It's a total Disaster!

"There's a moment you know

You're fucked."

- "Totally Fucked" from Spring Awakening

Do you remember the trend of disaster movies from the 1970s? "Airport", "The Poseidon Adventure", "Gray Lady Down", "Earthquake"...the list goes on and on. Usually they featured a large ensemble cast of big name stars, and the plots followed different "threads" of characters that eventually pull together in the end as they all try to survive. I remember seeing quite a few of these movies at the drive-in as a kid. I wonder what was going on in the culture at the time that made these so popular? Did it have something to do with the Cold War? Was there a growing distrust of technology? A fear of mass transportation? Some reason to think "the end is near"? I'll have to bone up on my 70s history. I'd be interested in figuring it out.

The other night I brought out "The Towering Inferno" for our movie date night. Actually, this one was pretty damn good. And despite the inclusion of OJ Simpson, has a great cast. Although surprisingly low celebrity death toll in it. (I certainly didn't expect Fred Astaire to dance his way out of that one!) This movie is such a huge homage to firefighters, I'm frankly surprised that no one in Hollywood attempted to remake this one after 9/11.

In the 90s, there seemed to be a revival of the disaster movie: "Titanic", "Twister", "Armageddon", "Deep Impact" to name a few. People have always been fascinated with tragedy, and the more epic the scale the better. (Notice the introduction of disasters from outer space, so we don't just have Mother Nature or human stupidity to worry about anymore!) Hollywood loves to tap into our fears and paranoias, doesn't it? In the conflict of Man versus Nature we are horribly outmatched. Unlike the 70s disaster movies, these more recent movies seemed to focus on small groups of characters or individuals, rather than the big superstar casts. Looking back, I wonder if it was the fear of Y2K and the anxiety of the impending "end of the world", and the growing awareness of our ecological problems that sparked the interest in disaster movies again?

Similarly, movies and television in the 70s were fascinated by "the Bermuda Triangle". I often recall it as an often used plot device: airplanes mysteriously vanishing into the Bermuda Triangle and the travelers are gone forever. It was the geographical equivalent of oblivion. Whatever happened to that? Has our modern technology finally outwitted the ominous Triangle? Does anything disappear into it anymore? I just don't seem to hear about it as much anymore.