ALL SCI-FI

[The Spike]

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Well since our leader here on site dislikes it but champions San Andreas, I feel it's only right I defend Earthquake

This used to be one hell of a town, officer.

Earthquake is directed by Mark Robson and written by Mario Puzo and George Fox. It stars Charlton Heston, George Kennedy, Ava Gardner, Geneviève Bujold, Lorne Greene, Richard Roundtree & Marjoe Gortner.

A catastrophic earthquake hits Southern California and begins to level Los Angeles...

"It's not a negative to have heart in the disaster genre of film"

Take yourself to 1974, are you there? Good, now maybe you can appreciate this film a little more? Maybe? Earthquake does suffer from old age, it's a statement we see and hear a lot, but it's a fact that some film's stand the test of time whilst others do not. In this desensitised computer age, it is easy to forget that not all the tools available in film making today were available back when film's like this were being made. So as is my want, I firmly judge this as a 1974 offering, to which it delivers enough entertainment to fully satisfy my genre leanings and entertainment persuasions.

The main complaint of many is the long build up of the characters, cries of boring can be read across internet forums and critics blogs. I just don't see it that way, yes we want the quake and the mayhem destruction that will follow it, because really this is a disaster film after all, but is it so bad that the film has heart to go with the crash bang wallop? After the build up of characters, where relationships and character traits are formed, the disaster strikes and it doesn't disappoint, utter destruction as effects and noise fill the eyes and ears, where those with a good home cinema system finding it literally does rock the house. We are then treated to a series of sequences that hold and engage our attention, upsetting passages of human sadness, punctured by heroic surges as Heston and the fabulous Kennedy set about saving life, hell! saving the town even. Then it's the film's fitting finale, where there are no cop outs, the makers choosing to go out with a darker edge than the detractors give it credit for.

Some can scoff at a blood splat effect, or rant about some of the acting on show, but Earthquake achieves two important things. One is that it entertains as a visual experience (quality model work), the other is that it doesn't soft soap the devastating effects of an earthquake. As the camera pulls away from a ravaged L.A. the impact is sombre, where reflection is needed and most assuredly surely gotten. 7/10
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The quality of mercy is not strnen.

[Pow]

Charlton Heston found Ava Gardner very difficult to work with in the historical epic film they starred in together "55 Days At Peking."

[Bud Brewster]

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Captain Spike, I pride myself on being pretty good at winning debates . . . but I'm equally good as admitting when I'm wrong.

My motto is: "If you win, be a good winner — but if you loose, be a good looser. That way, no mater what, your good!"

The trailer below has shown me that I've short-changed this movie . . . both its special effects and it's drama!

However, I certainly never doubted its cast. I'm a Charlton Heston fan, a Lorne Green fan, a George Kennedy fan, an Ava Gardner fan, and a Victoria Principal fan.

I guess my preference for San Andreas (which you disliked for reasons you described quite well in your reply on that thread) is due in part to the passionate artist in me.

Great CGI (which San Andreas offers a banquet of) is nothing less than "moving artwork", which is carefully crafted by skilled artist who agonized over every detail to make the thousands of gorgeous images we see in the movie!

In all fairness, I freely confess that practical special effects — model work in particular — can also create artwork. But with those kinds of FX, the artist has much less control over the result. When it turns out well, there's always an element of luck to it!

Admittedly there's nothing wrong with that. But frankly, the artist gets a bit less credit as a result.

On the flip side of his idea, Disney's Fantastia is pure artwork. Every millimeter is hand crafted!

Naturally, I'm not saying San Andreas is the Fantastia of the new millennium. But it did combine an equal amount of pure art with — to me — a wonderful story about a family who fought to survive a terrible disaster while struggling heroically to get back together!

In short . . . I laughed, I cried, and I cheered when they survived! (Damn, that almost rhymes. I guess I'm a poet, too!)

To be honest, that kind of "heroic rescue" story appeals to me more than a movie in which Marjoe Gortner tries to rape Victoria Principal in the ruins of Los Angeles.

If you should happen to read my short stories and the published novels I've posted here on All Sci-Fi, you'll quickly see that I'm a cockeyed optimist, a guy whose just as corny as Kansas in Autumn!

