DANTE'S PEAK
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1997 Scott Renshaw
(Universal) Starring: Pierce Brosnan, Linda Hamilton, Charles Hallahan. Screenplay: Leslie Bohem. Producers: Gale Anne Hurd, Joseph M. Singer. Director: Roger Donaldson. MPAA Rating: PG-13 (profanity, intense situations) Running Time: 105 minutes. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
I have been anticipating the arrival of DANTE'S PEAK, the first of 1997's two volcano films, with a combination of dread and...well, still more dread. The return of the disaster film has been about as welcome a pop culture phenomenon as 70s nostalgia, both of them reincarnating uncalculated vapidity as calculated vapidity. It only takes one TWISTER to turn you off the genre; throw in INDEPENDENCE DAY and DAYLIGHT and any critic could be excused for walking into DANTE'S PEAK with an attitude. But if I have to sit through more disaster films, I only hope they can be as thrilling as DANTE'S PEAK. Though just as plot- and character-impaired as its genre cousins, DANTE'S PEAK delivers a solid hour of relentless tension and excitement.
Our story begins in Colombia, where U.S. Geological Survey volcano expert Harry Dalton (Pierce Brosnan) suffers a tragic loss during a volcanic eruption. Four years later, Harry is sent to the picturesque town of Dante's Peak, Washington to investigate possible activity in the town's long-dormant namesake volcano. Harry believes he sees enough evidence of a threat to suggest an evacuation plan to mayor Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), but Harry's boss Paul Dreyfus (Charles Hallahan) is unwilling to cause unwarranted alarm. The evidence continues to build, however, and when Dante's Peak finally blows the town erupts into chaos. With little time to evacuate, Harry must help Rachel and her family escape a force of nature with plenty of tricks up its crater.
DANTE'S PEAK is a strange kind of success, because it includes many of the noteworthy flaws of TWISTER, and then some. We get the same obligatory romantic pair thrown into danger with a minimalist back-story tagged on, along with a team of quirky scientists to provide comic relief. Brosnan is ruddy and somber for most of the film's running time, Hamilton is frazzled and likeable, and both of them trudge dutifully through fifty minutes of exposition as though any unnecessary acting might tire them out before the big finish. Leslie Bohem (the scripter of record on DAYLIGHT, apparently a specialist in films which end with traumatized people wrapped in heavy blankets) also adds a dose of JAWS, but doesn't give us the pleasure of an actual villain. Charles Hallahan provides the political voice who ends up causing more damage, and there is a teasing sub-plot about a potentially skittish business developer. Neither one offers enough conflict, however, forcing the audience to sit and wait out the plodding first half for the big show.
And what a show it turns out to be. The surprising thing about the post-eruption second half of DANTE'S PEAK isn't necessarily that it is effective, but that the reason for its effectiveness doesn't exist entirely on a hard drive somewhere. There are certainly a few impressive visual effects sequences, including a cloud packing the concussive force of a small nuclear weapon, but director Roger Donaldson gets just as much mileage out of the time-honored technique of jiggling the camera to represent an earthquake. No, DANTE'S PEAK is an effective thriller because the characters repeatedly find themselves in new and apparently impossible situations, and the direction gives those sequences an edge-of-the-seat tension. From a dizzying truck ride through town destined for the Universal Studios Tour, to the crossing of a flood-threatened bridge, to a mine shaft which threatens to turn Brosnan into a sardine, DANTE'S PEAK provides the kind of relentless, well-crafted action which is what movie-goers should be talking about when they talk about certain films being like roller-coasters.
The biggest surprise of all may be that the man behind that action is Donaldson, who has served up cinematic backwash like SPECIES, THE GETAWAY and COCKTAIL. Nothing in any of those duds suggested the skill to create the best scene in DANTE'S PEAK, where Harry, Rachel and Rachel's family attempt to cross a lake which has been turned by volcanic gases into sulfuric acid. As the lake begins bubbling through the bottom of their metal motorboat, the occupants begin a quavering round of "Row Row Row Your Boat." It is an eerie moment, and Donaldson manages to get you itching for the fate of the characters even though they haven't been given any personalities. More impressive still, he does it without assaulting your senses. In many ways, DANTE'S PEAK is a very conventional disaster thriller, even duplicating the Heroic Canine Leap to Safety which INDEPENDENCE DAY turned into a moment in camp history. There is, however, something rare in a film which can generate the kind of tension DANTE'S PEAK generates. Maybe it is possible to present a disaster without being one.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 peak performances: 7.
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