Character Stereotypes in the Disaster genre

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Of all of the things that make genre criticism so accessible is the formulaic creation of a certain series of events that mark that particular type of film. While there is a strong, straightforward explanation on this board of what marks a Disaster film, I have noticed that it is a very structured, highly formatted genre. We know what to expect, and go to see them, eager in the hope that our expectations will be met, and hopefully, even better, exceeded.

Aristotle wrote that the two most important things in the telling of a dramatic work are: Plot (or mythos) and Character. These two things are strongly intertwined, and the genre-based study of film allows for these two most important elements to be examined as almost one and the same.

In the Noir study, for example, there is the Femme Fatale, and The Bad Cop, etc.

In the genre of Disaster, here are the ones I have found. Feel free to join in, correct, add, whatever....


The Cassandra.
In Greek myth, Cassandra was given the gift of foresight but cursed with the ignorance of others. She would know what was coming, but have to stand by, helpless, as her prognostications would be ignored. The Cassandra, in the Disaster genre, is usually present. Sometimes, it is a brief, simple moment ("Sir, I have concerns about the amount of ballast in the Poseidon"), but more often, it is someone who knows the Real Story, and has to spend the beginning of the film desperate to get someone, anyone to listen. The finest example would be Jack Lemmon in The China Syndrome. The reason I chose him above all others?

He is a Cassandra from the moment he sees the truth, and remains one until his exit. He is allowed (literally!) center stage to tell the truth as he knows it, and is shown as a babbling lunatic with a gun. After he is gunned down, and begins to see the vibrations that will bring about the single greatest disaster his mind could ever fathom, his eyes show all of the real horror, total panic that anyone would feel when they know they have given everything they had to avoid a disaster. Most important moment in the film, imho: after the disaster is averted, the camera comes back to Jack, who is, strangely, still dead, but his face is frozen in that same, horrified panic. Cassandra sent to the grave, never knowing if their warning was heeded or not. Perfect.

A good example of the Cassandra, but not as powerful, is Woody Harrelson in 2012. While he is everything that a Cassandra should be, his rantings on so many other topics is so bat-feces insane that ignoring this Cassandra only seems like the right, sane thing to do. Which makes him a good example, because, face it: there is always some borderline psychotic with the placard THE END IS NIGH!! that we all shake our heads about... and being Disaster genre fans, isn't there always a moment as you pass these wretched souls, and ask yourself: "What does he know that I don't?"


The Noble Sacrifice.
Often, the character is drawn from a very specific background. Family man or mother of three, this is the person who has every reason any of us would think of to flee the scene, grabbing babies/spouse/whatever, always, always, ALWAYS someone who has met and spent their lives with that one perfect soul-mate, and instead, lays down their life for the sake of others.

A Disaster being what it is, massive destruction, unbearable loss of life, often this character shows up several times in the course of a Disaster film. My favorite, but again, there are many, many to chose from: John Carroll Lynch in Volcano. His character is what a lot of men think of when they think of who they really are, what they would like to be, etc. He is, throughout the film, a pretty happy-go-lucky guy, easy going when possible, but his job makes it impossible to be too much that way. There is something in Lynch's performance that just makes you wander down to the local watering hole, because you just know he is there, probably in the middle of telling a good joke; the guy that just is happy to have gotten out of bed that morning, and that happiness comes from somewhere deep inside of himself, the man who knows who and what he is.

There is no specific moment for me, here: just a sense that an actor gives off. Maybe it is the way he grins, or frowns. Regardless: watching a happy man carry another human to safety, and in a way that absolutely guarantees certain death... okay, granted, the effects department kind of dropped the ball on his death, it really should have been given more attention, but still...

He walks into liquid magma, knowing he is going to die. He could have saved himself. He just cannot.

(This is a good time to stop, and do a wee sidebar: the suspension of disbelief that is required for any film is really put to the test for me in this sequence. Granted, I do NOT want to sound like The Simpson's Comic Book Guy, but, really, doesn't anyone in Hollywood know how to read? The heat at the moment mentioned would have been intense enough to bake everyone inside the subway car, not to mention that all of them would have died for lack of something we call oxygen.... I know it is Only A Movie, and if I wanted a science lesson, I know where to get one, but that is a moment that took the film out of my Top 10 list pretty much in that one instant... Back to the tirade at hand...)

Shelley Winters death in The Poseidon Adventure comes in at a close second to the Lynch death. Her character is a blowzy, blustery broad, full of P and vinegar. (Sometimes, too much...) She loves her husband, who is also just as in love with her. They are old and they are still young lovers to one another. Her choice to swim in after Gene Hackman for his sake, and for the sake of everyone else, is superb. Her loss is shown not only on the face of Jack Albertson, her now widowed husband, but in the sadness and frustration of all of the other survivors. Her death allows us one of the most important things that this genre can do: we see a simple, single loss, and the devastation it creates.

