Earthquake

SEATTLE, WA - The 70s were certainly quite a time for disaster movies, a genre which had a bit of a revival the 20 years or so with films like Armageddon, Deep Impact, Volcano, The Day After Tomorrow, 2012, San Andreas, and others. But the 70s still reigns as the decade with the most of these gloriously trashy epics, so much so that Hollywood was even making made-for-TV disaster flicks, including - and all cleverly-titled we should add - Flood!, Heatwave!, Fire!, and the uniquely titled (due to its lack of exclamaton point) Hurricane.

All joking aside, some of the disaster soaps were actually quite good films, including Airport, The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno, and Earthquake, all of which are Oscar winners. Though nominated at the Golden Globes, one Oscar nomination Earthquake did not receive was for John Williams' score, which to me I think was a bit of an injustice. Sure, looking back it's not his best work, but the main title theme is absolute perfection, so us fine folks at Ghostlife are providing this long overdue shout out. It's not that the music is all that magical really, but looking back on that part of the score alone, hearing how it captures the over-the-top dramatic grandeur mixed with total schlock that was the 1970s, its obvious now how perfect it is. Have a listen, I think you'll hear it too.

Earthquake was released November 15, 1974.