~ Special thanks to Rodgers and Hammerstein for that line.

____________ Earthquake 1974 Updated Trailer


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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[The Spike]

[Bud Brewster]

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Yep, I've seen it.

Yes, I loved it.

It's a terrific movie — almost as good as Die Hard and all it's awesome sequels. Actually, I love 'em all. In fact, I own the box set!

Don't you? They're great action movies with an abundance of heart and imagination!

Well, if not, that's okay. We'll just have to agree to disagree.
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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Bud Brewster]

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IMDB has several interesting trivia items for this production.
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~ In a bizarre coincidence, the location on the first day of shooting was rocked by an earthquake. In an even more bizarre coincidence, an earthquake also struck the location where the last day of shooting occurred.

Note from me: Wow, what are the odds?

Thank goodness a tornado didn't hit the cast and crew of Twister, or a fire didn't break out at the studio during the filming of Towering Inferno, or a volcanic eruption didn't disrupt the filming of Dante's Peak, or Japan didn't launch an attack on Honolulu during the production of Pearl Harbor!

Come to think of it, if that last one had been caught on film they could use the footage in a remake of The Final Countdown, in which a Japanese aircraft carrier also goes through a time warp and REALLY screws up the timeline!

~ In the scene where Stewart Graff (Charlton Heston) is running lines with Denise (Geneviève Bujold), the script he is holding is actually for this movie, and is on the page for the scene being shown.

Note from me: That was clever! Heston didn't have to memorize his lines, because he was reading them right off the script, on camera!

~ The United Artists Theater in Chicago, Illinois was forced to shut off the Sensurround speakers when small pieces of plaster from the ceiling fell on audience members. The same thing happened to the Bethany Theater in Phoenix, Arizona.

Note from me: Here's a funny idea; the audience feels the shaking and gets pelted by stuff falling from the ceiling, but nobody worries about it . . . even when it happens during a real earthquake!

~ There were documented cases of nosebleeds occurring among audience members because of the Sensurround system.

Note from me: "So, Mr. Jones, I understand that your nosebleed was caused by the low frequent sound system, but I don't understand how your eyes were injured."

"Well, Doctor, when my nose started bleeding I tilted my head back in the usual manner . . . and crap from ceiling hit me in the eyes!"

~ Shots of the "Black Tower" (a twelve-story office building on the movie lot) swaying was accomplished by shooting its reflection in a mirror, and then warping the mirror back and forth. This sequence was shot as a test prior to production, and wound up in the final film as an in-joke at Universal Studios' expense. At the time, the "Black Tower" housed Universal's top executives.

Note from me: When I saw this in a theater I was not impressed by the fake "shaking" scenes done with a warped mirror.

~ Before stereo television sound was commonplace, NBC aired the movie with the soundtrack simulcast on local FM radio stations, so that viewers could re-create "Sensurround" at home.

Note from me: When the two Star Wars' Ewok movies were shown on TV in Atlanta, an FM station broadcast a stereo simulcast.

~ The television premiere of the 123 minute movie was scheduled by NBC to air in September, 1976, and was going to kick off the network's new series of "Big Events" that fall.

The theatrical version was too long to fill the "Big Event's" two hour time slot (with commercials), so NBC needed to air the film over two nights, one week apart. In doing this, the theatrical film was not long enough spread out over the two night slot, so NBC contacted Universal Studios to re-insert footage shot for the theatrical film that was initially "left on the cutting room floor."

When aired in this format, the first night of the film ended in a "cliffhanger" format in the middle of the earthquake.

Note from me: I don't believe the networks tried this idea again with any of the movies that were too long for the regular times slot. Asking the viewers to wait a week to see the second half of a movie is a bad idea.

~ When the movie played at Graumann's Chinese Theater in Hollywood in 1974, it was shown in "Sensurround" with heavy bass speakers set on the floor around the theater. Very soon after the preview performances, a giant net had to be rigged above the patrons because of fear that the ornate ceiling decorations might break loose and fall on the audience below, due to the low bass rumble of earthquake sequences.

