Cinematic Encounters With Disaster

Cinematic Encounters with Disaster takes Hollywood's disaster movies and their codified versions of natural disaster, post-apocalyptic survival, and extra-terrestrial threat as the starting point for an analytical trajectory that works toward new understandings of how cinema shapes and informs our conceptions of disaster and catastrophe. It examines a range of films from distinct regional and industrial contexts: Hollywood, indie movies, different kinds of documentaries from the US and elsewhere, and auteurist-realist cinema from Europe and Asia. Moving across and beyond critical and industrial categories that often inform thinking about cinema, this book contends that different approaches to film style can push us to imagine disaster in distinct ways, with distinct ethical connotations. Framed by contemporary concerns around the global climate crisis and the advent of the Anthropocene, questions about how films can best offer responses to historical exigency guide the book's explorations of spectacular 2010s blockbusters like Gravity (2013) and San Andreas (2015), environmental documentaries including the paradigmatic An Inconvenient Truth (2006), post-disaster films by auteurs including Abbas Kiarostami and Lav Diaz, and more. Conceiving of disaster as intersubjective ethics between humans and nonhuman alterity – forces of nature, errant technology, monsters, ghosts, and other entities – it analyses how formal techniques and narrative strategies render encounters in which human protagonists are confronted with the threat of death and respond in ways that can be instructive for our planet's present juncture.

"This book takes Hollywood's disaster movies and their codified versions of natural disaster, post-apocalyptic survival, and extra-terrestrial threat as the starting point for an analytical trajectory toward new understandings of how cinema shapes and informs our conceptions of disaster and catastrophe. This book examines a range of films from distinct regional and industrial contexts: Hollywood, indie movies, different kinds of documentaries, and auteurist-realist cinema. Moving across and beyond critical and industrial categories that inform thinking about cinema, it contends that different approaches to film style can push us to imagine disaster in distinct ways, with distinct ethical connotations"--

Through detailed analysis of films such as The Towering Inferno, Independence Day, Titanic and The Day After Tomorrow, this book looks at the ways in which disaster movies can be read in relation to both contextual considerations and the increasing commercial demands of contemporary Hollywood. Featuring new material on cinematic representations of disaster in the wake of 9/11 and how we might regard disaster movies in light of recent natural disasters, the volume explores the continual reworking of this previously undervalued genre.

As anyone in the news business knows, audiences swell with the scale of disaster; humans have always been drawn to the rumors of our own demise. In this darkly comic book, noted film historian David Thomson examines iconic disasters, both real and fictional, exposing the slippage between what occurs and what we observe. Demonstrating how disasters become yet another commodity for our consumption, Thomson shows how digital culture sates our desire to witness chaos while suffering none of its aftereffects. Through classic movies such as San Andreas; eyewitness responses to real disasters such as the Aberfan coal mining disaster and the coronavirus pandemic; and media portrayals of disasters throughout history, Thomson pulls back the curtain to reveal why we love watching disaster unfold--but only if it happens to others.

Explore new routes into the burgeoning field of biblical literature and film theory The present collection of essays is a sequel to the groundbreaking Semeia 74 issue, published in 1996, entitled Biblical Glamour and Hollywood Glitz. These new essays showcase the divergent approaches from film studies and cultural studies that can be used in the visual analysis of biblical and religious themes, narratives, and characters in cinema. It is the first volume that specifically addresses issues of methodology, theory, and analysis in the study between bible and film. As such, this collection is of interest to scholars in film studies and theology/religion/biblical studies, who are invested in doing interdisciplinary research in the expanding field of religion and film. Features Specific focus on methods of film analysis, rather than the more common focus on thematic analysis in the study of religion, Bible, and film. Visual analysis in the encounter between Bible and film Fourteen essays and an introduction by top scholars in the field

Presents reviews of 150 disaster movies and includes a rating on whether they are worth watching and a description of the most gruesome moment in each movie.

From the 1950s through the 1970s, disaster movies were a wildly popular genre. Audiences thrilled at the spectacle of these films, many of which were considered glamorous for their time. Derided by critics, they became box office hits and cult classics, inspiring filmmakers around the globe. Some of them launched the careers of producers, directors and actors who would go on to create some of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters. With more than 40 interviews with actors, actresses, producers, stuntmen, special effects artists and others, this book covers the Golden Age of sinking ships, burning buildings, massive earthquakes, viral pandemics and outbreaks of animal madness.

Disaster movies have been around from the very beginning of film. This fun, thrilling, unique genre has always captiavted audiences around the world and spawned millions of fanatical disaster devotees. Indeed, some of the most successfful movies in history have been disaster films. There hasn't been a book devoted exclusively to the disaster genre in some thirty years! Until now... This is a new, comprehensive roadmap of the genre. The book: is a history of the genre; includes reviews of all the disaster films; articles on the films and the genre; includes full details about directors and the stars of the genre; written in a humorous, even satirical, style; includes posters and photos and original illustrations. Each chapter is devoted to a specific 'type' of disaster: aeroplanes, earthquakes, avalanches, volcanoes, ships, meteors, fire, storms, radiation, viruses, mad bombers, killer bees, wild animals, aliens and includes full information and reviews of each film in that category.