on film, during the climax when actual news footage of the burning crash is mixed with sequences of the film in black and white. There exist many theories on what, in fact, caused the dramatic combustion of the mastodon airship (for example static electricity and engine trouble hypothesizes) but the film obviously revolves entirely around the most intriguing theory of them all: sabotage! When a clairvoyant US woman out of the blue claims that the Hindenburg will explode on American soil, former Luftwaffe Colonel Franz Ritter is promptly assigned to board the ship and identify the potential saboteur(s). Ritter has a large number of suspects to choose from, from prominent German citizens to some of his own personal friends, as well as crew members, on-board entertainers and disillusioned Hitlerjugend veterans. With the emphasis on Ritter's complex and delicate investigation, 90% of the film is of course very talkative and slow- paced. Robert Wise, with the help of George C. Scott in great shape and the rest of the excellent ensemble cast, nevertheless keeps the level of suspense quite high and constant and you'll quickly find yourself guessing along with Franz about who on board might have a hidden agenda. Being a perfectionist director, Robert Wise was clearly also obsessed with recreating the era and delivering props, costumes and models to exacting standards, which makes "The Hindenburg" all the more captivating to behold. The last 10-15 minutes are downright phenomenal (and not at all exploitative and sick, like some other reviewers around here suggest) because you are watching a real tragedy and you feel helpless. The vast majority of victims are Nazis, true, but a tragedy nonetheless. In good old 70s disaster-movie tradition, the cast list is full of elite names (George C. Scott, Charles Durning, Anne Bancroft, Burgess Meredith, William Atherton …) and they all deliver.

tieman64 "The Hindenburg" is a speculative thriller by Robert Wise. Wise often picked interesting material, and this one revolves around a supposed conspiracy which took place aboard The Hindenburg, the famous German airship which was destroyed by fire on May 6th, 1937. The Hindeburg was and still is the longest flying machine ever created by man.There's something crass about using a real-life disaster for a thriller plot, but ignore this and the film has some interesting elements. For most of its running time, for example, "Hindenburg" functions like an Agatha Christie styled mystery, actor George C. Scott playing a Luftwaffe security agent tasked with protecting the airship from various threats. In this regard, the first half of the film delights in laying out several red-herrings and false leads, we the audience unsure as to which of the airship's passengers or crew may be plotting its demise. Scott himself suspects that anti-Hitler terrorists are plotting to "symbolically" blow up the Hindenburg, but what's unique here is that he sympathises with the saboteurs and has no scruples with them carrying out their actions.Mostly, though, the film works best when it's completely ignoring its thriller plot. Scott, who spends the film brooding awesomely (like a noir detective, a kind of pensive, ageing Bogart), has various "romantic" encounters with middle aged women, which Wise suffuses with wistful dialogue and magnificently melodramatic tunes courtesy composer David Shire. Another good scene features a satirical, anti-Nazi song. Even better are the film's evocative special effect shots, most of which were done by Albert Whitlock, regarded by many as the best matte artist of all time. His work is beautiful and convincing, and the film's shots of bulbous airships, skylines, landing strips and landscapes are at times special, particularly a few shots in which Whitlock recreates famous photos of the Hindenburg flying over Europe and the New York skyline. You have to be an aviation buff to like this stuff.Unfortunately whatever merit the film has is completely undermined by its climax. The film's last act is horrible, Wise inter-cutting real footage of the Hindenburg's demise with poor special effects shots and much silly carnage. He also makes the decision to shoot the calamity in black-and-white, so as to match up with historical, archival footage. It's a poor decision. If you can't render the airship's destruction convincingly with special effects, omit the destruction altogether. Have it alluded to in some other way. The film's climax ruins the entire film.Airships have a certain beauty about them. They conjure up a very specific type of romanticism; the romanticism of the 1930s, of flying, of new-fandangled air machines, heroic pilots and aviator sunglasses. It used to be an adventure to fly, glamorous even. Now air-machines are antiseptic and airports have all the allure of bus terminals. Incidentally, outside the Hindenburg, the most famous airship is perhaps the Graf Zeppelin, a massive German passenger airship which circumnavigated the globe in 1929. It had a spotless safety record, was made famous by various newsreels and documentaries which delighted in capturing its gigantic mass as it heaved itself over cities, oceans and skyscrapers, but was ultimately dismantled by the Nazis at the outset of WW2. As America had a monopoly on non-flammable gas, and as the public lost faith in the use of flammable hydrogen post the Hindenburg disaster, Germany's "age of airships" eventually ended come the 1940s. Before this, many interesting plans were made to retrofit skyscrapers and buildings in London and New York. The top floors of the Empire State Building, for example, were to house the docking ports and headquarters of American Zeppelins. So cool.7.9/10 – Worth one viewing. See "The Sand Pebbles".