This action was publicized in the local papers. Whether or not the ceiling's very visible "safety net" was an actual, workable safety measure, or whether it was merely a publicity gimmick, it did serve to heighten audience anticipation of the film's effects.

Note from me: I never knew how incredible Graumann's Chinese Theater was! This is magnificent! (Click on the image to view a larger version)





THIS is what they might have damaged!



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Is there no man on Earth who has the wisdom and innocence of a child?
~ The Space Children (1958)

[Pow]

The big success of the 1970 disaster-suspense film "Airport" motivated Universal Studios to come up with a new idea within the same genre.

San Frenando's February 1971 earthquake inspired the concept for "Earthquake."

"EQ" was budgeted at $7,000,000. It was in a race with the bigger-budgeted ($14,000,000) Irwin Allen disaster movie "The Towering Inferno" which was being produced by two major studios: 20th Century Fox & Warner Brothers.

Godfather author Mario Puzo wrote the first draft script for "EQ."

Puzo's script would have necessitated a huge increase to the budget for the film due to his having the story take place over a vast geographical distance of L.A.

"EQ" utilized brand new technology developed specifically for the film. "Shaker Mount" camera was a system that could mimic an earthquake by moving the entire camera body several inches from side to side.

It was utilized for most of the exterior scenes shot or on other location work.

The film used the most stunt artists working on one movie up to that time.

One stunt artist suffered a concussion during the flood scene.

Several of the stunt artists were injured during the elevator crash scene.

Copious amounts of "stage blood" were rigged to spray the stunt artists after the elevator crashes. It was deemed unsatisfactory by the director in spite of two different takes.

Animated blood was added in post production for the elevator scene.

Yep, always looked fake too. They did something similar in one of my favorite movie westerns "Hombre" starring Paul Newman.

Newman's character, Russell, shoots a pair of outlaws in one scene and animated blood is used. It really takes you out of the film for a minute due to how bizarre the sequence looks.

Stock footage from "Earthquake" would show up in other films and TV shows.

The flood scenes from the dam bursting would be seen in the 1977 sf film "Damnation Alley."

Ah, good old "Damnation Alley." That's the sf film that 20th Century Fox execs thought was gonna be huge at the box office that year. That other sf film they produced that year probably was gonna just come and go quickly in theaters. Not really amount to anything much.

It was titled "Star Wars: A New Hope." Anybody ever seen that one?

The sf time travel TV series "Quantum Leap" would use "EQ" footage in their episode "Disco Inferno."

"Galactica 1980" has a scene where a computer simulation shows just how devastating a Cylon attack would be on L.A.
The simulation scenes are "EQ" stock footage.

"V: The Final Battle" uses the collapse of the Hollywood dam.

"The Incredible Hulk" in their episode "Earthquakes Happen" use quite a bit of the "EQ" stock footage.
Several buildings collapsing, freeway overpass collapsing, collapsing of the Spanish bells, sliding & falling stilt houses, high tension wires falling, and a wooden bridge collapsing.

Aside from some marvelous special & visual effects, this film never really grabbed me with the human interest stories.

The humans were all drab and their lives weren't compelling.

I'll say that the Marjoe Gortner crazy character was frightening and you did think Victoria Principal was in real danger.

If I was a writer/producer on this movie I'd have taken a different approach.

I would have been inspired by the television shows of Mr. Jack Webb. Dragnet, Adam-12, Emergency.

The hallmark of Jack's TV show productions was authenticity.

He really would strive to make the professions of his various characters as realistic as possible but still within a dramatic context.

Jack would have real life consultants on his shows be they detectives, uniformed police officers, or EMTs.

The episodes for his various shows were based on actual cases.

So I would have researched with doctors, nurses, hospitals, law enforcement, first responders, government, power plants and the military what exactly were their actual protocols regarding a severe and massive earthquake?

I would have researched earthquakes that had occurred in the 20th century around the world and how the aftermath was handled or mishandled.

Then I would script a story involving these people who are in the thick of it all as they attempt to rescue folks from all types of perils.

My "EQ" would be similar to the terrific film "Tora! Tora! Tora!" with an almost documentary style to it.

Oh, and Chuck Heston would be a military commander in my version.

[Krel]