Smash-Up on Interstate 5

"Smash-Up on Interstate 5" goes the same path as any disaster flick from the 1970s. The TV movie has a large, notable cast and multiple story lines, which culminate into the title incident. In an unusual move, the filmmakers chose to open the film with the same multi-vehicle accident and flash back to the characters involved in the accident.

Because of this creative decision, I did care about some of the characters and their fates. The most heartbreaking storyline was the older couple played by Buddy Ebsen and Harriet Nelson (Hillard) in which one member of the couple is faced with a fatal medical diagnosis.

In addition, the stunt work and editing of the actual crash was very terrifying and effective.

As with many television movies, finding this item on DVD is challenging.

Incredible that but for one review, and even that only two months ago, no-one has seen fit to comment all through the years on this above average telemovie. Inarguably dated now, as evidenced by the vehicles themselves, the flares, hair-do's and music, SMASH UP ON INTERSTATE 5 is a reasonably faithful reconstruction (disaster-movie style) of the events leading up to the true-life pile up not so many years earlier.

Better than average script give the cast of well known actors and actresses something to work with. Robert Conrad, still looking the part of Jim West plays the police patrol officer most closely involved in the fifty car collision. Tommy Lee Jones, also a cop, looks like a youthful long haired refugee from WOODSTOCK and Buddy Ebsen is well, Buddy Ebsen, as always!

The film does not attempt to sensationalise the events, merely presenting them as is, albeit with considerable literary license one suspects. The actual collision is quite well done for its day, showed in stop-frame at the beginning and in full gory detail at the conclusion. I have this film in our library and decided to compile this review having watched it this evening, the first time in ten years or so. An absolute time-capsule!

Titled COLLISION COURSE in Australia, and several European countries.

SMASH-UP ON INTERSTATE 5 begins with a brief introduction to the various drivers involved in the catastrophe of the title, before plunging us into the vehicular mayhem, complete with slow-motion impacts!

Next, we're shown the lives of the victims, two days before the incident. This is made up of a true, all-star cast of 1970's TV luminaries, elder stars, and future celebrities.

Robert Conrad is a highway patrolman. Vera Miles is the lonely Erica. Scott Jacoby is a small-time crook, who got mixed up with a fugitive from justice. Buddy Ebson and Harriet Nelson are a loving, retired couple. David Groh is a trucker. Sue Lyon is a biker chick.

Even the co-stars are great! There's an impossibly young, Tommy Lee Jones as a cop, and Donna Mills as a pediatric nurse!

Unlike many such films, the individual backstories are actually interesting. The characters are fleshed-out well, and carry on intelligent conversations. We come to "know" and care about these people. So, when disaster strikes, it's tragic, and not just another action sequence.

Highly recommended, especially for the 1970's TV-movie connoisseur...

I saw this movie when it aired on ABC, and at the time I was 10 years old. This movie scared the daylights out of me, but I have always remembered it for decades. I'd love to be able to see it again, and have just now saw it posted on here. I didn't realize the amount of stars that at the time weren't even known. This and several other movies from ABC's line up would be great to get on DVD.

I know now why highways have always scared me, and it was because of this movie. I still can't believe that my parents let me watch it at such a young age, but then I saw Deer Hunter, Godfather and Apocalypse Now before I was ten.

Have you ever been in a severe traffic accident? I have... And even though it was nearly 20 years ago, I can assure you the narrated words during the opening sequences catapulted me straight back to the exact same sentiments I felt in the first hours and days after the accident. "For the majority of people, the victims of this smash-up will be nothing more than a holiday weekend statistic". That's also how I felt after I crashed into a tree on a Friday night and miraculously came out almost unharmed. In the blink of an eye, you're nothing more than a weekend traffic statistic. But behind every traffic casualty sits a person with his/her own story to tell, and that's what this modest but more than admirable made-for-TV disaster movie wants to emphasize.

In the weekend leading up to the 4th of July, we follow of handful of seemingly random people living in the area between Los Angeles and San Diego. Now, from the title and the opening sequences we already know these same random people will be the ones heavily impacted by the traffic accident on Interstate 5 (39 vehicles, 65 injured, 14 deaths) but before that tragedy happens, they are all "common" people dealing with versatile issues, like accepting medical diagnoses, romantic dilemmas and running from the law. It's not exactly the most exhilarating segmented film ever made, but it perfectly does what it intends, namely giving a background to usually anonymous traffic accident victims.

"Smash-Up on Interstate 5" can rely on the competences of the best TV-movie director in history, John Llewellyn Moxy, and has quite an impressive cast, with Robert Conrad, Vera Miles, Donna Mills, Scott Jacoby and Tommy Lee Jones. For the latter, it was still a relatively small role, in the period shortly before his breakthrough.