Earthquake

This is the Big One: Who doesn’t want to see Los Angeles burn? There is an awful lot of falling debris in Universal’s contribution to the 70s Disaster Movie craze; much of it directed at Charlton Heston’s noble brow. Mario Puzo cowrote the human interest stuff. but the real selling point here is concrete, crumbling; dams cracking; fly overs collapsing; the city of Angels reduced to rubble. All recorded in glorious Sensurround, a sound system heavy on the bass and meant to put you right in the middle of the action.

Although no one has yet produced the feelies that Aldous Huxley evoked in “Brave New World” — in which a love scene on a bearskin rug transmitted every hair of the bear, and there were aromas of newmown hay and kidney pudding, while a kiss on the lips or a blow on the skull were felt by everyone in the audience — Mark Robson’s “Earthquake” makes an awesome stab in that direction. The dam breaking, floods rising, bodies falling, towers crashing or burning, the earth heaving, pavements parting and the random explosions are all enhanced by Sensurround: special vibrations on the soundtrack cause your spine and your throat to tingle. (You may also wonder if they curdle the brain cells.)

Nora Sayre, New York Times

High drama, tension, special effects, carnage, camp drama, afro-tastic kidnapping and so much 70s hippy mania – it is a guilty pleasure. This is one of those films that gets better on each watch.

Simon Smith, I Love Disaster Movies!

The picture is swill, but it isn’t a cheat. It’s an entertaining marathon of Grade-A destruction effects, with B-picture stock characters spinning through it.

Pauline Kael, New Yorker

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