We’re excited to announce a new Blu-ray release that will shake you to your core! 1974’s epic disaster flick Earthquake is getting the Collector’s Edition treatment on May 21st with a new scan of the film plus an extended cut featuring scenes shot for Television, and available for pre-order now at: http://bit.ly/EarthquakeCollector!
The all-star cast includes Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, Richard Roundtree, George Kennedy, Genevieve Bujold, Lorne Greene, Victoria Principal, Marjoe Gortner, Barry Sullivan, Monica Lewis, Lloyd Nolan and Walter Matthau. More details and specs will be announced on a later date. Pre-order now at: http://bit.ly/EarthquakeCollector
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Awesome!! Hoping for lots of extras.
Will this include a Sensurround track?
I can't wait to have this in my collection, hopefully this means that next year Shout will get Airport for its 50th anniversary and releases both a complete box-set of all 4 films and a stand alone of the original as well.
One of my favorites. A definite purchase.
I have very fond childhood memories of "Earthquake" but don't think the movie holds up. Indeed, I think it's pretty awful.
I still like "Towering Inferno" but most of the 70s disaster flicks were bad…
Sensurround was a BIG hit for me when I went to see this in the theater all those years ago. I never thought much of the movie's narrative, but the special effects were well done for the time.
The Original Universal release does I assume they will be getting that same encode
And it won an Oscar for visual effects.
MY love for the film is mostly nostalgic but it is still entertaining despite being kinda dopey. And I LOVED that sensurround.
The special effects range from the brilliant (Albert Whitlock's beautiful matte paintings) to the awful (the inept blood-splattering effect as the elevator crashes down the shaft — where there is some blood superimposed even before the crash — and the twist-the-lens effect for a skyscraper wiggling). Of course, the worst special effect is Lorne Greene (born 1915) as the father of Ava Gardner (born 1922).
It all just adds to the charm. 😉
He had her when he was still very young 😀
I love Ava Gardner but this is not one of her stronger appearances and she lived a bit too hard to age as gracefully as for example Sophia Loren.
She gives by far the worst performance in the film.
Are you kidding? 🙂 Marjoe Gortner and George Kennedy seem to have been in a contest to see who could give the worst performance. It was a tight race but Gortner won! Gardner gets by on sheer star power. Anyway, it's not the kind of film where the acting matters much.
Not kidding. I thought both Kennedy and Gortner gave way better performances than Gardner. She is unwatchable in this film for me, despite her ample talent and star power.
Don’t forger Walter Matuschanskayasky performance as a drunk :banana:
A groundbreaking film.;)
I only saw it once, and then on tv. I think the version I saw had deleted scenes…something to do with an airplane that couldn't land because the earthquake had made a big crack on the runway. Does anyone else remember this?? Or am I misremembering one of the "Airport" movies?
No that’s it. It’s the tv version filmed for NBC sequences. They were terrible sequences.
It will be on this Blu Ray.
Thank you, Tino. I was only 11 when that aired. I remember the next day at school all these fifth graders complaining about those added scenes, saying they were stupid compared to the original cut. Even little kids know when too much is too much.
I watched Earthquake not long ago. It took WAY too long to set up the situations with the characters- more than 50 minutes before the chaos. I almost shut the film off before the
“fun” began.
One of the main problems I always had with Earthquake was that it's so cheap looking. As if the budget was nowhere near sufficient for the concept and scope of the film.
Compared to both The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, the effects in Earthquake do lack a bit, but then again there's only show much you can do to portray the big event happening aside from moving the ground itself. Where the main event lacks, in the end however it's really believable at least to me when the damn cracks and floods LA.
Seriously. It's like they just used some mirolon and shook it around to make it look like the ground was moving. At least Irwin Allen set a model on fire for Towering Inferno.
View attachment 54886 As bad as it is in parts, I have soft spot for it as it's the film where I first saw and fell in love with Genevieve Bujold. And the Sensurround was fun in the theater.
But, man, is it a cheap looking picture. The budget must have gone for the stars’ salaries. It certainly didn’t go for the sets. And it doesn’t help that Mark Robson is one of the most visually boring directors ever.
I love the shot of the mother and daughter during the quake. The mother clearly has the glass shards embedded in her face before she looks up and gets showered with them.
