MovieChat Forums > Epic and Disaster > The essence of 70's disaster movies

The essence of 70's disaster movies

posted 14 years ago by Coventry
9 replies | jump to latest

Lately and for no apparent reason, I find myself to be quite massively obsessed with disaster movies from the 70s decade. These flicks guarantee spectacular action and thrills but, admittedly, its also a sub genre that can all too easy be labeled as inferior and derivative. Its undeniable that you can summarize practically all 70s disaster movies by listing just a handful of recurring trademarks.

#1: without producer Irwin Allen, there wasnt a budget for special effects and thus no movie.
#2: all disaster movies star one major star (especially Charlton Heston and Paul Newman were prime choices) and a long list of secondary (like Ernest Borgnine, Leslie Nielsen,..) stars.
#3: The characters are usually split into two camps with completely opposite ideals and/or initiatives. The camp with the lead star is obviously the triumphant camp.
#4: Regardless what type of disaster were dealing with, variants of the exact same perilous situations are always applicable.
#5: always remember that, when the situation appears to be at it worst, it can and will still get even worse!

Any more?

Movie I had in mind when listing these 'rules' : The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure, Aiport '75 & '77, When Time Ran Out, Earthquake, Fire!, The Night the Bridge Fell Down, Flood!, Two-Minute Warning, Avalanche ...

I felt the knife in my hand
and she laughed no more

[–] SimonSezz 14 years ago

I have on tape:

Airport 77
Earthquake

On DVD

Poseidon Adventure

Seen

Towering Inferno
Airport 75
Avalance

I to am obsessed with these types of movies. Rainy day movies. Movies that make you cheer for old special effects(sometimes cheesy)but no CGI. Old time stars of yesteryear. Good Story. Not a remake/re-imagined crap. There is no Hollywood today, no stars worth watching 45 and under, no imagination, kids trading in on parents Hollywood fame. Been disgusted with Hollywood for sometime. The last movie I saw in theatre was Princess Diaries with my neices in 2001. Was a cute flick, but was the "driver" for my aforementioned neices.

Gotta go now an IMDB When Time Ran Out, Fire, Flood, and Two Minute Warning.
Thanks for the titles to look up. Hope there good and Youtube has them.

Cheers!

A man is the sum of his memories,a Time Lord even more so

five doctors

[–] jgiles20 14 years ago

The stars were always a mixed bag of Oscar winners or nominees, character actors, no-names and future TV and movie stars. It's always fun to spot these people hamming it up before they went on to bigger and better things.

[–] alchemie666 14 years ago

Oh come now, I bet you like other ones besides from just the 70's. I do see that you didn't like Meteor, heh.

1-666-CONTROL... Bless me father, for I have sinned.

[–] Vomitron_G 14 years ago

Oh come now, I bet you like other ones besides from just the 70's.
Other, like in 'more recent ones'? Perhaps with a couple of CGI tornados in it? Wrong bet, girl. I think you don't know enough about Coventry's taste in distaster movies when it comes to this .

"You! Invaders! Get you the hot bullets of shotgun to die!"

[–] alchemie666 14 years ago

Well, hey, I was just guessing. I tend to like them all but prefer ones with tornadoes, as you well know .

1-666-CONTROL... Bless me father, for I have sinned.

[–] Coventry 14 years ago

I'm afraid the man's right, Alchemie... I'm a bona fine 70's guy. To me, the era of disaster movies stopped around 1983-1984. The disaster movies of the 90's (like "Outbreak" and "Twister") were mediocre at best and I'm not even bothered to watch the "2012" CGI junk of nowadays.

Can you recommend some tornadoes to me, though?

I felt the knife in my hand
and she laughed no more

[–] alchemie666 14 years ago

It does suck that 2012 didn't have ANY tornadoes in it. I was really hoping that it did but nope. As far as CGI goes, its kinda hard NOT to have it when it comes to tornadoes in movies. Unless they have real footage, there isn't much else that they can do.

Well, my favorites are:
Tornado! (1996) - Stars Bruce Campbell from The Evil Dead trilogy fame. Bruce is my favorite actor, so this is definitely my favorite.
Twister (1996) - But of course! This was filmed in Oklahoma, and ha, flying cow.
Devil Winds (2003) - I believe that this is the one where they get up underneath a bridge. That is a HUGE no-no!

Not too bad:
Night Of The Twisters (1996)
Tornado Warning (2002)
Storm Chasers: Revenge Of The Twister (1998)

Not too good:
Nature Unleashed: Tornado (2004)
Storm Cell (2008)
Ice Twisters (2009)
Category 6 - Day of Destruction (2004)
NYC: Tornado Terror (2008)

Have tornadoes in them:
The Day After Tomorrow (2004) - Tornadoes tear up the Los Angeles/Hollywood area.
The Wizard of Oz (1939)

Of course, these aren't the only ones. Just the ones that I've seen.

Here is one that I haven't seen yet but want to:
Tornado (1943)

And there are lots of documentaries and TV shows, like Raging Planet, When Weather Changed History, and It Could Happen Tomorrow that have real tornado footage. Which, lets face it, is what I'd rather watch anywayz.

1-666-CONTROL... Bless me father, for I have sinned.

[–] Coventry 14 years ago

That one is on Belgian TV tomorrow! Not too good, hey? Is that from the guy who directed "I, Madman" ?
I shall try and watch it

I felt the knife in my hand
and she laughed no more

[–] gcarras (2727) 7 years ago

A big favorite is the last of the 70s ones, Airplane! starring Robert Hayes, Julie Hagerty, Lloyd Bridges, and in that most dramatic of roles, Leslie Nielsen. It is shirley one of the best disaster films.

Later in 1997 the ball got rolling and the shio sailing with Titanic and 2005 Flightplan which brought Jodie Foster back to Disney.