Disaster Movies of the '70s
Burbank, California—With Poseidon posters plastered all over town, it's easier to see that 1970s disaster movies paved the way for the sensory-overloaded action/disaster/horror hybrids of today. But, back then, disaster movies offered a larger-than-life matinee escape.
First came Airport, a gripping thriller about a crippled Boeing 707 making an emergency landing during a Chicago blizzard. Stewardess Jacqueline Bisset was pregnant by flight captain Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster was having an affair with Jean Seberg and—as in Arthur Hailey's novel—life, work and love converged in one extraordinary, snowplowed airport crisis. Out of turmoil came triumph and, with a forceful score, you almost smell the jet fuel.
Airport was a smash—blending melodrama and exciting action at the peak of the jet age—and it made way for Irwin Allen, a movie and television producer who combined science fiction and fantasy, to make The Poseidon Adventure.
The 1972 disaster picture, remade in this week's release and available on a two-disc DVD, defined the genre: a manmade marvel, featuring an all-star cast, is deluged with disaster. Not counting previous disaster-themed pictures—Titanic with Barbara Stanwyck, The High and the Mighty, No Highway, to name a few—a genre was born.
Eventually, the capricious universe question of what would happen if an ocean liner was capsized by a tidal wave gave way to how much box office the public's demand could produce. That meant Irwin Allen was free to make Hollywood history with the Christmas, 1974, release of The Towering Inferno, also available on a two-disc DVD.
It is still a spectacular thrill. The excitement of the world's tallest skyscraper, designed by Paul Newman's architect, on the night of its gala premiere is heightened by the howling wind across San Francisco's bay. Fire erupts and eventually entombs everyone from William Holden and Faye Dunaway (before they portrayed illicit lovers in Network) to Jennifer Jones and Fred Astaire—with Steve McQueen's fireman struggling to save their lives.
The Towering Inferno, a magnificent production based on two separate novels and made by two major studios, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros., ranks among the best disaster movies and the biggest moneymakers in the field.
Its success shows that a genuinely good script, in a steady progression with time to develop characters, improves a picture's blockbuster status. Add rich, elegant guests at a black-tie party and The Towering Inferno is somewhat glamorous.
Folded neatly into each movie's disaster—in the air, at sea, in the sky—is a sight of man at his best, whether man's conquering a catastrophe using a cockpit, an engine room or a water tank. The cinematic '70s disasters offered a glimpse of heroism on screen.
Anyway, that was the idea. What were momentary diversions gradually grew worse; disaster movies morphed into demolition derbies, many with foul-mouthed anti-heroes. Today's star-studded cannonballs explode more than they engage.
Not that the '70s pictures were the greatest movies, as anyone who survived The Swarm and Rollercoaster knows. Those who paid to see Earthquake! (also new on DVD) in Sensurround may have nightmares of Victoria Principal's afro, Richard Roundtree's daredevil getup and visions of Ava Gardner as Lorne Greene's daughter.
But, for a time, the disaster movie was the closest one could get to something on a Cecil B. DeMille-sized scale. With the scales getting bigger, while the stories get smaller, '70s disaster movies continue to offer an escape—on DVD—from today's movie disasters.
RELATED LINKS
• Review - The Poseidon Adventure
• Review - Poseidon• Chart - Disaster Movies
• DVD - Airport Terminal Pack
• DVD - The Poseidon Adventure
• DVD - The Towering Inferno
First came Airport, a gripping thriller about a crippled Boeing 707 making an emergency landing during a Chicago blizzard. Stewardess Jacqueline Bisset was pregnant by flight captain Dean Martin, Burt Lancaster was having an affair with Jean Seberg and—as in Arthur Hailey's novel—life, work and love converged in one extraordinary, snowplowed airport crisis. Out of turmoil came triumph and, with a forceful score, you almost smell the jet fuel.
Airport was a smash—blending melodrama and exciting action at the peak of the jet age—and it made way for Irwin Allen, a movie and television producer who combined science fiction and fantasy, to make The Poseidon Adventure.
The 1972 disaster picture, remade in this week's release and available on a two-disc DVD, defined the genre: a manmade marvel, featuring an all-star cast, is deluged with disaster. Not counting previous disaster-themed pictures—Titanic with Barbara Stanwyck, The High and the Mighty, No Highway, to name a few—a genre was born.
Eventually, the capricious universe question of what would happen if an ocean liner was capsized by a tidal wave gave way to how much box office the public's demand could produce. That meant Irwin Allen was free to make Hollywood history with the Christmas, 1974, release of The Towering Inferno, also available on a two-disc DVD.
It is still a spectacular thrill. The excitement of the world's tallest skyscraper, designed by Paul Newman's architect, on the night of its gala premiere is heightened by the howling wind across San Francisco's bay. Fire erupts and eventually entombs everyone from William Holden and Faye Dunaway (before they portrayed illicit lovers in Network) to Jennifer Jones and Fred Astaire—with Steve McQueen's fireman struggling to save their lives.
The Towering Inferno, a magnificent production based on two separate novels and made by two major studios, Twentieth Century Fox and Warner Bros., ranks among the best disaster movies and the biggest moneymakers in the field.
Its success shows that a genuinely good script, in a steady progression with time to develop characters, improves a picture's blockbuster status. Add rich, elegant guests at a black-tie party and The Towering Inferno is somewhat glamorous.
Folded neatly into each movie's disaster—in the air, at sea, in the sky—is a sight of man at his best, whether man's conquering a catastrophe using a cockpit, an engine room or a water tank. The cinematic '70s disasters offered a glimpse of heroism on screen.
Anyway, that was the idea. What were momentary diversions gradually grew worse; disaster movies morphed into demolition derbies, many with foul-mouthed anti-heroes. Today's star-studded cannonballs explode more than they engage.
Not that the '70s pictures were the greatest movies, as anyone who survived The Swarm and Rollercoaster knows. Those who paid to see Earthquake! (also new on DVD) in Sensurround may have nightmares of Victoria Principal's afro, Richard Roundtree's daredevil getup and visions of Ava Gardner as Lorne Greene's daughter.
But, for a time, the disaster movie was the closest one could get to something on a Cecil B. DeMille-sized scale. With the scales getting bigger, while the stories get smaller, '70s disaster movies continue to offer an escape—on DVD—from today's movie disasters.
RELATED LINKS
• Review - The Poseidon Adventure
• Review - Poseidon• Chart - Disaster Movies
• DVD - Airport Terminal Pack
• DVD - The Poseidon Adventure
• DVD - The Towering Inferno
