WIBBLE WOBBLE L.A. IS IN TROUBLE

 

My Connection To The Destruction

One of my favourite films of all time has to be the 1974 disaster epic Earthquake, that might sound like a strange comment to some and probably not a statement you hear quite often, it isn't exactly an outstanding piece of cinematic history but to me it's quite fun and has a place in my childhood.

Growing up in the late 80's Earthquake was shown quite frequently on prime time television, remember, back then there was no watching recent cinema releases until they reached the video shop (just one of the businesses that the internet killed off) several months later and that was only if they had a copy of it, the horror of having to wait!!!  It could take years before a film would eventually premier on television and so 1980's tv schedules were full of films made over a decade ago.

One almost certainty was that there would be a big disaster movie shown in a prime time slot over the Christmas period, something I found quite strange, here is supposedly happiest time of the year when families gather to celebrate and yet we are all going to sit around and watch people struggling to survive some disastrous situation. Back then I didn't know or care who Charlton Heston or Ava Gardner were and I found the first fifty minutes or so a bit fidgety and boring (come on get to the shake, shake) but when the big one struck I was glued to the screen.

Buildings fall down, people run around in flared jeans and wedged shoes dodging debris, cars get crushed, lorries fall off bridges, cows get killed, houses roll down hills, more buildings fall down and big movie stars are left looking shaken up, bewildered and worried, all exciting stuff for a child to watch from the safety of his place on the sofa. As time went by the showings got later and later but I still watched it, excited to be both staying up late and watching a film that although I'd seen before I was happy to watch over and over again, I had even recorded it on one of its airings but still watched it whenever it was shown on T.V.

I still found the first 50 minutes or so quite slow but now I realised they were trying to add depth to the characters, I knew who Charlton Heston and Ava Gardner were and had checked them out to see if they had made any other disaster movies, which indeed they both had. It seems that Earthquake does have a place in both my childhood and my heart, a strange thing to say about a film, especially as this isn't exactly Bambi or some Disney cartoon but I can appreciate it for what it is, a campy, dated blockbuster with both a wobbly script and camera, with special effects made long before the advance of CGI.

Pre Shocks

Following the massive box office success of the film Airport in 1970 executive producer Jennings Lang working for Universal Studios started to piece together the idea for another disaster themed movie this time however the film wouldn't be confined to passengers on a plane but placing a whole city in jeopardy, the idea was for a large, devastating earthquake. The first draft for the film came about in the summer of 1972 from the pen of Mario Puzo who had previously wrote The Godfather screenplay, this first script however was deemed unsuitable, they found the drama was to in depth and the action spread over to wide an area. Despite the first script Universal's interest did not falter as that winter audiences flocked to see another disaster epic, The Poseidon Adventure, released in December 1972 the film proved to be another big box office success, making in 2018 adjusted money $489 million in America alone, this film told the story of passengers on a capsized passenger liner. The Earthquake screenplay was then handed over to magazine writer George Fox, Earthquake would be his first script and so he was aided by the more experienced, director Mark Robson, together they narrowed down the drama and action into a more usable story line.

While the film was still in the development process Universal Studios learnt that Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox were about to make motion picture history by working together to make their own disaster movie, this film told the story of the world's tallest building catching fire, the film was entitled 'The Towering Inferno'.

The Main Event

Earthquake along with the other handful of disaster movies that came out in the 1970's were the action films of their day and recreating a devastating earthquake that tears Los Angeles apart in a time when only limited CGI (computer generated imagery) was available was going to need a top team of special effect engineers and these, with the use of miniatures and back matte paintings formed the tools at hand.

The budget for Earthquake was set at $7 million which in comparison to the $14 million of Towering Inferno and $8 million of Jaws was quite tight, such was the contribution and success of the special effects team behind Earthquake was that the film would go on to win an Oscar for their efforts. As well as the clever visual special effects the film used a new form of sound effect known as Sensurround, this meant that during the earthquake scenes the sound generated replicated that of an actual earthquake, the sound was so powerful it cracked plaster work in several theatres it was shown in.

The below screen shots show scenes during the 'big one' where we see the skyline of Los Angeles falling apart, these were actually miniatures or models (the previous photo showing the same buildings from a different angle), miniature may seem a strange term as they were large enough for men to fit inside and shake in fact the models were created at 1/6 scale as objects at this size looked more realistic to the camera, these models and scenes were shot outside and were cleverly lined up with the actual sprawling suburbs of Los Angeles behind to make them appear more realistic.

Miniatures were also used in the scene below where we see houses on stilts (who thought of putting houses on stilts in an earthquake zone I don't know? But they do actually exist) rolling down a hill with poor old Genevieve Bujold having to dodge them.

Matte paintings were also heavily used these created the backgrounds to many of the scenes following the earthquake, live action would later be placed in front of the paintings trying to look as seamless as possible, Albert Whitlock well known in the effects industry was in charge and did a great job with the tools at hand. The image below is a good example of the matte paintings used.

AFTERMATH

Earthquake was released on the 15th November 1974 and became an instant box office smash, eventually becoming the third biggest hit of the year, behind Blazing Saddles and Earthquakes rival The Towering Inferno, grossing £79 million or £403 million in 2019 adjusted gross. Several months later a further disaster movie, Airport 75 was released when this too became a box office success the disaster movie had reached its zenith in popularity.

While the film enjoyed box office success it came in for harsher critical praise, most critics agreed that the special effects were indeed something special but disliked elements of its soapy, plodding script.

Earthquake went on to win two Oscars, not for its acting nor for it's script but for it's special effects and sound effects.

A sequel was planned, Earthquake 2 went into pre-production with a script telling the survivors stories, it had them moving to San Francisco where a second major earthquake takes place, the film however never went into production as the disaster genre started to lose its popularity during the late 1970s.


The following images are screenshots taken from the film Earthquake, they are scenes that I found interesting, displaying some of the dramatic acting and special effects and while these special effects may look dated today it is worth remembering that the team behind them did indeed win the special effects Oscar of the year.