American Disaster Movies of the 1970s - by Scott Freer (Paperback)

About the Book

"Introduces a historicist perspective by placing the disaster movie film genre within the immediate context of the 1970s American high modernity whilst engaging with relevant philosophical, theological and eco-critical ideas on evil, determinism, and human nature"--

Book Synopsis

American Disaster Movies of the 1970s is the first scholarly book dedicated to the disaster cycle that dominated American cinema and television in the 1970s.

Through examining films such as Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Two-Minute Warning (1976) and The Swarm (1978), alongside their historical contexts and American contemporaneous trends, the disaster cycle is treated as a time-bound phenomenon. This book further contextualises the cycle by drawing on the longer cultural history of modernist reactions to modern anxieties, including the widespread dependence on technology and corporate power.

Each chapter considers cinematic precursors, such as the 'ark movie', and contemporaneous trends, such as New Hollywood, vigilante and blaxploitation films, as well as the immediate American context: the end of the civil rights and countercultural era, the Watergate crisis, and the defeat in Vietnam.As Scott Freer argues, the disaster movie is a modern, demotic form of tragedy that satisfies a taste for the macabre. It is also an aesthetic means for processing painful truths, and many of the dramatized themes anticipate present-day monstrosities of modernity.

Review Quotes

"Dr Scott Freer's excellent book offers a distinctive angle on a classic film genre - a form of cinema that more than many others reflected the concerns of its time. Addressing such fascinating, multi-layered movies as The Airport, Earthquake, and The Poseidon Adventure, as well as bringing to light unfamiliar examples, his unique combination of film studies diligence and theological flair delivers a series of towering insights which more than do justice to their subject. Strap yourself in and enjoy the ride." --Mark Duffett, Associate Professor of Media and Cultural Studies, University of Chester, UK

"American Disaster Movies of the 1970s, in taking genre study into innovative and imaginative areas, demonstrates (in no uncertain terms) the value of treating underrated films more seriously than is usually the case. So, even allegedly 'bad' films, such as The Swarm, are shown to be worthy of fruitful and complex analysis, while themes in familiar films are assessed in ways that go far beyond the conventional approaches usually favoured in film studies." --Chris Horn, Independent Scholar and Tutor in Film Studies, University of Leicester, UK, and author of The Lost Decade (Bloomsbury, 2023)

"Written with dexterity and verve, Scott Freer's book changes our view of the disaster movie, and the role it has taken in shaping our responses to these disastrous times. Packed full of scholarly insights into the genre, American Disaster Movies of the 1970s is a tour de force." --Philip Shaw, Professor of Romantic Studies, University of Leicester, UK

About the Author

Scott Freer is Associate Lecturer at the School of Humanities & Heritage, University of Lincoln, UK. His scholarly interests include 1970s cinema and the transmedia legacies of literary modernism. He is the author of Michael Caine: The Complete Cinema Career (2025).