Dante’s Peak is a disaster movie in which Vulcanologist (”like Mr Spock but without the ears”) Harry Dalton(Pierce Brosnan) is sent to visit the newly crowned “second most desirable place to live in America” town of Dante’s Peak to check out some slightly unusual seismic activity in the area. He is joined by boss Paul Dreyfus (Charles Hallahan) and the team, including a coffee-o-holic with a penchant for stating the blindingly obvious, and a technician whose solution to every mechanical or technical problem is to kick the living daylights out of the offending machine.

While there he encounters the town mayor, Rachel Wando (Linda Hamilton), who in her spare time runs a coffee house and looks after two kids. When trouble begins to brew, she finds herself torn between the safety of her citizens and keeping things calm – and not causing any political tremors that could lead to important funding being taken away from Dante’s Peak. The eponymous peak is a long dormant volcano – which has been dormant for so long that people actually believe it’s extinct.

Dante’s Peak tries hard not to be just another disaster movie, and this is especially shown in the fact that the intro sequence is a disaster happening, not the normal slow build up, then disaster, then escape. Okay so in general the film follows that pattern, but at least it makes an attempt to be different. What any disaster movie needs more than anything else is to give you characters that you care enough about to want them to survive – and despite some other faults, this is what Dante’s Peak gives you exceptionally well. In the short space of time it has, each of the main characters is given enough personality and background history for you to really be routing for their survival. This is helped by a good cast and well paced action, broken up nicely by humour at critical points. I liked Dante’s Peak, which considering my normal antipathy for disaster movies is quite something.

It’s certainly not without its faults – the script could have done with some serious tightening up (helicopter about to take off – Paul tries to stop it as the situation makes it very likely that the copter will crash – two minutes later he tells someone he’ll send a chopper for them… even though the only one available has just crashed and he knows this…) There are several such instances of plot errors or bits that just seem too implausible, but despite this it gives you scene after scene of heart-pounding, gut-wrenching survival drama.

Pierce Brosnan does well in his role, he is good at the slightly emotionally stilted characters and because of this the fact that his comedic delivery at times seems a bit off is forgivable (perhaps even in character). Linda Hamilton does a god job as the female lead, and none of the supporting cast disappoint. I particularly enjoyed Grant Hesov and Tzi Ma’s performances here. The special effects are really quite impressive in places, while the sets and make up are also worth a mention.

I still prefer Volcano, which overall feels more believable (apart from perhaps the love story between Tommy Lee Jones and a woman who looks about a third his age!!), but Dante’s Peak is a very intense and involving movie it you’re willing to suspend your belief a bit. On the other hand, if you’re a geophysicist, perhaps you won’t be able to!



Other Information

Director: Roger Donaldson
Year of release: 1997
Runtime: 109 minutes
Rating: 12 (UK) PG-13 (USA) PG (Canada) for disaster related peril and gore – if you’re queasy at the sight of blood, this ain’t the film for you. The make-up boys and girls had a lot of fun with this one.

Quotes

Look out, there’s a coffee freak about…

“It's coffee time! Coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee, coffee! Cappuccino, java, YES!”

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And the philosophy award goes to…

“A man who looks at a rock must have a lot on his mind.”

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Job first, relationships second…

“I move around a lot: Colombia, Guatemala, the Philippines, Mexico, New Zealand, New Guinea... wherever there's a volcano with an attitude.”

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Well…. there weren’t many memorable quotes in this film – the dialogue wasn’t really the best aspect of the script!


Related Links

Tzi Ma, one of the team members in this film, was in the ever so cheesy Chain Reaction starring Keanu Reeves and Rachel Weisz.

Pierce Brosnan didn’t do a great deal to convince me that he can do comedy in Laws of Attraction - I think he’s much more an action than comedy actor.


Recommended: Yes