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Keane, Stephen. Disaster Movies: The Cinema of Catastrophe, 2nd ed. London: Wallflower Press, 2006. 123 pp. Softcover. ISBN 1-905674-03-1. $22.
Stephen Keane' s Disaster Movies: The Cinema of Catastrophe surveys disaster films from the last three decades. Given the broad scope of this study and the length of the text in this book (just over 100 pages), Keane's work is thus an introductory text to the genre rather than an in-depth analysis. This fits in well with its aims; the book is part of Wallflower Press's "Short Cuts" series a collection of film studies texts that offer an introduction to a range of cinematic topics from science fiction to Soviet films and from American teen movies to Italian neorealism. This is the second edition of the book, which was first published in 2001. It varies from the first not only by virtue of the inclusion of films from the intervening five years but also in light of the fourth chapter's new focus on more recent films, particularly in the context of contemporary real-life disasters such as 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina. The new edition also features a screen shot from the recent Poseidon (2006) film as its cover, but this film is not discussed at any length.
The book is divided into four chapters that comprise a chronological survey of disaster films from the 1970s to 2006, reflecting Keane's interest in the cyclical nature of the genre. The introduction briefly surveys the historical background of the genre, specifically films from the 1910s to the 1930s and from the 1950s to the 1970s, including Roman and Biblical epics and apocalyptic science fiction movies. The first chapter, "The Savage Seventies," examines disaster films from the 1970s, and Keane addresses the popular argument that such films offer little more than a shallow spectacle. The second chapter is titled "Transitions: Action and Disaster" and covers films from the 1980s and 1990s, with a focus on the Die Hard (1988-1995) films. Chapter 3, "The Sense of an Ending," discusses disaster films from the mid- to late-1990s, while the final chapter, "Surviving Disaster," offers an examination of more recent additions to the genre, such as The Day After Tomorrow (2004).
In his introduction, Keane discusses how other critics such as Maurice Yaco...