Earthquake: Steelbook (4K UHD Review)
- Review Date: Jul 28, 2025
- Format: 4K Ultra HD
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Director
Mark RobsonRelease Date(s)
1974 (July 8, 2025)Studio(s)
The Filmakers Group/Universal Pictures (Universal Pictures Home Entertainment)- Film/Program Grade: B-
- Video Grade: A-
- Audio Grade: A-
- Extras Grade: F
Review
When Universal Studios released their blockbuster adaptation of Arthur Hailey’s Airport in 1970, they had no idea that they would end up igniting the spark that led to a wave of all-star disaster movies over the rest of the decade. Hailey’s novel was more of a nighttime soap opera than a true disaster story, with a disparate group of individuals trapped at an airport during a snowstorm and a plane trying to land after having been damaged by a bomb. Yet in a way, that’s what set the template for the star-studded disaster movies that followed in its wake, like 20th Century Fox’s The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. So, it was inevitable that Universal would want to get back in the game as well, and while they eventually released a string of sequels to Airport, they started with a much more grounded adventure (so to speak): Earthquake. And to get an edge over their competitors, they decided to add a gimmick not just to get audiences into the theatres, but to leave them shaking in their seats: Sensurround, a system that used a bank of horn-loaded Cerwin Vega subwoofers in order to shake the auditorium (which it did all too well, leading to the demise of the format). However, the path from Airport in 1970 to Earthquake in 1974 was anything but linear.
Universal actually started development on Earthquake shortly after Airport, but the project went through multiple directors and screenwriters before finally settling on Val Lewton veteran Mark Robson to produce and direct. Yet the real selling point for Universal was that they managed to secure Mario Puzo to write the script, but his draft was every bit as sprawling and unwieldy as his novel The Godfather had been. It’s impossible to overstate the importance of Francis Ford Coppola in the process of turning that book into a manageable screenplay—his film adaptation arguably ended up working despite Puzo as much as because of him—so it’s not surprising that another writer was brought in to tidy up Puzo’s script for Earthquake. It’s George Fox’s adaptation of Puzo’s script that finally started shooting in early 1974, but this pre-production period was so lengthy that Universal ended up rushing the rest of the process, giving Mark Robson just nine months to deliver a finished film in November of that year. Considering the complicated logistics and elaborate post-production work involved, Robson managed to pull off a miracle, but the cracks do show in the final product.
If anyone thinks that the rushed visual effects work in modern blockbuster films is a relatively recent problem, Earthquake stands as a reminder that unrealistic post-production schedules are nothing new. There was no way that the massive quantity of visual effects work necessary for Earthquake was going to be completed without making compromises, and the compositing suffered the worse. Albert Whitlock contributed some fine matte paintings in rapid turnaround, most of which were composited in-camera, and Glen Robinson added some decent (if sometimes a bit more problematic) miniature work, but there’s no getting around the fact that the optical compositing is subpar. That lead to some ugly-looking effects shots despite the talents of everyone involved (including the notorious elevator scene where a few frames of animated blood were added in order to cover for the fact that shot wasn’t working as intended). Robson’s decision to use cheesy-looking distorted mirror effects to represent buildings being affected by the stresses of the quakes doesn’t really help, either. These weren’t really state-of-the-art visual effects for 1974; they were the best that the crew could pull off in the time allotted.
On the other hand, given the amount of time allotted to developing the script, it should have been tight as a drum, but the reality is that there’s not much overarching story to Earthquake. A scientist predicts an earthquake. The earthquake happens. People die. The end. In the best spirit of Seventies disaster movies, it’s just a framework in order to give the all-star cast their individual moments in the spotlight. Yet it’s still a surprisingly dark film, and not just in terms of the body count, either. Hollywood has long specialized in making death and destruction as entertaining as possible, and Earthquake is no exception in that regard. Instead, it’s the soap opera elements that get surprisingly dark, although it’s perhaps a bit less surprising when you consider other films of the Seventies, when even family fare like The Bad News Bears was rather nasty by today’s standards. In the case of Earthquake, Stewart Graff (Charleton Heston) is openly having an affair on his suicidal, alcoholic wife Remy (Ava Gardner) with ingenue Denise Marshall (Geneviève Bujold), and that’s just for starters. It’s easy to dismiss all of the melodrama as being standard soap opera fare, but there’s a cruel edge to it here that soap operas usually lack. And then, when you drill down to Jody Joad (Marjoe Gortner), a sexually repressed (and fully psychotic) amateur National Guard member, things get particularly perverse.
