I hadn't seen Juggernaut since the 1970s, but I just rewatched it on Netflix the other night. It was actually better than I remembered, except that I didn't remember the kids being so obnoxious.
Normally, I'm rather neutral about kids in movies, but in this case, these kids were just too annoying. Especially that one kid who's sneaking down into the galley while it's closed.
Yeah and he gets that nice guy killed, I know what you're talking about. It was a shame that fellow died, but I think the kid's mother must have given him a good lesson after that, she seemed like a tough mom.
Tell you what I got on my side - the confidence of youth.
I saw this again for the third or fourth time since 1974, and yes, I remember being annoyed even then at the obnoxious kid going where he wasn't supposed to and getting a good man killed who saved his life, and still jerking around afterwards happy as you please, cheerfully telling his dad the policeman about being blown up in his pyjamas.
Only this time I was even more annoyed at the mom who first lets her brat wander off, then laying the responsibility of finding him on the steward, getting him killed as a result, and then not even telling off her brat, because if she did, he wouldn't have been so cheerful and unconcerned talking to his dad. The mom really didn't do anything but sit around looking depressed and feeling sorry for herself.
Richard Lester is a very smart director, and I'm sure this was not an oversight on his part but he really wanted the audience to be annoyed by this.
I hated that blasted brat...I can imagine Lester far preferring to have had *him* be dispatched in the explosion; but it would have been, I think, absolutely impossible to have a child die violently in a film from that era, and probably even less likely for a British-made film to depict that.
Nonetheless, I think the audience might have actually cheered if Lester had done the scene that way, lol.
At any rate, none of the brats got much screentime. And they were nowhere near as annoying as any kid ever to have appeared in a Spielberg movie.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
I must include the Captain's love interest almost as annoying. I'm sure she was thinking they'd have a nice, romantic time during calm seas, but for God's sake, woman! The Captain's dealing with dangerous seas and seven bombs aboard his ship. Cut him a damn break, will you? She gets her feelings all hurt because he doesn't have time for her? Ugh.
shareIt's all part of the movie's theme of Britain going to the dogs: children running riot and having no respect for authority (witness the kids giving The Filth a pair of Vs outside the investigation hub).
"Someone has been tampering with Hank's memories."
Nice to see you keeping 1970s Sweeney nomenclature alive Blood. My favourites are the girls in Sid 'n' Nancy, who hockey stick the cars as they run past.
Marlon, Claudia & Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007, 2010. Clio, July 1997 - 1 May 2016.
The kids are alright......
"Someone has been tampering with Hank's memories."