Like I said, scenes like this and many others, just adds to the charm.
As much as I think this movie's a stinker, I'd actually like to own it!
But not enough to drop $20 on it. Shout inconsistently sends me review copies – I'll pester them for this one but doubt I'll get it!
Genevieve Bujold is a seismic wave unto herself.:thumbs-up-smiley:
Strictly on Principal
View attachment 54893 I must disagree … 😉
Yes, but Genevieve didn't need to wear a wig.:roll:
Only her hairdresser knows for sure… but more than likely for matching she did, although not quite as "fetching (as in dog)" as Victoria's "Natural" wig doo 😉 !
Love all the people here who say, "I love this movie, it'll be great to have it in my collection." Did you love it less when Universal released it many years ago? Just curious.
It was shunned because of the cover art and absence of the TV version.
I enjoyed the movie enough to upgrade my DVD when the Blu-Ray came out in 2013, but not enough to upgrade again now to a "collector's edition."
And was it just me and my home theater system, or did the DTS Master Audio 5.1 track on the Blu-Ray give a better rumble effect than the DTS 2.1 with Sensurround one?
With disaster movies, for me there's, The Poseidon Adventure (1972) & The Towering Inferno (1974)…& the rest. I really don't feel the need to watch Earthquake again, but I would buy When Time Ran Out (1980) if WAC released it. You have to pick & choose your bad movies (& I have more than my fair share).
Nope, I loved it equal. I’m excited to see what Shout will do with this release and glade to see the NBC version included.
There's nothing more cool to a 13 year old film nerd named Bryan than when the earth and the theater shook with Moses and Julie from Showboat … 😀
I doubt the absence of the absolutely horrendous and unnecessary tv version had anything to do with it.
I’ve Purchased every release of the film and loved them all.
Universal's cover art isn't great but it's way better than the Good Times DVD cover.
It terrified me! Mom told me those earthquakes only happen in California. doooon't worry! lol
I got Earthquake, Pseidon Adv and Towering Inferno on blu 3 years ago…also have the airport dvd set. And I can say my least favorites are Earthquake and Airport 77. My least is Towering Inferno. I'm dying to see Hindenburg again with George C. Scott, saw it once so long ago and loved it.
I won't rebuy this one.
LOVE that scene. And they show one of those crazy houses those californy folks hang off the sides of mountains. There's a fantastic Emergency! where they rescue this guy who was up under his trying to repair it. I always think of earthquake when I see a picture of one of those crazy houses. I was thinking about have sweet dreams one night sleeping in a house like that and suddenly I'm on a house sized rollarcoaster!!! Just hold your hands up and scream!!! aaAAARRRGGGGGG…..!! lol
GoodTimes' covers had the tendency to be very cheap. Have you seen what they did with Blow Out?
That's got to be the worst Photoshop job I've ever seen.
I am definitely going to be getting this when it comes out!
I was being sarcastic.
Sorry. Couldn’t tell. A 😀 would have helped.
Usually the word “shunned” is a good tip off to sarcasm unless the discussion is about a genuine religious sect. 😀
The Hindenburg is out on blu if you are so interested.
I didn't even notice that! I thought it was dvd only. Will see about grabbing it right away!
So are all the Airport movies.
Earthquake is a great one, watched it via streaming last night. Very enjoyable, Ill be getting this!
Agreed and if its just a cheap videotaped copy from a private collection like they did on Two Minute Warning then they are doing us any favors as that was almost unwatchable.
There already is a complete box set of all four films.
Are You aware there is a box set of all four from Universal?
Or do you also want Shout to release another box set with all four which is unlikely.
Although I always take notice when any cover art is poor, but nothing detours me if a film of interest is known to have inside of the box a disc with a great transfer.
Will purchase if there are striking improvements in sound and picture, as it did win the Oscar for its sound.
That was another cover … this- a variation on one of the original posters was on mine …
View attachment 54919
I have Universal's out of print Airport Terminal Pack from 2004. I would love for Shout to do their own collection of the films remastered in 2K for the sequels and the original in 4K and each film loaded with lots of features as well.
There blu-ray box set from 2016 has 2K remasters of the sequels.
