Before watching It, I saw a preview for yet another disaster movie called Geostorm. There was a resurgence of this genre in the mid-90's starting with Independence Day which was obviously an amalgamation of disaster movies of the early 70's and Star Wars. Like its ancestors from the 1970's ID4 kicked off a slew of disaster movies that, still to this day keeps going. Every disaster movie follows the same formula: introduce a diverse cast, scientists discover an impending threat, government or responsible parties are hesitant to respond, shit goes crazy and diverse cast has to work together in the aftermath.
What really makes the formula dull for many of the recent disaster movies is that the huge cast is made of cookie cutter characters that usually have three traits: noble values, no moral flaws and leadership skills or they are skeptical and unhelpful beaurocrats or they are lovable underdogs who save the day.
Then I think of Earthquake (1974). During disaster movies' first run, even as early as 1974, they knew they had to go off the walls to keep things fresh in the genre. And I remember vividly how EVERYONE in Earthquake is kind of or completely a scum bag.
Charleton Heston is a former football player who is cheating on his drug addicted, suicidal wife played by Ava Gardner and seems to have given up on her condition and only stays around so he can climb the corporate ladder because his boss is his father-in-law. Genevieve Bujold is Heston's mistress who has a child. Bujold is an aspiring actress and loves her kid, but neglects him because she is more concerned with her career (which is necessary for the both of them) and the love affair she has with Heston (which does not benefit them). George Kennedy plays an alcoholic cop. Victoria Principal plays the spunky girlfriend of a date devil and is friends with George Kennedy. Her character decides to go looting in the aftermath of the earthquake. There's also a subplot involving a national guardsman who is allegedly a closeted homosexual and is constantly harassed by low life thugs who are tenants in his apartment building. The national guard character's frustration explodes during the movie and he takes revenge on the goons in his apartment building by shooting them and decides to lead his rescue team of other national guardsmen on a raid to extort rescue victims and declare Marshall law. He catches Victoria Principal's character looting and arrests her. And I think he attempts to rape her as a response for suppressing feelings of homosexuality and anger towards being bullied that boils to the surface in rage and frustration. Anyway, George Kennedy kills him and saves Victoria Principal and Charleton Heston dies along with Ava Gardner in an attempt to save her from drowning. He tried to save her out of pity and guilt but I believe he still planned to leave her for his mistress in the end, but he doesn't make it and goes down with his wife.
Earthquake is NOT a great movie by any stretch of the imagination but it takes a batshit crazy turn by making all the characters a miserable and angry reflection of post-watergate/post-vietnam/post-energy crisis America.
Submitted September 22, 2017 at 10:28AM by Angeleyez1989 http://ift.tt/2xtVemu
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