Avalanche

I am a bit embarrassed to admit I was in this movie. A bit, but, hey I had fun filming & was paid pretty well. Actually I was several scenes. I was a student at Fort Lewis majoring in Theater. Our troupe was invited to audition to be paid extras. It was spring break & I was earning money for my upcoming wedding. Not bad pay for a college student.

The snow and cold was real. It snowed the whole time we did any outdoor scenes. A fun mess when you add shredded plastic, Styrofoam boulders, and huge wind fans.

I lived in the area for quite a while & I too find this movie funny. I love the scene when Rock Hudson walks over to a window and states when he saw that mountain he knew he had to live there. That mountain is nowhere near Durango. As for the avalanche, well lets just say it is very hard for an avalanche to travel up mountain. But this one did to start at Tammeron and end up wiping out Purgatory mountain (now known as Durango mountain). Very funny stuff if you are from the area.

In the original credits Fort Lewis College Theater Department was listed but I see we are not here. As I was the only member to stick around during th break to work on the movie I must say I am disappointed but not surprised.

One of the premieres were held in Durango. I was not as pleased with the final product as I was when we filmed. We never saw the whole script so the movie was very different from what we were told. But all in all a good time and a not as bad as it could have been film. Wish I could say I went on to better movies but I went on to be a full time mommy and wife.

If you ever lived in the area it is a fun watch. You will see bloopers in things others will never notice.

This movie is so bad that I had to run out and buy my own copy before it vanishes from the planet. Everyone should enjoy the pain that is avalanche. But, amongst the painful plot and characters, you are treated to some very memorable scenes that make this film worth owning. Name another movie that has unstable snow and acid milk. Instead of being sad when characters meet their doom, you cheer with glee as their burning car falls into a deep ravine.

Go watch it NOW before it disappears forever! I remember watching this when I was a kid, and even then we all burst out laughing during the avalanche. This movie is absolutely hilarious- you'll laugh your head off. As a drama, I rate it a 4, but if you watch it and think of it as "Airplane!" In the Rockies, it warrants a perfect 10. It it SO unbelievably over-the-top and campy, it's hard to believe they didn't intend it that way. I'll give them a pass on the special effects, since in the late 70s this was about the best they could do, but I can't forgive Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow for appearing in this just for a paycheck. Jeanette Nolan is the best thing in this film, and Robert Forster does a good job in his role (and he's much more handsome than Rock Hudson)! Everything else is a laugh-fest.

Dreadful, horrendous, awful and terrible are all words that don't even begin to describe how bad this movie is. Rock and Mia, about as mismatched a pair of costars as could be imagined; he towers over her and they share no chemistry whatsoever, would make more sense as father and daughter than ex-spouses but that is the least of this picture's problems. Some of the cast try to maintain their dignity and soldier on while being faced with stupid words to speak and idiotic situations to react to. Nonsensical happenings, bad special effects and rotten direction all add up to a textbook example of why the disaster epics ran out of steam shortly after the release of this dog.

I'm not a fan of the disaster genre, they're always the same.

• Introduction of characters
• Expert warns people of imminent disaster
• Powers that be ignore expert
• Disaster happens
• Then either a lot of running and talking about what is happening until it ends or some pseudo science to fix it

This is no different and what's strange is just how little of the film the disaster takes up.

Starring Robert Forster, Rock Hudson and Mia Farrow this is more like a soap opera where an avalanche just so happens to take place.

Swinging 70's, polystyrene snow and merciless deaths this has it's merits but certainly pales in comparison to the better films within this sub genre.

The Good:

Cast do a decent job

The Bad:

Predictible

Soap opera like

SFX are poor even for its time

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Unless your name ends in Campbell don't be a Bruce, you are no worthy

Death by polstyrene looks as painful as it sounds