I didn't know Universal released the other Airport films on Blu. Shout could just port those over then and work on giving the original the 4K treatment.
I would rather have the extended TV version of Airport 77 or Midway from Universal
Here’s hoping that the film will include, finally, the original opening with the audience sensurround warning, that is just a must and has been left off of every Universal release. “ATTENTION, THIS FILM WILL BE SHOWN IN THE STARTLING NEW DIMENSION OF SENSURROUND”. Also, maybe for the first time we will get the sensurround trailer instead of the regular trailer. Universal could have been very nostalgic with this film on home video (with the sensurround process) and never chose to.
It was released with a sensurround track.
I remember when this came out but I never saw it. Is the sensurround track just heightened bass?
Yeah just more bass.
I remember going to see it as a young kid and being in awe of the gigantic speakers the local theater installed in the back of the theater to create the "sensurround sound"
It’s not just more bass.
I believe it was specially designed low frequency speakers.
Wikipedia.
Sensurround is the brand name for a process developed by Cerwin-Vega in conjunction with Universal Studios to enhance the audio experience during film screenings, specifically for the 1974 film Earthquake. The process was intended for subsequent use and was adopted for four more films, Midway (1976), Rollercoaster (1977), the theatrical version of Saga of a Star World (1978), the Battlestar Galactica pilot, as well as the compilation film Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack (1979). Sensurround worked by adding extended-range bass for sound effects. The low-frequency sounds were more felt than heard, providing a vivid complement to onscreen depictions of earth tremors, bomber formations, and amusement park rides. The overall trend toward "multiplex" cinema structures presented challenges that made Sensurround impractical as a permanent feature of cinema.[1]
Sensurround helped bring wider recognition to established loudspeaker manufacturer Cerwin-Vega,[2] and aided in establishing a strong reputation for new audio amplifier company BGW Systems. The increased awareness of extended low-frequency sound reproduction that Sensurround brought to film audiences was a factor in the increase in subwoofer sales and in the rise in the number of subwoofer designs in the late 1970s and 1980s.
And it won a special Oscar.
So more bass. 🙂
They were basically stadium style loudspeakers placed in the back of the theater – Cerwin-Vega's were very Bass efficient …
View attachment 54921
CAPTION "Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood. California. Waldon O. Watson and Model W Sensurround Horn at the house left rear corner of the auditorium, 1974. From American Cinematographer, November 1974, "Sensurround." The speakers were installed on wooden platforms covering two rows of elevated seating which had been created during the Cinemiracle remodelling in 1958. Note the Altec Lansing 629 "auditorium" speaker as well as the cable for the sensurround speaker punching through a hole in the ceiling."
Website: http://graumanschinese.org/projection-3.html
View attachment 54922
CAPTION: "Mann's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood. California. Waldon O. Watson and Model M Sensurround Horns at the front of the auditorium, 1974. From American Cinematographer, November 1974, "Sensurround." American Cinematographer states that the horn configuration seen in this picture was deemed "too loud" for the front row of seats, and was changed for horns on either side of the screen, but accoring to eyewitness accounts, this is the configuration used during the run of Earthquake at the Chinese."
Then including the "sensurround track" on the blu ray may do nothing for your system unless you have sufficient low end hardware to support it… or so it would seem.
Agreed. And Sensurround often gets a quick shrug off as a gimmick, when it actually had many innovations and directly helped secure the idea of a dedicated LFE channel in both the theatrical and consumer multi-channel formats, starting with Star Wars.
Sensurround from the start had separate front / back steering that was very effective. And as shown in B-rolls pics, had the installed fire power to be quite visceral. After the various iterations used for Earthquake, DBX was used on following titles ,and with Battlestar Galactica, Sensurround added further refinements of its steering capabilities.
To date, none of the Sensurround titles on home video have offered a choice of utilizing the original front back directional steering for those with full range speakers. If someone didn't have this full range capability, bass management could always still dump it all to one's mono sub if needed.
Yeah from what I've read the "sensurround" tracks on the previous blu-ray and dvd releases of Earthquake have the tones to actuvate the bass speakers…but they don't actually work.
Yeah. Like I said. Not just more bass.
