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Since disasters went Hollywood, a century ago, studios have shaken
up movie audiences, with plot-intensive, emotional roller coaster
rides, in life or death situations. Usually a race against time.
Libraries are stacked with 300 run, swim, jump, plead-for-your-life
movies. Add to that, an incredible number of low budget, and mostly
boring, offsprings.
Cable welcomed made-for-TV disaster scenarios with open arms. And
certainly, TV would not be the same without them.
 So far, this season has been a slow one for the genre. But it’s done
well over
the long haul. And consider this: many movie-goers have found even
“bad” films
enjoyable.
Clearly, ticket buyers like to dip a toe into the cold waters of
fear. At least occasionally. Many admit guilty pleasure watching
some disaster unfold as long as it’s watching, from a warm,
comfortable, safe place.
It’s a genre with many faces, a fertile seedbed with no shortage of
villains.
Mother Nature on a rampage, man-made accidents, experiments gone
awry, the illicit spread of WMD’s, runaway plaques and pestilence of
all sorts.
And in recent decades, brutal terrorist attacks.
Some tales have been told many times. The epic story of disaster on
the high seas, the ill-fated voyage of the “Titanic” is a drama that
movie goers never seem to tire of. It’s been the core of
half-a-dozen major films, and a sub-plot line with references in
scores of others.
1997’s film rendition set the gold standard, and still remains the
all time movie moneymaker. With more than 600-million dollars in
domestic receipts, 1.6 billion internationally. The original “Star
Wars” is not even close.
When I was an impressionable youth in the l930’s, Saturday afternoon
at the local
movie house was a given, but that was an eon ago, and I can really
visualize only a single classic. 1936’s “San Francisco” a
dramatization of the massive Frisco earthquake.
 And that’s probably because of TCM.
For every laudable picture, the landscape was littered with mediocre
ones,
openly considered third rate, “B” movies at the lower end of double
bills, the work of pop corn studios and popcorn budgets. Drama was
favored over scientific accuracy and plausibility was no factor at
all. Offerings were often laughable and campy. Taken seriously?
Never.
It wasn’t until the 1970’s that disaster flicks moved up in class,
thanks to star-studded
casts, over the top performances, cutting edge technical know how,
and full-throttle action sequences. “Airport” and three
sequels, “Towering Inferno” “Titanic” “The Poseidon Adventure” “The
Swarm.”
Bankrolling lagged in the eighties, but resurged a decade later,
with “Titanic” and
“Twister”. Computer-enriched action scenes, digitized special
effects made the need for marquee names and their big salaries fade.
Even the most popular stars couldn’t raise the interest level, if
advance publicity were bad.
 For a long time, we let Hollywood worry about malevolent environment
and collapse of the natural world. That’s changing. You hear more
charges that “new school” films are making people “anxious”, that
what we’re seeing contributes to a “climate of fear.” Story lines
coincide too closely to real life and strike too close to home.
In the past year, eerie real life echoes have turned up tension at
an accelerating rate.
The devastating quake in Pakistan, the fury of hurricane Katrina,
the deadly tsunami in Asia. Too often, worsened by human blunders,
greed and fears that emergency response systems would break down.
As for the biggest disaster of all, and by national consent, most
Americans have decided the world is not going to end in their
lifetimes. You’ll notice that it never actually happens in the
movies, Armageddon is always averted somehow.
I go along with Hollywood. Leave the end of the world to street
corner preachers, prophets on mountain tops, and soothsayers deep in
underground caves.
But mark this. Doomsday has been postponed until further notice.
But rest assured, Hollywood will leave no disaster unturned.
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Gene Farinet, an award winning veteran newsman, spent much of his long
career at NBC News as a writer and producer working with Frank McGee,
Ed Newman, John Chancellor and Tom Brokaw, covering space, politics
and special projects everywhere in the world.
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“WHATEVER
IS NEXT?”