The Idiot.
Okay, I have a totally different term that I prefer to use, the common/vulgar term of the human rectum, but I didn't want the character *beep*ed out.

The Idiot allows us to have something akin to comic relief. Often, this is a news cameraman. Hank Azaria in the *sigh* American Godzilla is a fair example, but T. J. Miller's Hud in the True American Godzilla, Cloverfield is a better example, so I will focus on Miller. (Nothing against Azaria, mind you: in fact, he is the primary reason to watch Godzilla, imho.)

Miller is a true Idiot in that he simply cannot shut up. His babbling throughout the film is, at first, more than a little annoying, but, as the film progresses, we see the need of the character: He is us, saying some of the things that we would possibly be thinking of at the same moment. He also has some of the best throw-away lines I have heard in any film for a very, very long time. When the four survivors are crossing the bridge created from a collapsed building, Odette Yustman (the reason everyone ran into the path of danger) cries out, "What's that?" when she sees the Big Beast. Miller's answer? "That... is a terrible thing." Now, being a 50 year old man, out of shape and overweight, I think that is precisely what I would have said... if I had the presence of mind to say something/anything at all. It is the sequence that happens a few moments later, however, that is for me, Miller's crowning moment, because it is the pay off for what just happened. Yustman sees one of the Little Beasts, and, again, although more panicked because the Little Beast is RIGHT THERE and has to be killed, again cries out, "What's that !??" and Miller says, "That... is another thing. Also terrible."

Really. I am impressed. I would NOT have been able to come up with that, but it is the way the character was both written and portrayed that it is completely and flawlessly natural. Of COURSE Hud would say that. He has been saying things like that throughout the entire film.

The Idiot gives us the opportunity to laugh, to release tension. Again, I would have to remind any and all of Azaria's reaction to nearly being stepped on by a behemoth. If you have the film, find that moment and watch him again. Me, I would have evacuated my bowels and bladder. Hank's Animal is a better man than I.

The Reporter
The Reporter shows up, in all places, in Melville's Moby Dick, which I would grant as being a Disaster novel. The final line, if I recall, is: "And I alone am survived to tell the tale." Well, yes and sometimes that is exactly what we need.

Jane Fonda is far from my favorite actress, but her role in the previously mentioned The China Syndrome is a pretty good example. Tea Leoni in Deep Impact is better, but that is purely a matter of preference. The best, again, imho would have to be: Peter Stenning in The Day The Earth Caught Fire, a criminally neglected British Disaster film that really needs to be seen more often. (Granted, the effects are what one would expect from a $1.98 budget, but the producers went for Leo McKern as one of the leads, and the rest of the acting and storyline makes up for it.)

Stenning is the one I would chose, simply because there once was a time when a reporter simply followed a story, double and triple checked sources and facts so that, once the story was published, the world would know The Truth. Stenning is all Stiff Upper Lip, following the story to the bitter end. This insistence of Being There Regardless Of Personal Cost is why I include Fonda and Leoni as well. Nothing is going to stop the Reporter from getting to the bottom of things.

The Annoyance.
Not to be confused with the Idiot, the Annoyance can be used to comic effect, but often, it is used for immediate sympathy and/or the Awww factor. Usually this would be in the form of an annoying child, whining and wanting their way, regardless of the insanely out-of-control circumstance. In one memorable instance, however, the Annoyance was used to fine effect in Airport: Ms. Helen Hayes.

She was the Little Old Lady who was actually a con artist. On first viewing, she is someone that I, as an audience member, really wanted to see get sucked out of the torn fuselage. Let her fall to an untimely demise, I do not like this whiny wretch. Except: she has a plot purpose, and when you see her go from Annoyance to near Hero, it was a superb performance in a wee tiny role. Really, it is on second and third viewings that I noticed just how important she was to the actual plot of the film.

The Amalgamation.

Several films use one character in multiple roles, and the best example I have seen of the Amalgamation is Dennis Quaid in Independence Day. He is the Idiot, the Cassandra, the Noble Sacrifice and the Annoyance, all wrapped into one, jittery, drunken, sad little man who is not only given the chance to Die For All Humanity but be proven Right as well as having a long-distance Moment with his son.

Michael Douglas in The China Syndrome is an Idiot and an Annoyance.

Well, that is more than enough for now. I hope you were entertained by my babbling (does this make me a Cassandra, Annoyance or Idiot???), and please of course feel free to join in and make your own voice heard.

Remember when we said there'd be no future? Well, this is it. -- BLANK, Reg