I saw this movie in the Cinema as a teenager, with Sensurround. My friend had to rush out of the theatre to have a puke in the toilet – he couldn't handle all that bass! 🙂
My wife and I saw it at the Ziegfeld in NY. I turned to her and said: This is no different than standing on the lower platform of the West 96th St. subway station while the "A" express roars overhead". I experienced the same rumbling in my inner organs. For free!
Some theaters had some structural damage during this films run so they had nets hung above the seats to catch pieces that fell from the ceiling. Also I remembering reading somewhere online that the surrounding buildings around the movie theaters that were playing Earthquake shook from the intensity and caused some panic.
Apparently, Universal was all about that bass if you know what I mean. 😉
When I saw it they also had the speakers on the side of the auditorium – you had to walk around them to get to your seat.
This sounded great in 70mm Sensurround at the Empire in London.
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The theater I saw it at 2 1/2 times … (First Saturday it was out I came to an early matinee and stayed for the second. I went and saw it again the next Saturday) …
Was built for Cinerama(R) but they did not have the two sets of rear speakers as high up as the ones pictured the ______'s Chinese …
I'm pretty sure the fronts shown were there for the first Saturday shows and NOT there or in the same location at 2nd Saturday show …
The theatre had center aisle so no one had to climb over the rear speakers to get to their seats…
Allegedly there was structural damage to the theatre and it stopped showing films sometime in the early eighties I believe … This what was left of it in 1984
View attachment 54962 🙁
Was the damage caused by the film or something else?
What's the name of the theatre?
Are we sure that wasn't some sort of publicity stunt; "See EARTHQUAKE in Sensurround and feel real lumps of ceiling fall on your head. Hard hats available for rental in the foyer." Hey. I'd go for that audience participation!
The popular story is they had to install nets at Grauman's after some folks got hit by ceiling tiles.
A theater here in northern New Jersey – the Fox in Hackensack – definitely lost large chunks of ceiling plaster during their run of Earthquake. They had to install nets after the first incidents.
You mean this one?![[IMG]](https://www.in70mm.com/news/2011/in_sensurround/_images/earthquake_35mm_1.jpg)
This website talks about quite a few incidents that were caused by Earthquake as well as the film Rollercoaster (1977).
https://www.in70mm.com/news/2011/in_sensurround/english/index.htm
Speaking of the upcoming release of the TV version…when NBC first aired this, it ran on two consecutive Sundays in a 90-minute time slot, which would make this approx. 142 min. If you are correct on the listing being 160 minutes, that would be an 18 minute difference, so we could possibly see 18 minutes of footage never seen anywhere, or unless 18 minutes of the theatrical was taken out for TV broadcast and replaced with the new footage.
Ah. The Fox theater in Hackensack. I moved to this area in 1980 and was fortunate enough to see Flash Gordon there before it closed down not too long after. Fond memories. Saw a bunch across the street too at The Oritani triplex.
Two Multiplexes within a mile …an economic depression … I don't think it was actually the film but other factors that lead to the closures of single screen theaters
The Bethany
I may be wrong when I said it was "built for Cinerama" as another link says at the same website says they never ran any of the 3-panel films.
I did see Krakatoa East of Java there and they played 2001: A Space Odyssey as well but I didn't see it
There are really only 2 disaster flicks I think still hold up: both by Irwin Allen. The Towering Inferno (which is in desperate need of a 4K video upgrade) and The Poseidon Adventure. The others are just tacky – Earthquake, included.
The effects in Earthquake were considered 'ground-breaking' (pun intended) at the time, but are woefully below par by today's standards. By contrast, The Towering Inferno's hellish blaze is a masterful stroke of miniatures, full scale stunts and real fire licking at the heels of the principle cast. 'Inferno' is a classic by any stretch, even with the laughable casting of O.J. Simpson. It has Allen's class 'A' treatment to recommend it, and a budget so staggering (at the time) it needed 2 studios to pool their resources to make it. The results speak for themselves. Also, John Williams' score is superb – best cue, as Robert Wagner races through his outer office ablaze, and about to die. Talk about a fantastic 'tragic' moment!
Eh I prefer JW's score to The Poseidon Adventure out of his "Disaster Movie Trilogy". Shame the sound quality is unsalvageable without a complete rerecording though.
