{"id":1296,"date":"2020-01-20T13:27:39","date_gmt":"2020-01-20T13:27:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cine2dvdtransfers.co.uk\/blog\/?p=1296"},"modified":"2020-01-20T13:29:49","modified_gmt":"2020-01-20T13:29:49","slug":"genre-spotlight-disaster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cine2dvdtransfers.co.uk\/blog\/2020\/01\/20\/genre-spotlight-disaster\/","title":{"rendered":"Genre Spotlight: Disaster"},"content":{"rendered":"

Disaster films depict the story of impending or an ongoing disaster as its main plot focus. These disasters can include anything from natural disasters, disease outbreaks, alien invasions or shipwrecks and aeroplane crashes. Disaster films are considered to be a subgenre of action films<\/a>, and the film will usually feature some kind of build-up to the disaster, the disaster itself and sometimes the aftermath, often from the point of view of survivors.<\/p>\n

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\"Gasmask<\/center>Like the action genre itself, it had a heyday in the 70s and a later resurgence as a result of advances in CGI technology that allowed for more spectacular visuals that hadn\u2019t been achievable before. These advancements led to perhaps the best-known disaster film of all time, James Cameron\u2019s Titanic<\/em> in 1997.<\/p>\n

The 1970s <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Disaster films are one of the earliest genres within the silent film era, with films like Fire!<\/em> (1901), and In Nacht und Eis<\/em> (1912), which is an early film about the sinking of the Titanic \u2013 which would go on to become a popular story for the disaster genre. However, the 1970s saw the genre\u2019s golden age, starting with the release of Airport <\/em>in 1970.<\/p>\n

The film was not strictly a disaster film \u2013 the central plot focused on an aeroplane crippled by an explosion of a bomb \u2013 but it featured many of the disaster tropes we would later associate with disaster films, such as multiple running plotlines. Airport <\/em>was a huge financial success and went on to be nominated for ten Academy Awards.<\/p>\n

1972 saw the release of The Poseidon Adventure<\/em>, another commercial success with many Oscar nominations. The film detailed survivor\u2019s attempts at escaping a sinking ocean liner that was overturned by a giant wave. More disaster films followed with the likes of The Towering Inferno <\/em>(1974), Earthquake <\/em>(1974) and Airport 1975 <\/em>(1974).<\/p>\n

The genre burnt out towards the late 1970s when disaster films like The Swarm <\/em>(1978), Meteor <\/em>(1979) and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure <\/em>(1979) performed poorly at the box office, signalling a declining interest in the disaster film genre.<\/p>\n