All of that pays off in Earthquake’s rather bleak ending, where Stewart is forced to make a life-or-death choice between happiness and responsibility. Heston plays the scene remarkably well, even with no dialogue to support him—he’s able to convey Stewart’s internal dilemma entirely through his face and his eyes. (It’s one of Heston’s finest moments as an actor, so maybe the mistake was that he was ever given any dialogue in the first place.) For all of Earthquake’s melodramatic soap opera elements, it would be a mistake to dismiss the film as being breezy mainstream entertainment (and never mind that whole death and destruction thing).
Yet the real problem with Earthquake isn’t really a fault with the film itself. Like the other disaster movies of the Seventies, it’s very much a product of its time and its place. Nostalgia is a necessary factor when assessing these films, and anyone who wasn’t there during the era might have a hard time understanding what all of the fuss was about. Seeing Earthquake in 1974 was an experience that can’t be replicated today, with or without Sensurround. I guess you just had to be there. It doesn’t help that the age of the Hollywood superstar is long over—and lest you think that’s an exaggeration, the memorable cast of Earthquake also includes familiar faces like George Kennedy, Lorne Greene, Richard Roundtree, Barry Sullivan, Lloyd Nolan, Victoria Principal, John Randolph, Donald Moffat, and Walter Matthau (credited here as Walter Matuschanskayasky in order to keep his presence a secret). When Roland Emmerich (among others) revived the disaster genre decades later, no matter how many recognizable names that were added to the cast, they just didn’t have the same kind of marquee value as the stars from days gone by.
So, if you’re old enough to remember what it was like seeing Earthquake in 1974, put on your rose-colored glasses, sit back, relax, and enjoy. If you’re younger than that and you missed that period of film history, then try to put yourself in the shoes of an audience member back in 1974, when the stars were bigger, the melodrama was more melodramatic, and the auditorium was crumbling thanks to Sensurround. That’s the only proper way to enjoy Earthquake. Ironic detachment need not apply.
Cinematographer Philip Lathrop shot Earthquake on 35mm film using Panavision cameras with anamorphic Panavision lenses. 35mm release prints were framed at 2.39:1, while 70mm prints were full-frame blowups at 2.20:1 (although it’s worth pointing out that there doesn’t appear to be any evidence that it was exhibited in 70mm in North America, at least for the film’s first run). As is typical for Universal releases, there’s no information regarding this new 4K master, but it does seem to be based on scans of the original camera negative, and it’s been graded for High Dynamic Range in HDR10 only. Earthquake hasn’t had a happy history in high definition, with Universal’s original 2013 Blu-ray suffering from visible digital tinkering. Shout! Factory’s 2019 Blu-ray improved on that, but it was misframed at 2.20:1 (at least in the original pressing, which is what I have) and it had inconsistent flesh tones that ranged from relatively natural to overcooked reds and oranges. Both versions were based on scans of an interpositive, too, so there was plenty of room for improvement in terms of fine detail and grain reproduction.
Thankfully, all sins are forgiven here. Earthquake is somewhat notorious for bad quality optical work, but while I couldn’t verify this, it’s possible that the opening titles as presented here have been regenerated digitally on a clean background plate. The dupe elements for the Universal/MCA logo still look a bit rough (although they’re much better here than on previous Blu-rays), but the entire title sequence looks crisp and clear, without an obvious change in quality to the next shot of Charlton Heston once they’re complete. The optical work that is present looks as rough as ever—these are bad dupes, full stop—but don’t blame Albert Whitlock for that. His matte paintings were composited in-camera on the original negative, using cardboard mattes in front of the camera during live-action photography and reshooting the paintings later in the unexposed area. They look pretty amazing in 4K. While some of them are more obvious than others, there are a few that you’d never know were matte paintings (or even composites) unless someone pointed them out to you.
The rest of the principal photography is as sharp and detailed as Eastman 5254 stock and Seventies-era anamorphic lenses would allow. The textures on Loren Greene’s Prince of Wales patterned suit are beautifully resolved, as is the fuzz of Genevieve Bujold’s coral pink bathrobe. Speaking of which, the color of that bathrobe looks more accurate here than it did on Shout! Factory’s Blu-ray, as do the flesh tones. Walter Matthau and the actor playing the maintenance man who drowns at the dam both suffered the worst in that version, with the former leaning red-orange and the latter going full beet red at one point. All of the flesh tones here look consistent, natural, and entirely in line with Seventies disaster filmmaking in general and Philip Lathrop’s cinematography in particular. It’s an across-the-board upgrade.
(Still, there’s one small caveat worth mentioning. The Sensurround bumper that played at the beginning of the Shout! Factory version isn’t included here, nor is the vintage MPAA blue card for the PG rating. Instead, it simply displays the modern digital PG rating card. It’s not a huge omission, but having them present definitely added to the nostalgic experience.)