Even by today's standards of special effects, The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake are still more believable than what could be ever be done with CGI. Where Earthquake's models do show their age, it makes up for it in it's then record breaking number of 145 stunt people involved in a single film.
The models of both The Tower and the S.S. Poseidon haven't aged a bit in over 40 plus year. The Tower is at it's most realistic at night with the flames shooting out of several floors, makes you forget that it's a very tall model. With the S.S. Poseidon, again it's hard to tell that this is model in certain shoots. The capsizing scene will always be more realistic than what CGI can come up with.
John Williams's Disaster Trilogy scores are each good in their own ways.
With The Poseidon Adventure, from it's opening few notes it tells you all about the poor ship's fate and what's to come in the aftermath.
The Towering Inferno it's action and suspense from start to finish, sometimes at the very same moment.
And with Earthquake, it's okay; but I don't think it really need a score and it might of been better off like how The Birds (1963) was, just the use of natural sounds. An opening theme is fine, but after that just go with the sounds of the real world, especially after the earthquake strikes.
I think "Poseidon Adventure" is relatively good for the reason you mention: so many of the others are bad.
But it's still erratic and flawed.
"Inferno" isn't flawless but it's easily the best of the bunch…
Who's ever heard of a perfect film?
While I love these films effects, I think properly applied modern state of the art CGI absolutely would have looked more realistic. In all three cases.
San Andreas and Skyscraper are two modern examples.
I kinda think that some of the original model work for those films (and other practical effects films) can look better than some modern CGI, but that the modern productions have the edge because the digital composites look far better than the 70s-era optical composites. It would be interesting to see what a film like Towering Inferno or Earthquake would look like if they were able to take the original film elements and recreate the opticals digitally. I think that might be eye-opening to a modern audience.
What's wrong with using real fire and water, do they not look real enough for today's audiences?
San Andreas was a box office hit. The effects might of been nice to look at but, that's about it after that.
Skyscraper was a complete failure, as the general public is aware of both The Towering Inferno and Die Hard and Skyscraper was neither. On paper mashing-up The Towering Inferno and Die Hard together might sound good, but when executed it's a mess.
Also The Rock might be a big bankable star but, he alone can't carry a movie. For a Disaster movie to work you need a good ensemble cast of characters that you like and want to see them make to very end and when they don't you feel deeply sad that they died.
We’re talking about the visual effects remember? Not opinions of the films. You stated CGI couldn’t be more realistic than practical model effects if used in those films. I disagreed and provided examples of CGI in disaster films implemented realistically.
In your opinion maybe it was. But it wasn’t financially. It made over $300 million world wide on a $125 million budget. It has likely turned a nice profit by now.
If it needs 2.5X its budget to go into the black, "Skyscraper" wouldn't have made any profit.
It earned $304m WW and would need $312.5m to get to 2.5X its budget…
No one, but there's nitpicky "flaws" and then there's flaws!!!
"Inferno" better overcomes its flaws than "Poseidon" does, IMO…
Nothing in San Andreas was any bit believable on any level.
Your looking at $$$ your not looking at how the audiences and critics reacted to those films though.
Both San Andreas and Skyscraper have rotten ratings of 51% and 46% and both movies have been heavily scrutinized by the critics as well.
The Poseidon Adventure The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake were all box-office hits and critics and audiences's loved them. Now all three''s ratings and opinions about them have changed since they were first released, but all three of these films are still highly remembered 40 plus year later, something none of these new Disaster films will ever achieve.
What flaws are in Poseidon? If you're referring to the table and chairs during the capsizing, that has been explained before.
Too often nowadays the giveaway that a special effect is fake is not that the CGI is poor, but rather that the "camera" angle/movement is so extreme as to be impossible to achieve with a real camera in a real world.
If you're interested in my thoughts, have at it:
http://dvdmg.com/poseidonadventurese.shtml
So you prefer non stop action from start to finish basically.
Those moments were they stop for a few minutes makes them more personal and human and we the audience are able to relate to these characters better.
