Comments on: It’s a disaster!

By: supersonic

supersonic — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 23:18:22 +0000

Some of the really early silent westerns were shot in Niles Canyon, in the present-day bay area suburb of Fremont.

By: lyzard

lyzard — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:39:44 +0000

The serials discovered Bronson Canyon first; a lot of the silent western ones were shot there, because it was close to home and cheap, and there were the caverns for the baddie’s hideout, and the cliffs for your (literal) cliffhangers, and the brush areas for foot chases, and the open rocky areas for horse chases. The movies seem to have been slower on the draw, and Deluge was one of the first to make significant use of the area.

By: supersonic

supersonic — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 06:28:02 +0000

The other day I was checking maps of Los Angeles so that whenever I next happen to go down there, I can make a Bronson Canyon pilgrimage. I learned it’s in Griffith Park, underlooking the observatory and, apparently, the Hollywood sign. And it’s formally named Brush Canyon on the park maps.

By: Scott David Hamilton

Scott David Hamilton — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 04:26:04 +0000

What I find far more fascinating than the subject of disaster movies is that they’ve been filming bad genres movies at that one place in Bronson Canyon for 75 years. Not just 75 years ago, but the last 75 years inclusive.

By: Blake

Blake — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 23:54:39 +0000

The funny thing is, I found it lot more entertaining and intriguing than “Bay-a-geddon” and I’m almost certain that if I said that to any mainstream viewer, they’d think I was stupid.

By: lyzard

lyzard — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 21:27:53 +0000

It’s a borderline issue; generally it depends upon the handling of the crisis. Is it about dealing with the aftermath, or about hopping into a spaceship and either running away or blowing the thing up? A Fire In The Sky is the classic three-act disaster – Nobody Believes/Told You So/What A Mess. Thank you for reminding me about that one, it had slipped my mind.

By: Blake

Blake — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 15:45:21 +0000

Is “Fire in the Sky” (the 70s TV movie) considered a disaster film? How do meteor/comet films figure into the equation?

By: lyzard

lyzard — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 09:58:58 +0000

That, and it has a giant walrus. (At least in the Japanese version.)

By: The Rev. D.D.

The Rev. D.D. — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 05:39:57 +0000

Admittedly I haven't seen Gorath but I think it's more sci-fi than disaster, since Gorath never hits the Earth (although I'm sure there's some footage of earthquakes and such because of it) and the movie's more about humanity trying to move Earth out of the way and therefore avoid the disaster. I'd thought about mentioning it earlier, but it seems to be more like Armageddon than Deep Impact.

By: supersonic

supersonic — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 06:35:56 +0000

I’m thinking that the proliferation of fads is part & parcel of what I was describing… it was a fairly abrupt transition from a relatively narrow set of accepted ideas to broad accepted ideas, and lots of the new stuff turned faddish. A lot of it was all new (for the mainstream) at the same time.

There’s probably some similar things going on in the twenties.