EARTHQUAKE (1974)
2-Disc Collector's Edition
Label: Shout Select
Region Code A
Rating: PG
Duration: 122 Minutes (Theatrical), 160 Minutes (TV Cut) Audio: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, DTS-HD MA 2.1 with Sensurround Audio, 2.0 with Optional English Subtitles
Video: (Theatrica)1080p HD Widescreen (2.20:1), (TV Cut) Full Frame (1.33:1)
Director: Mark Robson
Cast: Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner, George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Geneviève Bujold, Richard Roundtree, Marjoe Gortner, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Victoria Principal
Earthquake (1974) is one of my favorite of the string of 70's disaster flicks that were all the rage, big-budget movies featuring huge set pieces, all-star casts and lots of carnage. As a kid I would love to watch these films when they aired on TV, back in the days when a big-budget movie debuting on television was a very big deal, usually bolstered by exclusive TV footage and promotions on the the radio stations.
The plot of Earthquake (1974) is basically various groups of people trying to survive in the aftermath of a catastrophic earthquake that devastates Los Angeles, California. The characters we follow are a former pro-footballer (Charlton Heston, Planet of the Apes) whom is cheating on his possessive wife (Ava Gardner, The Sentinel) with a younger widow (Geneviève Bujold, Obsession). Also on the scene are the father (Lorne Green, Battlestar Galactica) of the footballer's wife, good guy L.A. cop (George Kennedy, Strait-Jacket), barfly (Walter Mathau, Charley Varrick), a creepy National Guardsman (Marjoe Gortner, Food of the Gods) and a daredevil motorcycle stuntmen played by Richard Roundtree (Shaft's Big Score). There's loads more cast seen throughout but these are the people that made an impression on me, there are so many threads and faces in this film that really don't add up to much in the end.
The real star of the film is the city of L.A. in ruins, the epic set pieces and familiar L.A. sights is disarray makes for a fun watch, with fantastic use of matte paintings and miniatures building and cars collapsing a crashing, with the L.A. damn bursting and flooding parts of the city, it's great 70's spectacle-cinema.
A lot of the first third of the film is getting to know all the characters, some of it is a bit of a bore but it's all in the service of what bits of character building we get here, with Heston being the main guy more or less, and he's not a great guy, but he has an arc at least. The creepiest person in the whole film is Marjoe Gortner as a store clerk with a penchant for stalking an attractive young woman, and when he soldiers up to save the city as part of the National Guard his darker impulses turn even darker. Richard Roundtree is a cool looking stunt rider in his black leathers streaked with yellow lightning, driving around the city saving kids and generally being helpful.
Earthquake is a fun flick, the 70's were lousy with these sort of bloated disaster films, and this is still one of my favorites, delivering plenty of action, carnage and melodrama, plus we get a cast of Hollywood stars mixing it up with TV regulars and b-movie notables, what's not to love?
Audio/Video: Earthquake arrives on 2-disc Collector's Edition from Shout Select with a new 2K scan of the theatrical cut, plus a reconstruction of the TV version with an additional 24-min of broadcast footage. The original aspect ratio for the theatrical version is 2.35:1 widescreen, but due to an issue during mastering is presented here in 2.20:1. A disc replacement program has been initiated by Shout Factory, you can go to www.discshipment.com or email info@discshipment.com for more information about that program. Incorrect framing aside I am happy to report that the image looks good, there's a heavy but natural layer of film grain, colors are solid, and the blacks levels look healthy, plus there doesn't look to be any artificial sweetening having been applied. The TV cut of the film is framed in 1.33:1 fullframe, looking much softer when put against the theatrical cut with heavier grain, white speckling and grit, but it is still very watchable.
Audio comes by way of English DTS-HD MA Surround 5.1, DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 or DTS-HD MA 2.1 with Sensurround for the theatrical cut or of the disaster classic or English DTS-HD MA Mono 1.0 on the TV version, both with optional English subtitles. The surround track offers up a robust presentation that has some good use of the surrounds, during the earthquake we get a nice low-end rumble, though the dialogue seemed a tad low in the mix, so I actually preferred watching it with the 2.0 and 2.1 Sensurround mixes. The TV cut has a mono presentation that is solid but a bit anemic compared to the stereo and surround mixes.
Shout Select offering both the theatrical cut of the film plus the longer running TV broadcast version spread out over a pair of Blu-ray discs, in addition to some quality extras. On disc one we have three vintage audio interviews with Charlton Heston, Lorne Greene and Richard Roundtree running about 13-min. We also get several galleries of still images from deleted scenes, poster and lobby cards, behind-the-scenes, matte paintings, and publicity photos. The first disc is buttoned up with a rough looking theatrical trailer for the film, a TV spot and 4-min of vintage radio spots.
The second disc contains the longer running 160-min TV cut of the film plus some newly produced extras, first up is a 17-min interview with film music historian Jon Burlingame who looks back at the fantastic score from composer John Williams. There's also a 17-min appreciation of the matte paintings created for the film by Universal's Albert Whitlock by cinematographer Bill Taylor, with some cool comparisons to the painting on their own and how they looked composited into the film. There's also an 11-min look at the development of the Sensurround audio system and it's use in the film by noted sound designer Ben Burtt. The second disc is buttoned-up with the option to view the 24-min of TV scenes by themselves in addition to viewing 9-min of additional TV scenes.
The 2-disc release comes housed in a standard Blu-ray keepcase with a sleeve of artwork featuring the original illustrated movie poster, the reverse side features an image from the film. The slipcover that accompanies this release features the same illustrated image as the wrap, and the pair of Blu-ray discs inside feature purple-tinted images from the film.
Special Features:
DISC ONE: Theatrical Cut (122 min)
Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the interpositive of the theatrical cut (2.35:1)
- Audio Options: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, 2.1 w/Sensurround audio and 2.0
- Original Theatrical Trailer (3 min)
- Original TV Spot (1 min)
- Original Radio Spots (4 min)
- Vintage audio Interview with Charlton Heston (4 min)
- Vintage audio Interview with Greene (5 min) - Vintage audio Interview with Richard Roundtree (4 min)
- Matte Paintings and Miniatures Gallery (3 min)
- Deleted Scenes Gallery ( 1 min)
- Behind-the-Scenes Gallery (3 min)
- Matte Paintings and Miniatures Gallery (3 min)
- Posters & Lobby Cards Gallery (9 min)
- Production and Publicity Gallery (9 min)
DISC TWO: Television Cut (160 min)
NEW 2K scan reconstruction of the TV version, featuring over 20 mins of made-for-broadcast footage (presented in 1.33:1)
- NEW Sounds of Disaster: Ben Burtt talks about SENSURROUND (11 min) HD
- NEW Scoring Disaster: The Music of EARTHQUAKE (17 min) HD
- NEW Painting Disaster: The Matte Art of Albert Whitlock (11 min)
- Isolated TV scenes – Play them without watching the TV version of the film (24 min)
- Additional TV scenes #1 (7 min)
- Additional TV Scene #2 (2 min)
Earthquake (1971) is one of the big-budget disaster flicks that delivers plenty of natural disaster action as well as some silly melodrama. It's all fun stuff, delivering lots of entertainment value as only these star-bloated big-budget carnage flicks could, and Shout Select's 2-disc Collector's Edition likewise is stuffed to the gills with nify extras.