Again….I’m talking about the visual effects. NOT your opinion of the films. :wacko:
C’mon. I know that. It may actually be closer to $375 million to break even. But it’s not an exact science. I was responding to the comment that it was a “complete failure” which it wasn't. And I said by now it has likely turned a profit meaning ancillary sales.
Again, as I said NOTHING was believable in San Andreas. Every seismologist tore that film apart for its depiction of that fantasy quake and how seismologist were portrayed as well.
View attachment 55048
Fine. That’s your opinion not fact. I thought the visual effects and CGI in San Andreas were excellent. And the film as a whole was very entertaining. Ditto for Skyscraper.
YOU WANT FACTS, HERE'S YOUR FACTS
http://www.earthquakecountry.org/sanandreas/
https://www.npr.org/2015/05/30/410267157/fact-checking-san-andreas-are-earthquake-swarms-for-real
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/graham-kent-phd/san-andreas-facts_b_7484044.html
Dude. Relax. :huh:
I’m not interested in this debate with you as you clearly don’t get what I’m saying. Carry on.
I was watching First Man and I thought the effects were very realistic. They used practical models and rear projection (via video wall) with gimbals that were synched to the rear projected images … So i guess everything old is new again 😉
2012 is another fun film I thought with great CGI earthquake effects. They also built some sets on gimbles to add realism.
The disaster scenes were ridiculously over the top tho. But fun. 😛
🙄
No, I don't want action from start to finish.
I want good character development and exploration, which we don't get in "PA".
The movie should devote its pre-disaster time to those elements and do so well. "PA" leaves characters thin and sketchy.
Once the disaster hits, the movie should be largely action/disaster related.
Does it make sense to pause for long moments of introspection and sentiment when you're racing against the clock to survive?
There's a place between "complete failure" and "turning a nice profit"…
True. But it’s close to the latter than the former.
Agree. I'm sure the studio thought it'd do better, but at least it wound up around break-even point, so it wasn't a flop…
Skyscraper is still a flop, because the film had to depend on China to bail them out. The movie only made $68 million during it's whole US run. Without China's additional $236 million it would of been a complete lost. You know you have a flop when you need China in order make a profit.
Money is money – doesn't matter where it's made…
Your absolutely correct. Foreign markets are now producing over 55% of the profit for movies as less and less people in the US are going to the movies. Years ago when I was in the business, the foreign cash was lagniappe, today it’s make or break.
Today's $50 word of the day goes to
The foreign market doesn't always make or break a film these days though, only certain movies need the International audience in order to make a decent profit. Action films like Skyscraper are such examples.
Repeating an incorrect statement ad nauseam doesn’t make it true. Filmmakers today make films for a global audience. Every dollar counts and the overseas box office market is as important if not more so than the domestic market.
Why does $1 earned in Beijing become less important to you than $1 made in Boston? Who cares if the movie made its money in China vs. USA?
And many Hollywood films are now co-financed by China which helps a lot of films get made that otherwise wouldn’t. Pacific Rim Uprising for example.
There are many benefits to thinking globally as evidenced by the overseas boxoffice totals of many recent blockbusters.
And we’re talking Boxoffice numbers here not opinions on the quality of the films.
The example that used BOMBED big time. This reddit page explains quite well.
https://www.reddit.com/r/GODZILLA/comments/8cgaw2/pacific_rim_uprising_has_bombed_and_wont_get_a/
You’re just not getting it dude. At all. I give up.
Carry on.
Back to Earthquake, have any extras been announced other these the horrendous tv footage?
Too early, Shout will announce those details in April as they usually release that info a month before the release date.
Agreed. The producers of Earthquake would've killed to have some of the visuals from San Andreas. In San Andreas you get what looks like real skyscrapers crashing down. In Earthquake, the camera wobbles a bit.
This is an interesting video, showing how Sensurround speakers were used for a 70mm screening of Earthquake on a curved screen in a German cinema in 2006. Some bits are in German.
I saw that video, interesting that they choose to use the score from Airport through out it. Did Sensurround really sound like that, as during the quake you couldn't hear what was going on screen.
Not at any showing I saw in the 70s.
IMHO the Sensurround was more effective for the SPOILER: Aftershocks than for the quake itself …
Aftershocks? I only remember the one which happened at the Wilson Plaza (Wilshire Colonnade).