Catastrophe : The End of the Cinema?

by David Annan

"This book, copiously illustrated with pictures of dams bursting and flaming Zeppelins and the destruction of whole cities, deals with man's terror of an Apocalypse. The cinema has always fantasized this universal terror, from the destruction of Babylon in INTOLERANCE to the topsy-turvy ocean liner in THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE and the flaming skyscraper in THE TOWERING INFERNO. We cannot stand the thought of obliteration - and flock to see it, as long as we are safe."

112 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1975

Reviews

[Graham · Rating 4 out of 5]

I rather liked this one. It's a brief overview of the disaster genre in cinema, moving from the earliest times at the beginning of the 20th century through to 1975, when the book was first published. The author's definition of 'disaster' is fluid, which means there are countless thrillers, science fiction and horror pictures thrown in along the way; as long as there's some form of disaster, whether it be apocalypse, plague, or societal shift, it'll be in here somewhere. The emphasis of the book is on large-scale poster reproductions, accompanied by numerous stills of the films discussed. The text, which is precise and brief, is all encompassing and witty throughout, making this a breezy read.

[Charles · Rating 4 out of 5]

Since the birth of cinema, the disaster has been a staple of the movies, people love the tension generated by watching people struggling to survive when things go horribly wrong. From science fiction to natural disasters to plagues, we love to watch simulated traumatic events.
This book is essentially a large collection of stills with some photos of posters from movies that are embedded within a small amount of explanatory text. The term catastrophe is subject to a significant amount of poetic license here. For example, it is hard to see how the “Batman” movie starring Adam West and Burt Ward could be considered a disaster film.
There is also a bit of sexploitation in the book. Stills of Linda Lovelace from “Deep Throat” and Marilyn Chambers in “Beyond the Green Door” are present, adding a bit of nudity from porn movies that were hardly in the catastrophe genre.
Fundamentally, this is a book of stills from movies, designed for the individual that generally just wants to look at pictures. What I liked about it was that it reminded me of some of the movies I watched in the “Creature Feature” that came on at 10:30 Saturday evenings when I was a teenager.