The problem with making true stories is that the viewer already knows the outcome of the story. Most true stories center on someone's life thus giving the filmmakers a chance to show us insights we the viewer may not have known. When doing a film about an incident, the filmmakers are challenged to keep our interest high despite knowing how it all comes out.
The problem with "The Hindenburg", and it's a big one, is that the filmmakers have created a possible though unlikely scenario to explain why the infamous blimp exploded just prior to landing in 1936. The scenario created is that the explosion was caused by sabotage via a mad bomber. This would have worked fine had they remembered one thing. We already know coming in that the Hindenburg exploded and killed 36 people. Any tension that could have been created is then lost. When George C. Scott as a sympathetic(?) Nazi figures it all out it's a race against time to see if he can find the bomb and then diffuse it. But we know that can't happen so the only real tension in the whole movie is waiting to see which of the big name cast members are going to die. And it is a long, tedious wait until the final scenes.
Director Robert Wise incorporates real footage of the explosion with staged shots that mix together nicely. Again this comes in the last 10 minutes of the movie so we have to wait a while for the expected explosion. The final scenes are quite compelling. Unfortunately the first 110 minutes or so are a raging bore as we meet the cast and watch their individual stories. Anne Bancroft, Burgess Meredith, Charles Durning, and others join Scott for the flight but none of these characters are the least bit interesting. Only when their lives are in peril does any interest perk us up. And the only interest we have is seeing who survives but not caring who does and doesn't.
Director Wise has had a distinguished career but "The Hindenburg" will not be remembered as one of his best works. In the large group of disaster films of the 70's this was the worst up to that point ("The Swarm" and "When Time Ran Out" would come later and were much worse). It isn't even fun to watch in a bad movie kind of way the way you can with "Earthquake" or the later "Airport" movies. With all the talent involved "The Hindenburg" should have gone a different direction with its script. As it stands it's a dud.
The problem with "The Hindenburg", and it's a big one, is that the filmmakers have created a possible though unlikely scenario to explain why the infamous blimp exploded just prior to landing in 1936. The scenario created is that the explosion was caused by sabotage via a mad bomber. This would have worked fine had they remembered one thing. We already know coming in that the Hindenburg exploded and killed 36 people. Any tension that could have been created is then lost. When George C. Scott as a sympathetic(?) Nazi figures it all out it's a race against time to see if he can find the bomb and then diffuse it. But we know that can't happen so the only real tension in the whole movie is waiting to see which of the big name cast members are going to die. And it is a long, tedious wait until the final scenes.
Director Robert Wise incorporates real footage of the explosion with staged shots that mix together nicely. Again this comes in the last 10 minutes of the movie so we have to wait a while for the expected explosion. The final scenes are quite compelling. Unfortunately the first 110 minutes or so are a raging bore as we meet the cast and watch their individual stories. Anne Bancroft, Burgess Meredith, Charles Durning, and others join Scott for the flight but none of these characters are the least bit interesting. Only when their lives are in peril does any interest perk us up. And the only interest we have is seeing who survives but not caring who does and doesn't.
Director Wise has had a distinguished career but "The Hindenburg" will not be remembered as one of his best works. In the large group of disaster films of the 70's this was the worst up to that point ("The Swarm" and "When Time Ran Out" would come later and were much worse). It isn't even fun to watch in a bad movie kind of way the way you can with "Earthquake" or the later "Airport" movies. With all the talent involved "The Hindenburg" should have gone a different direction with its script. As it stands it's a dud.