The disaster movie emerges in the 1970s, after Hollywood moved from its so-called classic era to become more obviously an industrial system. This is when both genre and the cinema of spectacle begin to be deliberately developed as powerful audience creators, at a time when television had tempted much of the audience away from the cinema.
In the transition, the audience shifted from the traditional sixty per cent of female viewers to a teenage audience, which encouraged the already male-dominated industry, Maltby suggests, to foster more male-centred productions.
"During the 1970s," Maltby says, "the box-office recovered on the strength of blockbusters aimed primarily at a young male audience." The censorship of the Production Code had been replaced by the ratings system by then, which also shifted emphasis in the content of movies.
Verisimilitude and believing the unbelievable
Disaster movies resemble classic Hollywood films in many respects, particularly in persuading the audience to believe the unbelievable. Hollywood and mainstream films depend on realism, the construction of a fiction that seems entirely believable.
Verisimilitude, or the appearance of reality, is the key to audience engagement in these films. The filmmaker works hard to convince the audience to believe in the movie, the audience expects the film to draw them into its world. This done using classic Hollywood techniques to induce the 'suspension of disbelief'.
Suspension of disbelief is key to enjoying fiction in all media and genres, but given the realism vaunted by special effects discourses around the production of disaster films, it is worth comparing fact with fiction in an analysis of how this works for any one disaster film. It is quite easy to think of ten points where the fiction makes a nonsense of fact, yet seems to ring true as part of the narrative. Or, as with Volcano, 1997, where the sheer fantasy of a lava flow advancing through the streets of Los Angeles is part of the audience enjoyment.
Analyzing verisimilitude in a disaster movie
Elements to focus on in a case study for verisimilitude and Hollywood style, the suspension of disbelief:
- Look for the timeline device, often a ticking clock, the countdown computer display. A dramatic device to add pace and suspense, even during static situations in the film.
- Make a list of things that seem to be true in the movie, yet could not actually be true in real life.
- Make a list of everyday things that would or should happen to the characters in real life in a similar situation, but do not happen in the film.
- Does the movie make the audience feel real emotions while watching, and then do the audience usually go home satisfied because the problem was resolved at the end?
- What emotions does the movie make the audience feel? Rage, fear, frustration, awe, affection, worry, relief, happiness - make a list.
- Was there a sense of the audience taking sides – knowing their role? Were they hoping for the bad guy to get what he/she deserves, willing the weak people to get organised, hoping for the hero in each endeavour?
Disaster movies blend genres
Hollywood exploits genre to gain large audiences. It needs these to guarantee recovering the financial costs invested in making the film. Analyzing disaster movies for location and theme is not enough to explain how it does this, but a recognition that it blends different genre narrative codes is helpful.
Maltby points out that the elements of love story entwined with action adventure are exemplified in James Cameron's Titanic, 1997, which guaranteed two important audiences for the film, but it also delivered to an under 25 audience, and its technological ability to deliver verisimilitude attracted a nostalgic, typical audience for the historical genre, too. "Authentic emotion felt as historical experience," Sandler and Studlar suggest.
The choice of stars for Titanic also attracted a wide audience. The use of a female point of view broadened the appeal outward from a standard disaster narrative. Leonardo DiCaprio, although not physically a typical action hero, was already a star, the focus of a young, female audience.
The Hollywood star system and blockbusters
Stars for disaster movies are often not from the musclebound action hero tradition, as illustrated from The Towering Inferno, 1974, where the unlikely choice of Hollywood icon Fred Astaire, as an anti-hero, broadened the audience considerably. Pairings are quite significant, too, as illustrated by the choice of Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton in Twister 1996, and Pierce Brosnan and Linda Hamilton in Dantes Peak, 1997, as well as Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet in Titanic.
The disaster movie differs from the action adventure movie in some key respects, often giving an illusion of action when there is a lot more talking and romance than derringdo. The blend of spectacular special effects and narrative devices, such as a sense of real time, and the ability of the plot type to allow female points of view, delivers a broad audience. Understanding the function of character in disaster movies is another key to understanding that audience.
(Click on images below to enlarge them).
Sources
David Bordwell (2006) The Way Hollywood Tells It: Story and Style in Modern Movies University of California Press Introduction & supplement
Richard Maltby (2003) Hollywood Cinema: an Introduction Wiley-Blackwell
Kevin S. Sandler and Gaylyn Studlar (eds) (1999) Titanic: anatomy of a blockbuster Rutgers University Press
Valerie Williamson - Dr. Val Williamson is a freelance journalist and academic specialising in historical and popular culture topics.
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