my ratings
1 The Towering Inferno (1974)
2 The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
3 Airport (1970)
4. Earthquake (1974)
Agree with top 3. I always thought Earthquake was a bit boring. I love disaster films from this era.
One of the airport films had a plane that crashed into the sea. It was like 2 disaster films in one, I loved it 😃
That would be Airport 77 with Darren McGavin and Jack Lemmon as the leads.
I hate to sound like a snob, but they are all pretty shitty in terms of artistic merit. Kind of a fad in the early 1970s in Hollywood.
Money making McDonald's movies for the masses.
I've seen all of them, if forced to choose to watch one again
.. Airport (1970)
I hate to sound like a snob, but they are all pretty shitty in terms of artistic merit. Kind of a fad in the early 1970s in Hollywood.
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Definitely a fad...like that Marvel/DC fad we have now...except this fad will last for DECADES.
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Money making McDonald's movies for the masses.
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Yes, but I think "The Towering Inferno" felt a lot better than that because both Steve McQueen and Paul Newman were considered "top of the line superstars" who could really act and who(history proved) would never really lose their star power. Add in William Holden(one of the greatest stars of the 50's, and a Best Actor Oscar winner), Faye Dunaway and the rest...and you had a classy production. AND: I think the "technical" side of the script(Newman's architectural/engineering jargon and McQueen's fire jargon)...is quite professional and adult.
"The Poseidon Adventure" from the same producer(Irwin Allen) had a more "old time cast"(only star Gene Hackman was really contemporary) but that "ship flip" set-piece and the ensuing suspense sequences gripped everybody. I think this was the biggest hit of 1972 OTHER than The Godfather.
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I've seen all of them, if forced to choose to watch one again
.. Airport (1970)
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The irony there is that "Airport"(1970) really was NOT a disaster movie. It was more of a multi-character soap opera in which, when the disaster comes, the plane DOESN'T crash and no one dies except the mad bomber villain(though one character gets bomb shrapnel in the eye.)
Truth be told, the planes did NOT crash in any of the Airport movies; they are really suspense films at heart with a few characters dying.
"The Poseidon Adventure" and "Earthquake" have the greatest loss of life.
my ratings
1 The Towering Inferno (1974)
2 The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
3 Airport (1970)
4. Earthquake (1974)
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Agree.
The irony there is that "Airport"(1970) really was NOT a disaster movie.
I thought the Poseidon adventure was rather over rated. There was a lot of overacting. Airport is so long ago that I don’t remember much. I remember liking earthquake a lot, but I was a dumb kid then. I’m not sure I would still like it now.
share1 The Poseidon Adventure (1972)
2 Airport (1970)
3 The Towering Inferno (1974)
I think of the original "Airport" as a melodrama more than a disaster movie. But, if it is to be classified as a disaster movie, it has to go first.
1. Airport
2. The Poseidon Adventure
3. Earthquake
4. The Towering Inferno