Two-Minute Warning (1976) Universal/Suspense-Thriller RT: 126 minutes Rated R (language, strong violence, intense moments, brief partial nudity) Director: Larry Peerce Screenplay: Edward Hume Music: Charles Fox Cinematography: Gerald Hirschfeld Release date: November 12, 1976 (US) Cast: Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes, Martin Balsam, Beau Bridges, Marilyn Hassett, David Janssen, Jack Klugman, Gena Rowlands, Walter Pidgeon, Brock Peters, David Groh, Mitchell Ryan, Joe Kapp, Pamela Bellwood, Jon Korkes, Warren Miller, Juli Bridges, William Bryant, Allan Miller, Andy Sidaris, Brad Savage, Reed Diamond, Robert Ginty, Howard Cossell, Frank Gifford, Merv Griffin. Box Office: $6.7M (US)
Rating: ****
Two-Minute Warning has special significance for me. It’s the first R-rated movie I consciously remember seeing in a theater. My father took me to see it one night when Mom had a houseful of women over for a jewelry demonstration and didn’t want or need the guys hanging around. We went to see it at the old Brookline Theater that showed second-run titles for $1. I remember liking it. It had a simple premise (a sniper at a football stadium) and a lot of mayhem at the end. What 9YO boy doesn’t like a movie with a lot of shooting?
I still enjoy Two-Minute Warning to this day mainly because I’m now able to appreciate the all-star cast and the tension that flows through the whole movie. It’s a combination thriller and disaster movie. There’s not much in the way of a plot. A sniper sets up behind the scoreboard at a championship football game where he has his pick of 91,000 potential victims. When he’s spotted by a Goodyear blimp camera, the police and SWAT get called in to take him down before he fires a single shot.
You’d think a plot this slim wouldn’t sustain a movie that runs just over two hours, but it does because director Larry Peerce (The Incident) takes a disaster movie-like approach to the material by introducing us to the different characters attending “Championship X” at Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. The list of potential victims includes young married couple Mike (Bridges, Norma Rae) and Peggy Ramsay and their two small children, constantly bickering middle-aged couple Steve (Janssen, The Fugitive) and Jane (Rowlands, A Woman Under the Influence), an elderly pickpocket (Pidgeon, Mrs. Miniver) and his assistant (Beau’s then-wife Juli Bridges), down on his luck professional gambler Sandman (Klugman, The Odd Couple), the priest (Ryan, Lethal Weapon) seated beside him and Al (Groh, Rhoda), a surgeon who flirts with Lucy (Hassett, The Other Side of the Mountain) right in front of her inattentive date (Korkes). We also meet aging player Charlie Tyler (real-life quarterback Kapp) who hopes his knees will hold out for just one more game.
Law enforcement is represented by Captain Holly (Heston, The Ten Commandments) and SWAT team leader Sgt. Button (Cassavetes, The Dirty Dozen). Holly doesn’t want to make a bad situation worse by evacuating the stadium before the end of the game, so he orders Button to stand down until the game’s two-minute warning. In the meantime, Button orders his men to position themselves on the stadium’s light towers and await further instructions. Stadium manager Sam McKeever (Balsam, Psycho) just wants a quick resolution.
I forgot to mention that several important political figures are also in attendance. The President himself plans to attend the big game. Any one of them could be the sniper’s main objective. Or maybe the sniper doesn’t have any real purpose for what he’s about to do? One of the most interesting things about Two-Minute Warning is that we never get to know the sniper or his motives. We never even get a good look at his face until the very end. Most of the time, we see things through his eyes. The filmmakers use a subjective point of view which adds a note of anonymity to the proceedings.
While I would classify Two-Minute Warning as a suspense-thriller, there’s no question the sniper will open fire on the crowd. Despite their best efforts, he’ll get off a few shots and create complete bedlam before he’s taken down. It’s inevitable. It’d be a crappy, pointless movie otherwise. Like all movies in the disaster genre, the suspense comes from not knowing who will make it to the end. On that level, it’s perfectly functional. It’s great entertainment.
At the same time, Peerce appears to be attempting a sociological statement about two of America’s favorite pastimes, professional football and random gun violence. He opens by showing us the sniper shooting a man from a hotel balcony. It’s just a quick target practice session before he heads off to the game to shoot more people. What is he trying to say about our society with the acts of senseless violence committed by an anonymous individual? To be honest, I don’t think he means to say anything at all. I don’t think he intends viewers to search Two-Minute Warning for deep meaning. It’s meant to be enjoyed on a superficial level. It’s about a disturbed gunman at a football game, his potential targets and the lawmen out to stop him. That’s it.
I love the all-star cast of Two-Minute Warning. It’s a neat mix of established Hollywood stars and newer ones with box office appeal. The acting is just what you’d expect. The actors don’t really deliver performances in movies like this; they just show up and read their lines. Cassavetes get to speak urgent lines like, “Everybody’s a probable target.” and “The whole place is a kill zone.” and “Don’t try to get logical about these kooks.” Heston, a true master of hammy acting, gets off a good line with “I’d just assume that you didn’t let your people run around in there with those M-16s like a bunch of stormtroopers.” Dialogue like this is absolutely essential. It’s part of the show. In Two-Minute Warning, it’s pure gold! All credit goes to writer Edward Hume, a man experienced in depicting terrorist situations on film. He also penned the TV movie 21 Hours at Munich about the horrific tragedy at the 1972 Olympics.
Pidgeon represents the Golden Age of Hollywood in this movie much like Fred Astaire did in The Towering Inferno. He’s known only as “The Pickpocket”, but it’s always cool to see a veteran actor in one of these things. Klugman has some good moments as a gambler in desperate need of a big win in order to pay off a big debt to some really bad guys. Balsam stands around and looks worried. Mr. Bridges effectively plays a man scared for his family’s safety after spotting the sniper through his binoculars.
The riveting music score by Charles Fox augments the action and suspense nicely. Never mind that it sounds like something you’d hear in a cop show on TV. It’s absolutely perfect for this movie. Two-Minute Warning really grabs the ball and runs with it once the shooting start. The ensuing chaos as fleeing spectators get shot, shoved or trampled is exciting. You’re on the edge of seat wondering who will live or die. It really is a well-made movie. I can safely say it wouldn’t get made today in light of the mass shootings that have taken place in the world since ’76. It’s a little too close to reality to be effective entertainment, don’t you think?
TRIVIA TIDBIT: When Two-Minute Warning aired on TV in ’78, network execs felt it was too much for the viewing audience at home. They had Universal film a subplot in which the sniper was actually a decoy for art thieves making a getaway after pulling a job. They removed 45 minutes from the original version and replaced it with 40 minutes worth of new scenes depicting the theft. It takes something away from the movie. Peerce disowned this version which I think says it all.
