Catastrophe! Disaster! Death and Destruction of Property

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Favourite Disaster Film is:
War of the Worlds 24%  24%  [ 4 ]
28 days later 24%  24%  [ 4 ]
The Day After Tomorrow 12%  12%  [ 2 ]
Poseidon Adventure ( original) 6%  6%  [ 1 ]
that Milla one, or similar game based 18%  18%  [ 3 ]
other, please expand in thread 18%  18%  [ 3 ]
Total votes : 17

ouinon
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14 Mar 2008, 6:56 am

Purplefluffychainsaw wrote:
I don't think Jurassic Park counts as a disaster because it's on a really small scale. I mean three or four people die?
That's an interesting question. HOW big must a "disaster" be to count as a disaster? :)

I was thinking about "The Fly" for example, by Cronenberg. It is a real disaster. It arises unannounced, ( they thought the risk might be in the machine, but it was in human error), and there is nothing they can do about it, except try to survive. But only one person dies. ( I actually think it is a tragedy, because the real first cause was human error, arising from anger/disappointment/loss of trust). "The Thing", Carpenter, is also a small scale, unpredicted, "explosion" in an isolated system. Does that count? ( Then there is "The Dawn of the Dead" etc. Big scale; does it count as a "disaster" film? ) :?:

The question of whether it might have been avoided is also why I hesitated to include "28 days later", because there is that moment right at the beginning when the scientist is saying to the animal liberationists, " Don't let them out; they have a deadly virus!", and one of the activists says "Don't believe him". So does the film count as real disaster, or as tragedy?

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To return to W o t W, I don't think the whole plot could be a metaphor for something.
Not the whole plot, just that the episode in the cellar where Cruise blindfolds his daughter and kills the ambulance-driver functions ( by symbolising denial ), to separate off the last quarter of the film, to frame it as a different "level" of narrative. Fantasy/wish fulfilment.

8)



Last edited by ouinon on 14 Mar 2008, 7:27 am, edited 3 times in total.

ouinon
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14 Mar 2008, 7:12 am

Purplefluffychainsaw wrote:
ouinon wrote:
Disasters are not only unpredictable, but they are UNpredictED. I knew there was something fundamentally fishy about "the global warming disaster"/"catastrophic climate change" as concepts!!
Wouldn't this count the Day After Tomorrow out then?
Well, it would account for the faint (?!) air of spuriousness, which Emmerich is often guilty of! :)

The hasty presentation of the hero-scientist's theories at the conference at the beginning of the film serve to create a moral, and a perfunctory "baddie"/scapegoat as opponent to argue with/boo, but in fact the predictions would not have justified any activity on govt's part because the disaster arrives immediately! . ( Just remembered; the scientist does not in fact call for mitigation/reduction of CO2 emissions, but for mass evacuations :lol: ).

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Also, what does anyone think of any of the 9/11 films that've come out recently? I haven't seen any of them, but surely they count?
When I first saw/heard the media coverage of 9/11 I kept thinking; it's like Die Hard, The Towering Inferno, etc. To me the films of 9/11 as a disaster had already been done. Now they are historical/documentary, and the story is of a crime/act of war/tragedy, not a disaster.

I was thinking about how the Holocaust has been very difficult for film/art to treat, and am wondering whether it may be partly due to this issue, that it can't be presented as a "disaster" because it WAS announced, ( by several people, in several countries, as it was beginning, as it was happening), and no one made much of a move to stop it; disbelief being part of that, but also worse motivations.

Has a film ever been made in fact about the efforts to alert the authorities outside germany and failing, (other than "Amen", which examined the part played by the Pope/Catholic Church's role in such denial)?

Does any one have any other examples of disaster films, or arguments about the ones listed/treated so far? :?: I'm sure i've forgotten a whole lot of them somewhere. :?

8)



ouinon
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15 Mar 2008, 4:02 pm

Mars Attacks!

Aliens killed by country & western/folk music yodelling. Great!

8)



Veresae
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15 Mar 2008, 7:31 pm

War of the Worlds. I know the ending sucked, but everything before it is so powerful. Heart-racing, intense as fuck--and best of all, a realistic portrayal of humanity in a time of crisis, with everybody arguing like crazy. XD



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16 Mar 2008, 5:37 pm

ouinon wrote:
Mars Attacks!

Aliens killed by country & western/folk music yodelling. Great!

8)


That was a great, funny flick! Especially the yodeling.


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16 Mar 2008, 6:17 pm

Hmmm favorite disaster movie, that could fall in to several categories, natural, man made, and my favorite DEATH FROM SPACE!

Nature related, that would be The Day After Tomorrow, not that is movie is even scientifically plausible, I loved the effects and it had a good story line, unlike Twister, which Bill Paxton's only line in the entire movie was"Oh My God!" like it was his first time he's seen a Twister.

Man Made, this is harder a choice to pick just one, so I'll pick 3, since its something mankind is very good at!
Twelve Monkeys
28 Days Later
Children of Men

Death From Space, this one also has alot of choices, everything from the sun turning off as in Sunshine, to the Earth getting hit by anything from comets, asteroids, or whole planets, or everyones favorite, Alien Invasions, must be something to do with alien anal probing 8O , here are my choices for space base mayhem
When Worlds Collide
Deep Impact
Mars Attacks! Att AtttAt!



ouinon
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18 Mar 2008, 2:56 pm

spudnik wrote:
Att AtttAt!
:afro: :lmao: :D

8)