Studying Disaster Movies

by John Sanders

The disaster film taps into our fear of events beyond our control, ones that are often rooted in real-life experience, making the genre a particularly potent mixture of entertainment and grounded events. Studying Disaster Films provides a comprehensive introduction to a sub-genre that has flourished since the 1970s, fully accounting for the genre's origins and focusing on key films, including Airport, The Towering Inferno, The Day After Tomorrow, and, most recently, Cloverfield. Each case study presents a complete examination of the film, covering production, distribution, and marketing, and tackles such major critical areas as close textual analysis of scenes, issues of representation ,and critical reaction. Within this context, The Day After Tomorrow and Cloverfield are examined as products of current moral panics. There is also a consideration of "reality" disaster films, such as United 93. Written in a lively manner, this volume synthesizes central film and media concepts, affording the reader a thorough overview of the sub-genre.