Co-written by Mario Puzo, the man who re-defined the gangster genre, `Earthquake' is the quintessential disaster movie. The elements are all there: the large, all-star cast, the pathos, the massive devastation, the many intertwined subplots, the Wagnerian heroes and the ultimate banality. For those who find nothing to enjoy in soap operas, trashy romance novels, or depictions of mass destruction on the scale of a `Gojira' film, there is nothing here. But for the rest of us
pure artistry.
`Earthquake' was the `Independence Day' of its time. I remember kids talking about how thrilling it was to be `allowed' to see this very frightening PG film (I was very young when it first was released). I remember the hype about `Sensurround' and the sensations that this new sound system was meant to induce. The 70's were an age of Disaster films, perhaps a Return of the Repressed fears that decades of the Cold War had inspired. Certainly the scale of destruction depicted in `Earthquake' is of an apocalyptic scale. Larger quakes have since hit the West Coast several times, and it is now difficult to believe that anyone ever thought a 7.0 quake could devastate LA so completely. What is shown is not the real effects of a massive quake, but the Hand of God reaching down and destroying the impure and testing the strong.
Our heroes are heroic on a grand scale, and Charlton Heston is king of the heroes in `Earthquake.' Again and again he sacrifices and risks himself to help or rescue others, but he is not alone in his altruism. Lorne Greene, George Kennedy (and what is a disaster movie without George Kennedy?) and Fred Williamson all do their part, some sacrificing their lives for others in the process. Unfortunately, `Earthquake' suffers from a lack of interesting villains for these heroes to offset themselves against (aside, of course, from relentless Nature herself), although Marjoe Gortner's nasally National Guardsman does give George Kennedy a chance to note that `Earthquakes bring out the worst in some people.'
Those who have celebrated the everyday selflessness of rescue workers in the 9/11 tragedy will find the depictions of lazy and selfish rescuers a bit surprising here, although, again, this was a comment on perceptions of the times. The 1970's was a time of renewed selfishness in American culture, with former Hippies turning away from love and LSD, and towards profit and cocaine. By the 1980's, Americans had become comfortable with the new `Me Generation,' but there was still lingering guilt to work out when `Earthquake' was released. Perhaps this is why Charlton Heston, portraying a successful engineer, must repudiate his trade, saying `I'm ashamed of my profession,' and why businessmen and CEOs must die in their towers of glass and steel. Secretaries, suspended cops and unsuccessful actresses are saved, and the meek inherit the Earth.
`Earthquake' was the `Independence Day' of its time. I remember kids talking about how thrilling it was to be `allowed' to see this very frightening PG film (I was very young when it first was released). I remember the hype about `Sensurround' and the sensations that this new sound system was meant to induce. The 70's were an age of Disaster films, perhaps a Return of the Repressed fears that decades of the Cold War had inspired. Certainly the scale of destruction depicted in `Earthquake' is of an apocalyptic scale. Larger quakes have since hit the West Coast several times, and it is now difficult to believe that anyone ever thought a 7.0 quake could devastate LA so completely. What is shown is not the real effects of a massive quake, but the Hand of God reaching down and destroying the impure and testing the strong.
Our heroes are heroic on a grand scale, and Charlton Heston is king of the heroes in `Earthquake.' Again and again he sacrifices and risks himself to help or rescue others, but he is not alone in his altruism. Lorne Greene, George Kennedy (and what is a disaster movie without George Kennedy?) and Fred Williamson all do their part, some sacrificing their lives for others in the process. Unfortunately, `Earthquake' suffers from a lack of interesting villains for these heroes to offset themselves against (aside, of course, from relentless Nature herself), although Marjoe Gortner's nasally National Guardsman does give George Kennedy a chance to note that `Earthquakes bring out the worst in some people.'
Those who have celebrated the everyday selflessness of rescue workers in the 9/11 tragedy will find the depictions of lazy and selfish rescuers a bit surprising here, although, again, this was a comment on perceptions of the times. The 1970's was a time of renewed selfishness in American culture, with former Hippies turning away from love and LSD, and towards profit and cocaine. By the 1980's, Americans had become comfortable with the new `Me Generation,' but there was still lingering guilt to work out when `Earthquake' was released. Perhaps this is why Charlton Heston, portraying a successful engineer, must repudiate his trade, saying `I'm ashamed of my profession,' and why businessmen and CEOs must die in their towers of glass and steel. Secretaries, suspended cops and unsuccessful actresses are saved, and the meek inherit the Earth.