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Hollywood’s Disastrous Disaster Movies

March 15, 2025 by • Entertainment • 0 Comments

Early development in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s of Hollywood’s disastrous disaster movies.

  • Airport, a 1970 film based on the 1968 novel by Arthur Hailey, began its principal photography on January 31, 1969.
  • The Poseidon Adventure, a 1972 film based on a 1969 novel by Paul Gallico,   Obviously, the movie began filming between the publishing of the novel in 1969 and the movie’s release date in 1972.  Duh.
  • Earthquake, a 1974 film whose birth occurred in the summer of 1972 when Mario Puzo was paid to write the first draft after his success with The Godfather.
  • The Towering Inferno, a 1974 film based on the novels The Tower and The Glass Inferno.  Executives at two different movie studios were convinced to join forces to make a single film based on the subject of a tall building on fire.  A press release announcing the single film collaboration occurred in October of 1973.

It should be noted that Airport and The Towering Inferno both received Best Picture nominations, but none of these disastrous disaster movies received a DGA nomination for any of the movies’ directors.  One of many reasons I had always put more stock into the DGA awards than the Oscars.  But of course, both movie awards were burned to ashes since early January of this year with the movies they selected and honored for the best of 2024.

Rest in peace, Hollywood movie awards.  Rest in peace.

Hollywood Struggling For Economic Survival

March 15, 2025 by • Entertainment, Financial • 0 Comments

“The American motion-picture industry struggled desperately for economic survival during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.  About 80% of all films produced lost money.  Nearly every studio was in serious financial trouble.”  –from The World Book Encyclopedia. 1983.

DOMESTIC RENTALS OF THE TOP FILMS  (In millions)

  • 1968:  $26.3
  • 1969:  $45.9
  • 1970:  $48.7
  • 1971:  $38.2

And then came the massive blockbusters…

  • 1972:  $86.2
  • 1973:  $89.0
  • 1975:  $129.5
  • 1977:  $193.7

 

OPENING SHOT AFTER THE TITLE CRAWL

  • Box-office champ for all films released in 1976.
  • Would win Best Picture and the DGA award in 1977.
  • With an estimated production budget of about $1 million, the movie would bring in $56 million in domestic box-office rentals for United Artists.

 

A WORK OF ART

“After searching for months for a work of art that would convey a contemporary notion of God, the editors concluded that there was no appropriate representation.” –from Time magazine, April 1966.

 

THE NEXT SPIELBERG’S TOP 10 LIST.  NEWSWEEK AUGUST 2002.

  • 10 films receiving DGA recognition…including 4 winners.
  • 7 box-office giants released within 10 years after the early 1970’s.
  • “It’s important, Marion.  Trust me.”

 

Hollywood’s Future King Working In Television

March 15, 2025 by • Entertainment, Financial, Television • 0 Comments

The late 1960’s/early 1970’s:  The movie industry’s future king, Steven Spielberg, working in television.

  • Night Gallery –a made-for-TV anthology film directed by Boris Sagal, Steven Spielberg, and Barry Shear that served as the pilot for the anthology television series written and hosted by Rod Serling.  The film premiered on NBC on November, 1969.
  • Spielberg directed the Columbo episode “Murder By The Book”, which premiered on NBC on September 15, 1971.
  • Duel –a made-for-TV film based on a short story written by Richard Matheson.  The film originally aired as an ABC Movie Of The Week on November 13, 1971.  Duel is considered a cult classic and one of the greatest films ever made for television.
  • Other TV films he directed early in his career:  Something Evil (1972) and Savage (1973)

He followed his theatrical debut The Sugarland Express in 1974 with the 1975 blockbuster Jaws, Hollywood’s first summer blockbuster and the first of three huge blockbusters that put Spielberg on top of Hollywood after the release of 1981’s Raiders Of The Lost Ark.  “It’s important, Marion.  Trust me.”

 

JERRY GOLDSMITH. 1982.    Homecoming for Hollywood’s brand new king and a Vietnam War veteran.  All is not well.

Scorsese Begins His Film-Directing Career

March 15, 2025 by • Entertainment • 0 Comments

Before Martin Scorsese was in an interesting and inconspicuous box-office derby with director John McTiernan during the late summer/early fall of 1988, he began his career as a film director during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.  His first theatrical film was released in 1967.   His second theatrical film was released in in 1972.

 

“Don’t you got any Christmas music?” /  “This is Christmas music!” …words spoken during the opening credits of John McTiernan’s 1988 film just before the movie’s hero quietly enters Nakatomi Plaza…several scenes before the movie’s terrorists enter.  A film that had a quiet inconspicuous opening at the box-office in July of 1988.  Scorsese’s 1988 film would open at the box-office in August.

inconspicuous:  not readily noticeable

Any Christian who doesn’t see that Raging Bull is cinema’s most overrated movie and claims some other movie as holding that title is either being dishonest or is grossly ignorant of the movie world.  Even if that Christian is the force behind the two most important documentaries of our time.

 

The MPAA’s New Classification System Of 1968

March 15, 2025 by • Entertainment, Society • 0 Comments

In 1968, the MPAA adopted a classification system of rating completed films to their suitability for various age groups.  Decades earlier, the organization was the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, which reviewed scripts before filming began in order to catch and delete offensive material.

The ratings created by the MPAA in 1968 were:

  • G — general, all ages admitted
  • PG — general, all ages admitted, but parental guidance suggested
  • R – restricted, persons under the age of 17 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian
  • X – no one under the age of 17 admitted

The new classification system in 1968 of reviewing completed films to then be rated…rather than reviewing scripts before filming began…gave the film industry new freedoms in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s to create films with more offensive material.

