Before Titanic, Dante's Peak, 2012, Twister and Deep Impact, filmmakers in the seventies were already dishing out one disaster movie after another. It was a prolific year for showcasing natural or man-made disaster events on silver screen. Since I was too young to watch a movie by myself, most of these disaster movies I only knew about from the movie trailers on TV. However, out of the ten films listed below, I was able to catch Earthquake, The Swarm and The Poseidon Adventure. Here are the ten '70s disaster movies you must know about :
THE TOWERING INFERNO - The Towering Inferno is a 1974 disaster film produced by Irwin Allen featuring an all-star cast led by Steve McQueen and Paul Newman. The world's tallest building, and its owners are holding a huge gala to celebrate its completion. But the building contractors used cheap wiring to cut corners, against the recommendations of architect Doug Roberts (Paul Newman), and a blaze starts in a janitor's closet. Soon the Glass Tower becomes The Towering Inferno as the fire quickly spreads upward, trapping the party guests. The firefighters can't fight the blaze fast enough and the fire chief (Steve McQueen) devises a daring and dangerous rescue, but not before a slew of spectacularly fiery deaths and heroics.
THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE - The Poseidon Adventure is a 1972 American disaster film based on a novel by Paul Gallico. It concerns the capsizing of a luxurious ocean liner by a tsunami caused by an under sea earthquake and the desperate struggles of a handful of survivors to journey up to the bottom of the hull of the liner before it sinks.It won the Academy Award for Best Song for "The Song from 'The Poseidon Adventure'" (also known as "The Morning After"), which became a hit single for Maureen McGovern, as well as winning an Academy Award for Special Achievement in Visual Effects.
EARTHQUAKE - Earthquake is a 1974 American disaster film that achieved huge box-office success, continuing the disaster film genre of the 1970s where recognizable all-star casts attempt to survive life or death situations. The plot concerns the struggle for survival after a catastrophic earthquake destroys most of the city of Los Angeles, California. Directed by Mark Robson and with a screenplay by George Fox and Mario Puzo, the film starred Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Geneviève Bujold, Richard Roundtree, Marjoe Gortner, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Victoria Principal, Monica Lewis and Walter Matthau .
THE SWARM - The Swarm is a 1978 American disaster film about a killer bee invasion of Texas. It was adapted from a novel of the same name by Arthur Herzog. The director was Irwin Allen, and the cast included Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray (in his final movie appearance), and Henry Fonda.
WHEN TIME RAN OUT ... - When Time Ran Out... is a disaster film released in 1980, starring Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, James Franciscus, Ernest Borgnine, Red Buttons, Burgess Meredith, Valentina Cortese, Veronica Hamel, Pat Morita, Edward Albert, and Barbara Carrera. Produced by the "Master of Disaster," Irwin Allen, When Time Ran Out... is loosely based on a novel called The Day Their World Ended by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts detailing the factual 1902 volcanic eruption of Mount Pelée on Martinique, which killed 30,000 people in five minutes by pyroclastic flow. When Time Ran Out... has the distinction of being both the last notable "disaster film" produced at the tail-end of the 1970s cycle of the genre and Allen's last theatrically released picture.
AIRPORT - Airport is a 1970 film based on the 1968 Arthur Hailey novel of the same name. This film, which earned over $100,000,000. at the box office at a time when achieving that milestone was rare, focuses on an airport manager trying to keep his airport open during a snowstorm, while a suicidal bomber plots to blow up a Boeing 707 in flight. The film cost $10 million to produce. Airport paved the way for the 1970s disaster film genre, establishing the widely-followed convention of "microcosmic melodrama combined with catastrophe-oriented adventure".
THE CASSANDRA CROSSING - The Cassandra Crossing was one of a whole host of disaster movies that came out in the 1970s following the successes of films like Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and The Towering Inferno (1974), which all arrayed a big star cast and featured some man-made edifice falling apart. "Outbreak" meets "The Runaway Train" as a motley group of passengers are quarantined on a train destined to prevent the spread of the disease at the cost of their lives. Government intrigue, international smuggling, and the legend of the Cassandra Crossing add to the suspense.
ROLLERCOASTER - Rollercoaster is a summer 1977 disaster-suspense film directed by James Goldstone. It was one of four films created in Sensurround by Universal Studios, along with Midway, Earthquake, and the theatrical version of Battlestar Galactica. It's a tension packed tale about a terrorist who has targeted the countrys most popular rollercoaster and its riders for senseless destruction.
AVALANCHE - Avalanche is a 1978 disaster film directed by Corey Allen and featured by Rock Hudson, Robert Foster, Mia Farrow and Jeanette Nolan. The vacationers at a winter wonderland struggle to survive after an avalanche of snow crashes into their ski resort. Their holiday then turns into a game of survival.
METEOR - Meteor is a 1979 disaster film in which scientists detect an asteroid on a collision course with Earth and struggle with international, cold war politics in their efforts to prevent disaster. The movie starred Sean Connery and Natalie Wood .It was directed by Ronald Neame and with a screenplay by Edmund H. North and Stanley Mann, "inspired" by an MIT report Project Icarus. The movie co-starred Karl Malden, Brian Keith, Martin Landau, Trevor Howard, Henry Fonda, Johnny Yune, and Katherine DeHetre. It was one of the last and least regarded films from the 1970s disaster genre.
Additional information from Wikipedia.
No comments:
Post a Comment