"Dante's Peak" An excellent disaster movie that pursues reality (Part 1)

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2022.04.06Takayuki Oguchi

"Dante's Peak" synopsis

Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan), a volcanologist who comes to investigate Dante's Peak, a dormant volcano that is said to have an extremely high possibility of earthquakes, discovers signs of an eruption. Harry complains that if things continue like this, the entire town could be engulfed by lava, but his fellow researchers don't believe him, so he talks directly to the mayor, Rachel (Linda Hamilton). Just as Harry is about to explain, a large earthquake hits the town, causing the townspeople to panic and flee. When I went outside and looked up at Dante's Peak, I saw gray smoke rising high from the top.

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A disaster movie with a certain amount of reality

The eruption of the underwater volcanoes Hunga Tonga and Hungaha'apai in Tonga is still fresh in our memories, but a new eruption has also occurred at Manamu Volcano in Papua New Guinea. Volcanoes are among the many natural disasters that occur, including volcanic gas, volcanic bombs, pyroclastic flows, lava flows, ash fall, volcanic lightning, volcanic fog, shock waves, volcanic earthquakes, mountain collapses, and in the case of submarine volcanoes, tsunamis and pumice damage, as well as secondary damage. It causes the most diverse disasters, including lahars (mudslides and debris flows), lack of sunlight, air pollution, and acid rain. As a result, there are many people who are affected by it, but it is the perfect subject for a disaster movie. For this reason, it has been depicted many times since the dawn of film (*1).

So this time, I wanted to highlight a movie that has volcanoes as its theme, and out of many, I chose ``Dante's Peak'' (1997). The reason for this is that there are few sci-fi exaggerations that can leave you feeling cold while watching. Around the time this movie was being planned, the third disaster movie boom (*2) was beginning, with films such as `` Twister '' (1996), `` Daylight '' (1996), and `` Titanic '' (1997). Among them, `` Volcano '' (1997) (*3), which also had a volcano theme, was released two months after ``Dante's Peak'' (*4). This one had a rather absurd setting, with a volcano suddenly appearing in the middle of Los Angeles.

"Dante's Peak" preview

Compared to this, there is less scientific unnaturalness in ``Dante's Peak.'' Of course, if a volcano expert were to watch it, there would probably be many oddities, but if you compare it to other disaster movies, it can be evaluated as a work that has a reasonable level of reality. This is largely due to the involvement of David H. Harlow (*5) of the U.S. Geological Survey, Norman MacLeod, John P. Lockwood, and others as advisors from the early stages of pre-production. Among them, the U.S. Geological Survey's Cascade Volcano Observatory (*6), to which Harry and others belonged, was also MacLeod's workplace at the time).

The executive producer is Ilona Hertzberg, who also directed `` Waterworld '' (1995), and she chose Roger Donaldson, who directed ``On the Origin of Species'' (1995), to direct. By pure coincidence, Donaldson majored in geology in college and had a basic knowledge of volcanoes. He worked with Daylight screenwriter Leslie Bohem to create a story that combined information from academics and collaged various real-life volcanic disasters.

*1 For example, in 1900, Walter R. Booth, a British film pioneer, created a short story called ``The Last Days of Pompeii.'' This is based on the massive eruption that occurred on Mount Vesuvius in Italy in 79 AD, and has since become a motif in many works.

*2 Other works that were made during the third disaster movie boom include `` Deep Impact '' (1998), `` Armageddon '' (1998), `` Firestorm '' (1998), and `` Flood '' (1998). There is. By the way, during the first disaster movie boom, ``World Flood'' (33), `` Kuwa Port '' (36), `` Hurricane '' (37), `` Chicago '' (37), `` Suez '' (38), and `` Rain The second disaster movie boom that started with `` The Poseidon Adventure '' (1972) included `` Japan Sinks '' (1973) and `` The Towering Inferno '' (1974). , ``The Great Prophecies of Nostradamus'' (74), `` The Great Earthquake '' (74), and `` The Hindenburg '' (75).

*3 Regarding ``Volcano,'' there has been criticism of a scene in which fire engines and helicopters spray water to stop the flow of lava. In other words, ``If you pour water on hot lava, a steam explosion will occur, which is extremely dangerous and impossible.'' However, there was a model for this strategy that was actually successful. It was carried out to protect the port when Eltfell on the island of Heimaey in Iceland erupted in 1973. At the time, I watched the recorded footage of this operation on TV and remember being extremely moved.

*4 According to the original schedule, ``Dante's Peak'' was scheduled to be released one month after ``Volcano,'' but Universal rushed it forward.

*5 When Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines erupted in 1991, he was one of the members of the research team that issued an evacuation advisory based on early warning signs. The events of this time are also one of the bases for the story of ``Dante's Peak.''

https://pubs.usgs.gov/pinatubo/punong2/index.html

*6 The Cascade Volcano Observatory building that appears in the film was filmed at the post office in Malibu, California.

Balancing warnings about the danger of eruptions with local economic activity

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