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“It is constructed about as skillfully as a disaster film can be, and there were times when I found it to be somewhat effective for me, at least on the surface of things. But hasn’t this genre pretty much reached the point of exhaustion in terms of its application? Once you know the premise (e.g., volcano, tornado, killer bees), you can guess the story line pretty accurately. With a volcano, we know there will be: —ominous portents of doom on what appears to be an ordinary day, such as people being boiled alive in hot springs, an excessive number of dead trees in the middle of summer, and alarming seismic activity.
—Everyday people going about their business, in this case the Dante’s Peak Pioneer Day Festival, at which the mayor (Linda Hamilton) accepts the town’s Money Magazine award as the “Best Place to Live in the United States.” “”It’s the second-best place to live in the United States.” — There is an arrival of scientists, including (a) the hero scientist, who is played here by Pierce Brosnan, and (b) the pooh-pooh scientist, who is played here by Charles Hallahan, whose job it is to dismiss the hero scientist’s concerns and assure everyone that there is no cause for concern.
—Inevitable subplot involving a large corporation that has plans to invest millions in the area, but may relocate its operations if it hears rumors that Dante’s Peak is about to blow.
—The formation of a friendship that eventually leads to a love affair between the hero scientist and the town mayor, who arrives with a full complement of disaster movie accessories, including children, a dog, and a gray-haired mother-in-law who refuses to leave her mountaintop cabin.
—As the hero scientist discovers dead trees, dead squirrels, brown drinking water, and other early warnings of volcanic doom, the alarm is raised louder and louder.
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—A town meeting was called to prepare for an evacuation, but it was abruptly ended by a volcanic eruption, of course.
The mountain roars, ash falls from the sky, melting snow causes rivers to overflow, a dam bursts, bridges collapse, shock waves flatten forests, and so on as citizens flee the town.
An engrossing human drama involving the hero scientist, the town mayor and several children, a dog, and a grandmother, and involving flight by four-wheel vehicle, two-wheel vehicle, boat, and on foot. Ingenious last-minute plan to evade volcanic annihilation is unveiled. Question: Can a utility vehicle actually cross a river while its engine is completely submerged?) — Final but not least, the administration of poetic justice.
Ashfall Quiz
—A new day has dawned. The music builds in intensity.
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Oh, and there’s the Obligatory Unrelated Opening Crisis, which is defined as follows by Ebert’s Little Movie Glossary: “An opening crisis that is unavoidably unrelated to the rest of the film.” “”A spectacular title sequence that has absolutely nothing to do with the rest of the story” in an action movie. An incident that occurred four years earlier on the site of another volcano, and the emotional trauma that resulted from that experience, which can only be repaired this time around, play a role in this storyline.
“”Dante’s Peak,” written by Leslie Bohem and directed by Roger Donaldson, adheres to the disaster formula to such a degree that if you walk into the theater while the film is in progress, you can guess how long it will take to complete the narrative. The fact that it is accomplished is a tribute to the filmmakers. Roger Donaldson ( ) is a British politician who was born in the United Kingdom “Gale (“Dante’s Peak,” “Species”) is a good director who pays attention to the human elements even in a fiction machine like “Dante’s Peak,” and Gale (“Species”) is a good actor. Producing the film is Anne Hurd, who specializes in action films (“Aliens,” “Alien Nation,” “The Abyss,” “Tremors,” “Terminator 2: Judgment Day”). This is accomplished through careful orchestration of special effects to make them appear and feel real (most of the time), and in Brosnan and Hamilton, they have actors who play for realism rather than going over the top—never screaming, not even when molten lava ignites their truck tires. This film’s soundtrack is particularly effective.
For me, is it a case of simply being too familiar with the ways in which the world works, right down to my bones? “Are we talking about a remake of an old movie in new clothes here? For a film like this to work, the audience member must be completely immersed in it. But every time a familiar story element was brought up (the gun-shy investors, the pooh-pooher, the dog), I was jolted back into the present day.
About the quiz
One aspect of the experience did not disappoint me. Recently, in my life, “An article in the “Movie Answer Man” column recently raised the question of whether a person can outrun an explosive fireball. The conclusion was reached that it could not be done in real life, but it could be done in a film. A reader wrote me to tell me about a Jaguar that managed to outrun a shock wave from Mt. St. Helens, while a hapless utility vehicle was completely destroyed. This sparked a flurry of conversation (e.g., how far apart were the two vehicles?)
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According to Pierce Brosnan’s warning to Linda Hamilton in “Dante’s Peak,” “If the mountain blows, the blast would get here in less than a minute,” says the actor. The mountain is raging. We witness the shock wave flatten tens of thousands of pine trees, demolish homes and office buildings, and so on and so forth. In the following scene, we see it chugging down Main Street in town, with the heroes attempting to outrun it in a pickup truck. I estimate that the mountain is about 10 miles away from town. If the blast can travel one mile in six seconds, which would be an extremely conservative estimate, then it can travel one village block in… but don’t worry about it, just forget about it. In contrast, I’d prefer to recall the more convincing scenes from the film, such as when a volcanologist looks at his computer screen and sees the mountain’s ominous portents and says, “This is a bad sign.” “She’s just clearing her throat at the moment. She hasn’t even started singing yet.”
For more personality quizzes check this: Jiang Ziya Quiz.
