Earthquake (Blu-ray) Now Available for preorder (1 Viewer)

[Steve Tannehill]

I had the Earthquake soundtrack before it got ruined by water damage. It was around the time of Star Wars that I noticed that Star Wars, Jaws, and Earthquake had John Williams in common.

 

[mikeyhitchfan]

Yes..SenseSurround! Earthquake, Midway and Rollecoaster all has this vibrating rumble in theaters. I watched this recently in HD streaming, and it was pretty bad. Cheesy acting and writing..funny how I liked it when I was young. I like Rollercoaster the best of the 3. Where is that one?

 

[RolandL]

I remember seeing this at the Showcase Cinemas in East Hartford, CT. They had these large speakers on the sides and back of the auditorium. They had only four screens back then. But each held almost a 1000 people. They expanded to about 12 later and have been closed for years.

 

[stevenHa]

[*]I also see the The Shadow is up for pre order - I hope this is a good start for Universal blu ray releases, I'm really looking forward to Hindenburg, MacArthur, Forbin Project, Way West, War Wagon, etc.
[/list]

 

[Matt Hough]

I have a feeling if Earthquake sells well, we'll certainly see The Hindenburg.

 

[Jobla]

I would only be interested in the longer TV edition of EARTHQUAKE.

 

[Jack P]

The TV edition though is a version that like the TV cuts of "Midway" and "Two Minute Warning" is not footage shot during the original production but footage shot long after the fact specifically for TV screenings. I don't even think such TV only footage was shot in a theatrical aspect ratio. That said, it would be great to see it in a supplement section.

The "Midway" release only has some of the TV footage in the supplement section (the Charlton Heston-Susan Sullivan subplot; the Coral Sea Battle footage was left out).

 

[darkrock17]

I actually bought the soundtrack LP for the express purpose of having that artwork. The side benefit was gaining a huge appreciation for John Williams, a year before JAWS made him a legend. That score still gets a play in my house now and then. It was on CD very briefly.

John Williams was The Maestro of Disasters before Jaws and Star Wars made him cemented his fame in Hollywood.

 

[Ken Volok]

From what I've learned it is not at all advisable to have the original sensurround tracks in a consumer sound system, it'd literally blow them apart. I've read accounts of cracked walls in neighboring businessses to theaters that ran SenSurround.

 

[bujaki]

My wife and I saw Earthquake during its first run at the Ziegfeld in NY. We were expecting so much more from the SenSurround experience. Turns out that it was the same physical and auditory experience as standing on the downtown platform of the Eighth Avenue subway station at 96th Street!

 

[darkrock17]

My wife and I saw Earthquake during its first run at the Ziegfeld in NY. We were expecting so much more from the SenSurround experience. Turns out that it was the same physical and auditory experience as standing on the downtown platform of the Eighth Avenue subway station at 96th Street!

I would love to experience that feeling while watching Earthquake. Too bad they did away with Senseround though.

 

[Moe Dickstein]

I'm in for Hindenburg as well, definitely love that one.with something like this, the added TV scenes are of interest because it's not just deleted scenes but an entire extra storyline. Would be interesting to know if they were photographed widescreen, but I doubt it, so they'd be best presented separately or through branching. Interesting stuff to consider, if the extra scenes were shot in 35 I'd bet they would crop out to 1.78 pretty well at least...

 

[Brent Avery]

I have a copy and will check the audio for any improvement over the dvd - i am sure the video quality will be much better.

 

[JohnMor]

Earthquake is such a terrible film, but I loved it when I was a kid. Saw it many times in the theater, and also had the soundtrack album. I still like the "love theme" cue. Loved Genevieve Bujold! Had a HUGE crush on her. Still do, I guess. Now I laugh at so much of this film: the elevator scene and especially Ava Gardner as Lorne Greene's daughter!! LOL. Will be picking it up for sentiment's sake.

 

[RobertSiegel]

The sensurround sound signal in Earthquake was mainly below 20hz, it was inaudible. So the theater patrons felt the vibration rather than heard it, though I am sure there was a sound of rumble on the soundtrack. It was triggered by many "que's" on the film itself as to which speakers to engage, the intensity and level. it was not actual sound on the soundtrack. Later for Midway and Rollercoaster Universal used actual sound. Thus, there is no way at home to reproduce the original sensurround trigger because most of our sound systems and speakers do not fall below 20hz. I think what Universal is doing, with the last DVD and probably the Blu-ray, is create a rumble in the areas that the film had sensurround triggers, and making their intensity the same as the triggers were doing in the theater.

I understand Battrlestar Galactica came out as a BB Exclusive, does anyone own that one? THat has the .1 track as well.

I have an original Earthquake unused sensurround trailer in 35mm, and you can see the sensurround track on the film itself. Too bad Universal would not accept my offer to use the trailer for the Blu-ray. I wrote Craig Kornblau, head of Universal Home Video 3 times that I had the original trailer, unused, with the sensurround warning and track. They had no interest, I never received a response. That is just sad and bordering on disgusting in my opinion. This films has its fans with many memories of the film and the sensurround run.

 

[FrancisP]

You have all the extra space on blu-ray and it's wasted. There would have been plenty of space to put the extra footage on both Midway and Earthquake and make it available for those who wish to watch it even if it is not the same ratio as the movie. Thanks for nothing Universal and no sale here.

 

[TonyD]

To bad for you Francis.The movie is still there buy you won't buy it because of some extras that aren't?I'll be thrilled to have it again in my collection on bluray.

 

[RobertSiegel]

To bad for you Francis.The movie is still there buy you won't buy it because of some extras that aren't?I'll be thrilled to have it again in my collection on bluray.

I guess I can understand his disappointment. How hard would it have been for Universal to at least add a trailer, I cannot imagine the cost of that to be much of anything for them, since it was on the laserdisc and dvd......but they also could have added the television footage, and perhaps whatever else was in their vault. Midway has some decent extras, and that didn't gross half of what Earthquake did, which by the way is the one that won several special Academy Awards, one for sound and a special award for Sensurround.

I am personally VERY upset that they did not tag on the original sensurround warning at the beginning of the film as it played in theaters before the Universal logo. This is what it's all about isn't it, the original theatrical presentation? Sure it played in non-sensurround theaters but as I said if Universal were more in tune with what the fans want from many of their movies, adding a sensurround warning and a trailer is not cost prohibitive.

To me this shows a complete disregard by Universal for all of the fans of this film who have been waiting for such a release.

That said, I will still buy it because I really want this movie on Bluray, I love the score, I love the low frequency effects and I must be in the minority but I liked the story.

Would I have paid another $10-$15 for a special edition with all mentioned above? Absolutely!

 

[FrancisP]

Actually I have the tv versions taped. One day I will have to do a video transfer. That is good enough for me.

 

[Professor Echo]

When it comes to adding extras I think the studios have gotten to be very lazy and lax, perhaps preparing consumers for the no-frills future of streaming.

In the 90's the Los Angeles County Museum Of Art held a "SOUND" film festival, showcasing films that had interesting sound systems used, with sound engineers replicating the unique system for each title in the festival. The finale on the concluding night was EARTHQUAKE with the best approximation of SENSURROUND that they were capable of. To me it sounded every bit as good as the original when I saw EARTHQUAKE during its premiere engagement.