New York City Plagued By Several Strikes

March 15, 2025 by • History • 0 Comments

New York City plagued with various strikes by public employees.

  • In 1966, transit workers struck for 12 days, halting all subway and bus services.
  • In 1968, striking sanitation workers let garbage pile up on the city streets for 9 days.
  • In 1971, police officers refused to go on patrols for 6 days and fire fighters refused to perform nonemergency duties for a week.

These strikes involved disputes over wages, various benefits, and working conditions.

Later in 1975, New York City faced a financial crisis that was eventually helped by the federal government.

Anyway, I’m guessing that those transit workers, sanitation workers, police officers, and fire fighters weren’t demanding to be paid enough that would place them in the top 1% of income earners.  Besides back in the late 60’s/early 70’s, the top 1% of income earners paid a much higher federal marginal income tax than since 1987.

Construction Of The World Trade Center Twin Towers

March 15, 2025 by • History • 0 Comments

  • The World Trade Center North Tower’s construction started in August of 1968 and was completed in 1972. 
  • The World Trade Center South Tower’s construction started in January of 1969 and was completed in 1973.

A History Channel documentary on Modern Marvels about the World Trade Center twin towers, dated in 2001 but before the 9/11 terrorist attacks, failed to mention the 60 fatalities that occurred during the twin towers’ deadly construction.  An event in history 20 times as deadly as the Apollo space program.

The Tet Offensive & The Watergate Break-in

March 15, 2025 by • History, Politics • 0 Comments

Historical events of the late 1960’s/early 1970’s that would play a major role in Americans turning on their presidents who had won their last elections in landslides.

The Tet Offensive.  1968.

“The Tet offensive proved in fact a serious psychological defeat for the United States because it suggested the unreliability of Johnson’s claims about an imminent South Vietnamese-United States victory. …The Tet offensive destroyed much of whatever political support Johnson still commanded among antiwar Democrats and threw his strategic planners into confusion.”  –from the Third Edition of Liberty Equality Power, an American history textbook

Two months after the start of the Tet offensive, President Johnson announced he would not run again for reelection as a Gallop poll showed that only 26% of Americans approved of his handling of the Vietnam War.

President Johnson had won 61% of the popular vote in 1964 while winning 486 electoral votes of the 538 needed.

The Watergate Break-In.  1972

The Watergate burglary in June 1972 involved employees of Nixon’s 1972 reelection committee that eventually was linked to several top White House aides in early 1973.  President Nixon insisted that he took no part in the break-in or in any kind of cover-up.  Eventually however over the coming months, events would prove otherwise and Nixon would end up having to resign from the White House in August of 1974.

President Nixon had won 60.7% of the popular vote in 1972 while winning 520 electoral votes of the 538 needed.

Nixon Winning Presidential Elections

March 3, 2025 by • History, Law, Politics • 0 Comments

November 1968 and November 1972.  Richard Nixon winning Presidential elections.  (He had lost previously in 1960 in his political run for the White House to John F. Kennedy.)  President Nixon would become the only American president forced to resign from office after he faced inevitable impeachment for obstructing justice during his handling of the Watergate scandal.  Inevitable impeachment because of Republicans who put their country before their political party.

Speaking of Republicans putting their country before their political party…

Sorry for the delay, folks.  So where am I going with this, you may be asking…It has to do with my admiration of Eisenhower and his tax policies during his presidency throughout the 1950’s.  Republicans were wanting him to cut taxes for the rich, but he held his ground and stuck to his principles and his concern for the country not going into further debt after World War II and the deficit spending during the Great Depression.  Eisenhower was elected president as a Republican. 

Anyway, my plan is to eventually list and defend my choice for America’s finest four presidents since World War I.  This will include back-to-back-to-back presidents, along with President Ronald Reagan, a Republican who would not recognize today’s Republican Party. 

Actually, I’ll be writing about President John F. Kennedy as well.  So really I’ll be writing about my top five picks.  He did inspire the nation to accomplish humanity’s greatest scientific achievement inside of a decade and he saved the world from an all-out nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis while preventing Fidel Castro from keeping nuclear weapons.

(I had to add the word “scientific” to that last paragraph.  Humanity’s greatest achievement was what Jesus Christ did on the cross.)

America Losing The Vietnam War

March 3, 2025 by • History • 0 Comments

Early 1968 thru January 1973.  From the Tet Offensive and President Johnson announcing he wouldn’t run again in early 1968 until January 1973, when American delegates signed an agreement around a really big table in Paris to stop fighting in Vietnam.  

Eventually in 1975, all of Vietnam would fall to the Communists. 

 

John Williams’ score for the 1989 film Born On The Fourth Of July

          • The Shooting Of Wilson
          • Cua Viet River, Vietnam, 1968

Music that captures the horror, tragedy, and chaos of The Vietnam War

 

John Williams (1989), his Oscar-nominated work early in 1990

  • A clueless & faithless 14 year-old.  “You must choose.  But choose wisely.”
  • Ron Kovic’s encounter with Murphy’s Law

 

Clueless & Faithless…& Murphy’s Law.  As a faithless 14 year-old.  As a faithless teenager.  And as a faithless young adult.  A particular train wreck in my life that I’m referring to, the kind that would have helped Harrison Ford get a head start on eluding Tommy Lee Jones. 

Much of it a self-inflicted kind of Murphy’s Law…but Murphy’s Law nonetheless.  Definitely a connection between the two movies other than John Williams getting Oscar recognition in early 1990.  Definitely a connection.  No doubt about it.

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