Primary audio is offered in English Dolby Atmos and 2.1 mono (in a 5.1 container) DTS-HD Master Audio. The latter is supposedly the original mono Sensurround track, and it’s worth taking a moment to explain what that does (and doesn’t) mean. Earthquake was released theatrically with 4-track stereo mag striped prints for 35mm, and 6-track stereo mag striped prints for 70mm. Both of them were encoded for Sensurround. However, most audiences experienced the film in Sensurround-encoded optical mono. While those are sometimes referred to today as being 2.1 or 1.1 mono, Sensurround didn’t have a conventional LFE or “baby boom” channel. Instead, the low frequencies that provided the rumble were generated at each location where the film was shown. There was an inaudible guide tone present that triggered the subwoofers in the theatre—or to be more precise, the tone triggered random noise generators that fed a low-passed signal to the subwoofers. There was no actual deep bass on the soundtrack aside from what could be reproduced with the mag striped or optical audio, which was somewhat limited at the time (especially in the latter case) and certainly wouldn’t shake the seats in the auditorium. It’s the mechanical gimmick of Sensurround that created the effect, not any low frequencies inherent to the mix.
As a result, without having the appropriate hardware, there’s no way to tell if the 2.1 track here is indeed the original theatrical Sensurround mix. Just like the Sensurround track on the Shout! Factory Blu-ray, there’s not much deep bass present, but there wouldn’t be since that’s not how Sensurround actually worked. If there was deep bass, it would have been added later like it was in the theatres. While this may well be the theatrical audio, it’s never going to replicate the experience of seeing Earthquake at a Sensurround-equipped theatre back in 1974, no matter how many (and how big) the subwoofers are in your home theatre. It simply can’t.
So, while purists may prefer the original audio, in this case, the original audio can’t really be considered “accurate” anyway. Instead, it’s worth giving the new Atmos mix an audition. It’s not clear whether the source for this mix was the 4.0 track, the 6.0 track, or the original audio stems (although it’s most likely the latter). The John Williams score is in full stereo, and it sounds fantastic in Atmos, especially during his bombastic opening title theme. The sound effects tend toward being mono-focused with tastefully added directionality whenever appropriate. Surround effects are usually pretty subtle, although they’re naturally more active during the earthquake sequences. There’s also plenty of rumble during the earthquakes and other disaster sequences, because low frequency sounds have been added to the mix—but this is one case where adding sound effects is accurate to the theatrical experience. It’s worth pointing out that other sound effects have been added as well, like helicopters flying overhead, but don’t let that dissuade you from giving this Atmos mix a try. Your own mileage may vary, but it’s arguably the best way to fly.
Additional audio options include French, Spanish (Spain), and Italian 5.1 DTS. Subtitle options include English SDH, French, Spanish (Spain), Spanish (Latin America), Italian, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish.
The Universal Pictures Limited Edition Steelbook 4K Ultra HD release of Earthquake is a two-disc set that includes a Blu-ray with a 1080p copy of the film—which appears to be the original 2013 Universal disc, right down to the printing on the label. There’s also a J-card slip and a Digital Code on a paper insert tucked inside. The new artwork could best be described as “tastefully garish”—like it or not, it’s perfectly in keeping with the tone of Earthquake and Seventies disaster movies in general. But Universal is also offering a standard version in an Amaray case with a slipcover, both of which utilize the theatrical poster artwork, so choose whichever version that you prefer.
Unfortunately, there are no extras on either disc. Bubkes. That means you’ll definitely want to hang onto Shout’s Blu-ray, which included interviews with Charlton Heston, Lorne Greene, and Richard Roundtree, as well as various image galleries, trailers, TV spots, and radio spots. It also included featurettes on John Williams’ score, Albert Whitlock’s paintings, and Sensurround itself. Most significantly, it included the extended television cut of Earthquake on a second disc, along with a separate collection of all the extra scenes that were shot specifically for it. While they don’t exactly improve the film, it’s still an important historical artifact, so it’s a shame that it couldn’t be included here (Shout! Factory probably retains the rights to that version on home video). On the other hand, you’ll probably never want to watch their version of the theatrical cut again. Universal’s 4K upgrade trumps it in every possible way, and the new Atmos mix also improves upon the old 5.1 mix that was on both of the previous Blu-rays. While nostalgia may help when watching Earthquake, 4K visuals and Dolby Atmos certainly don’t hurt.
- Stephen Bjork
(You can follow Stephen on social media at these links: Twitter, Facebook, BlueSky, and Letterboxd).