Richard Lester's 1974 disaster thriller Juggernaut takes place onboard a luxury cruise ship called The Britannic, a massive boat with twelve hundred people onboard, either employees or passengers. Nobody on the ship really has any reason to suspect that the ship's latest voyage should be anything out of the ordinary, least of all Captain Alex Brunel (Omar Sharif), the social director Curtain (Roy Kinnear) or a female passenger named Barbara Bannister (Shirley Knight) who has got eyes for Brunel. Soon, however, it turns out that a terrorist calling himself ‘Juggernaut' has planted some barrels of explosives in different locations around the ship. He then goes on to demand a huge ransom and if he isn't paid what he wants when he wants, he'll detonate those explosives and kill everybody onboard.

Enter two bomb diffusing experts: Anthony Fallon (Richard Harris) and Charlie Braddock (David Hemmings). These are the guys that the powers that be are going to get onto the boat and then depend on to take care of the problem. Meanwhile a Scotland Yard officer named John McLeod (Sir Anthony Hopkins) does what he can to figure out the identity of the madman responsible for this while there's still time.

Despite a pretty impressive cast Juggernaut isn't a particularly flashy movie. It is quite competently shot and it makes very good use of an actual cruise liner as its central location, capturing interesting little details as its story unfolds, but those expecting big explosive set pieces or effects intensive action scenes may be disappointed if that's all they are after. That's not a slam against the film, however, as it does what it does quite well, but rather an observation that the film is more of a character piece than an action film. It's effective in how it ramps up tension though, and it definitely earns points for a very effective finale with an interesting twist that most will not see coming.

Lester exercises excellent directorial control over the film. The pacing is not going to blow you out of your seat but it will keep you on the edge of it as it builds very nicely. While the movie isn't slow, it is deliberate and the movie as a whole does tend to focus as much on how the situation affects the characters in the story as it does on the race to the finish. Central to this is Richard Harris, who really does lead the film. His character is noble in that he's out to save the day but at the same time he's never portrayed as more than human, having to battle his own demons (he hits the bottle at what most of us would consider to be inopportune times but seems to need it to calm his nerves) as he sets out to resolve the situation, if he's able to. He plays the part well, and he and David Hemmings, who is also quite good here, have a believable chemistry together. Omar Sharif doesn't get as much to do and Shirley Knight really only seems to be in the movie to keep him busy but a young Anthony Hopkins is excellent here long before he became the figure that he is today.

The film also features some moments of effective humor, they're inserted into the movie well and don't take away from the suspense that dominates the picture once the plot is off and running. The movie easily sticks to the limits of its PG rating, never going too far with any unnecessary sex and violence and instead focusing on the exploits of some flawed men who find themselves in an extraordinary situation where they cannot afford to make mistakes.

Video:

Juggernaut arrives on Blu-ray in AVC encoded 1080p high definition framed at 1.66.1 widescreen. This is a nice transfer, free of any serious print damage and showing only a few minor specks here and there. Colors are reproduced quite nicely and while black levels are sometimes a little closer to really dark grey in some spots, for the most part they look good. There aren't any obvious compression artifacts to note nor is there any evidence of noise reduction to note. The image is free of edge enhancement and if some scenes have a bit of softness that looks inherent in the camerawork, typically detail is very good here as well.