Out of all the newer disaster documentaries, this oldie is still great. It shows fantastic footage of the TEXAS CITY explosion, Hurricane Camille, Le Mans & Indy deadly crashes, and more. Besides the normal footage we learn how these disasters could have been possibly stopped.
5 Reviews
The Best Disaster Docu-drama EVER MADE!
corey-5411 April 2004
I searched for 10 years to find a copy of this movie...I orginally watched it in 1979 with my father and we recorded to our betamax deck. Over the years our family had recorded over portions of the video and I was disappointed that we had lost it. After searching ebay...I found a copy of this movie and now am enjoying this scary docu-drama as I did at the age of 10. By far the best 'disaster' movie ever made! San Fransisco EarthQuakes Alaska EarthQuakes Hurricane Camille Xenia, Ohio Tornado Outbreak Volcanoes Hindenberg Racing Car Disasters Texas City Texas Explosions...and much more!!! This is one to watch!!!
A tame Sunn
BandSAboutMovies9 March 2021
Warning: Spoilers
Yeah, Sunn Classics for the win.
This late-in-the-game documentary for the studio - In Search of Historical Jesus and The President Must Die are the only two after this - is directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr., who produced a whole bunch of religious-themed films over his career and oh yeah directed Silent Night Deadly Night.
While the relaxing voice of Brad Crandall is presiding over this, as he does nearly all Sunn's films, this isn't your typical one of their films that picks a topic and then throws crackpot theories at you until you're dizzy. No, this is a mixtape of disasters, including the crash of the Hindenburg, earthquakes, an auto race crash at LeMans in which 82 fans get killed, a hurricane, Mt. Etna erupting. a tornado, a dam collapse, the sinking of the Andrea Doria, explosions in Galveston and the Joelma building fire in Brazil, which totally goes Faces of Death and shows people leaping to their doom and uncovered bodies that have burned.
That said, the majority of this film is given to descriptions of how these issues could have been stopped. But come on, Sunn, or Sunn Classics, or Schick Sunn Classics or whatever you want to be called. We come here for theories about aliens and reincarnation. Don't give us disasters!
This late-in-the-game documentary for the studio - In Search of Historical Jesus and The President Must Die are the only two after this - is directed by Charles E. Sellier Jr., who produced a whole bunch of religious-themed films over his career and oh yeah directed Silent Night Deadly Night.
While the relaxing voice of Brad Crandall is presiding over this, as he does nearly all Sunn's films, this isn't your typical one of their films that picks a topic and then throws crackpot theories at you until you're dizzy. No, this is a mixtape of disasters, including the crash of the Hindenburg, earthquakes, an auto race crash at LeMans in which 82 fans get killed, a hurricane, Mt. Etna erupting. a tornado, a dam collapse, the sinking of the Andrea Doria, explosions in Galveston and the Joelma building fire in Brazil, which totally goes Faces of Death and shows people leaping to their doom and uncovered bodies that have burned.
That said, the majority of this film is given to descriptions of how these issues could have been stopped. But come on, Sunn, or Sunn Classics, or Schick Sunn Classics or whatever you want to be called. We come here for theories about aliens and reincarnation. Don't give us disasters!
Very graphic and hard hitting
dtucker8628 August 2023
Warning: Spoilers
Sunn Classic pictures, that I always loved as a kid, were ridiculed by many critics for their cheesy production values and sensationalism. This documentary was produced by Sunn veterans Charles Sellier and James Conway however it is straightforward and factual detailing various disasters of the 20th century starting with a massive earthquake in California during the Depression that killed over a hundred. We next have a fascinating history of dirigibles such as the USS Akron (which the Navy considered jinxed) culminating of course with the Hindenburg disaster. We next see a graphic auto racing accident that killed 77 spectators and the sinking of the Andrea Doria (you could say it was the Italian Titanic). My favorite is the final part of the film that tells the story of a heroic pilot named Richard Ogg who heroically ditched his crippled plane in the ocean without losing a single passenger thanks to a nearby ship. This was decades before "Captain Sully" ditched in New York.
Not your typical Sun Classic shlockumentary
CobraMist28 November 2020
This Sun Classic produced documentary sadly goes a different direction then most Sunn Classic documentaries and does not focus on on fun, fringe theories. Instead it cycles through several disasters by providing narration and relevant footage of the event. The cause and the aftermath of each disaster is examined while the narrator provides a, thankfully, professional description; putting it a step above some of it's mondo/faces of death siblings. The film mostly avoids an exploitative use of this footage with the exception of some footage of an apartment fire that shows not only people falling to their deaths but also their uncovered corpses.
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