Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7c8c6479df-ph5wq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-03-19T03:10:00.134Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

6 - Disaster Cinema. A Historical Overview

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2020

Get access

Summary

Abstract

The aim is to give a historical account of the disaster movie genre in chronological order, in continuation of the cultural and technological history of sublime disasters. The films in question employ the receptive and general aesthetic characteristics of the sublime for their depictions of catastrophic events. My discussion also includes the specific media technological environments in which the films were performed, insofar as cinema's potential to function as a medium of the sublime represents the receptive foundation of the films. What is excluded from this historical account is the interpretations of the films’ disasters as allegories of specific contemporary political and socio-cultural events. In opposition to these (often premature) readings, one must take the immediate sensuality and the receptive tactics of disaster films seriously and elucidate the genre's transformations by reference to the mechanisms of economic profit and technological innovation and application.

Keywords: Cultural History of Natural Disasters, Film History, Film Genre, Media History, Aesthetics

Let me revisit the most defining feature of disaster cinema, as outlined above: in opposition to attempts that focus on the films’ narrative structures and hidden ideological messages, I claim that disaster films, first and foremost, present destructive (natural) forces, which are threatening humankind with its far inferior existence, as sublime cinematic attractions. Following this attempt of a definition, I will give a historical account of the disaster movie genre in chronological order, a task that, so far, has been addressed rather superficially within film studies. However, it is understood that even the most thorough and encompassing account can never claim to provide a definite and fully complete trajectory.

The majority of films to be named on the following pages were decisive contributors to the development of the genre and its changing sensory, thematic, and general aesthetic appearance. They were also significant blockbusters in the sense that were ‘designed to make a big impact on the box office […and] capable of generating exceptionally large revenues partly by virtue of exceptional production values’.

Type
Chapter
Information
Disaster Cinema in Historical Perspective
Mediations of the Sublime
, pp. 173 - 206
Publisher: Amsterdam University Press
Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×