Classic Disaster Movies (BFS/AHT)
Picture: C-
Sound: C- Extras: D Films:
Virus (1980) C
Hurricane (1974) C
Deadly Harvest (1977) C-
With much social unrest due to Vietnam, Watergate, Civil
Rights movements, and especially environmental concerns, a major cycle of
disaster films arrived. This can be
traced as far back as Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds (1963), but really
picked up steam with the epic 70mm soaper Airport in 1970. That film was such a senseless hit, that
Hollywood would spend over a decade trying to mine the nerve they struck with
the public. This extended to TV and Pop
Culture.
Virus is about a deadly biological weapon being
accidentally released when a plane crashes in Antarctica, with its origins in
the Cold War (I guess Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove (1964) also
helped this cycle happen to some extent), and the deadly agent spreads
worldwide with no one having any idea of how it happened or where it came
from. It becomes a thriller, sort of;
as those who have survived with some power left try to trace it to “save
humanity”. Though not a great film by
any stretch of the imagination, at least it takes itself somewhat seriously and
makes the Cold War climate a believable impetus for this disaster. Chuck Connors, previously in the better Soylent
Green (1973), co-stars with Glenn Ford as a U.S. President, Robert Vaughn,
Bo Stevens, and Edward James Olmos.
Hurricane is not too bad a telefilm form
1974, again a peak year for TV Movies and the networks willing to bankroll
them. It badly wants to copy the
narrative style of Robert Wise’s film of Michael Crichton’s The Andromeda
Strain (1971) or Joseph Sargent’s Colossus – The Forbin Project
(1970), and is not exactly a failure at either. Larry Hagman, Jessica Walter, Martin Millner, Barry Sullivan,
Frank Sutton (yes, Sgt. Carter from TV’s Gomer Pyle), Michael Learned,
and Will Gear make for a camp classic 1970s TV cast. It is often better than later films about the title disaster that
got made, which says something about how lame this premise is.
Deadly Harvest is a Canadian response to the
Hollywood trend, but it really needed a David Cronenberg to bring it to
life. Instead, the Clint Walker
vehicle, which does manage to help give us Kim Cattrall, runs out of story (and
money) quickly. The harvest is deadly
because it does not grow. Yawn!
The picture and sound are near disasters themselves, with
the brief bio/filmography/trivia section joined this time by Top 25 charts of
Greatest Disasters. I felt like I was
seeing a preview for another bad VH-1 countdown show! Unless you are very curious, this is one set of disasters to
skip.
- Nicholas Sheffo
