Customer Reviews

St. Helens

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This film follows the familiar disaster scenario: gifted scientist comes to small town where he is sure a horrible natural disaster is about to happen; he warns the citizenry but his cautions are rejected by the establishment (fear for tourist or manufacturing or whatever dollars); cataclysm occurs and hero is vindicated; often leading character(s) perish; finally disaster (volcano, meteor, shark, flood, whatever) effects occur.

This plot outline could describe St. Helens, Dante's Peak, Jaws, and a bunch of other films. In the present film, however, it is used to good effect to describe the very real eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington State, and along the way gives an interesting accounting of the life and death of Harry Truman, noted St. Helen's character. The movie's strengths lie in its portrayals of the actual events surrounding the volcanic eruptions; its weaknesses occur with the invented characters of the scientist and his love interest.

As a citizen of Washington State with a love for disaster films, I have watched this film numerous times and enjoyed it. I would really recommend it.

This was the first "disaster" movie I recall seeing when I was about 13 and I still watch it every chance I get. The film combines real news footage of the actual eruption with re-enacted chaos, leaving the viewer with some idea of what it must have been like at ground zero. The scientist character is indeed based on a real scientist who camped out at the North side of St. Helens. His love interest may be fictional but it adds a human touch to his character. And Art Carney is very funny and warm as Harry Truman. No gore, no senseless violence or gratuitous sex scenes....I like this movie.

This was an excellent movie! Some people may fall asleep to it because different things are happening at once and it's also dated, but for people who like true stories and the great outdoors will be sure to enjoy it! David Huffman's best peformance as he plays the scientist David Jackson, who explores the volcano(He was really murdered in 1985, bless his soul!). The late Art Carney does an excellent job as Harry Truman, the old man who refused to leave his home during the explosion. The ending is very sad. I love the country music score on this movie, which got me into really liking country music in the first place. Too bad they don't really make movies these days as nice as this.

Take my word for it, I have not found any other movie whose content deals with the eruption of Mt St Helens except this one and thank god the late Art Carney was in this or it probably would have only gotten 3 stars from me just for the build up to the eruption alone but his comedic jabs at the right moments made it all the more enjoyable to watch. It's another one of those pictures thats based upon fact but no doubt has some fiction interwoven into it in some spots, it's not the best volcano movie I have seen but it is by far NOT THE WORST...I gave it 5 stars because I truly liked all 90 minutes of this movie.

A scientist (david Huffman) is called to the mountain after a series of earthquakes rock the region and after several readings and experiments determines that the mountain is going to blow but of course no one believes him. But he does get support from the mountains steadfast occupant, Harry Truman (Carney) who refuses to leave the ol' girl even tho' he knows he'll get blown to kingdom come if it blows.

Huffman's Character was, in real life, david Johnston, who was 5 miles from the volcano's north face when it blew and was buried in the inital lateral blast of the eruption. His body was never found. An observatory in his name was built southeast of the volcano and, today, houses the Mt St Helens volcano Web Cam, if you google MT ST HELENS VOLCANO WEB CAM, you will find the site.

"St. Helens" does do better than "Dante's Peak" since it does depict a more realistic aspect to a volcano disaster movie. Unlike the scripted and acted "Dante's Peak", "St. Helens was based on the May 18, 1980 eruption of Mt. St. Helens in Washington State. At 8:32 a.m. the violent eruption begins and campers, hikers, and fishermen in the Northwest woods have to evacuate otherwise perish. Even the old native Harry Truman who refused to leave the Spirit Lake lodge is now buried under 200 feet of ash and mud. "St. Helens is good for the Northwesterners even those who lived through the real event like myself.

St. Helens was a difficult movie to find, found it in excelent condition and at a very good price.

A very believable movie of the events of the Mount. St Helen's eruption. I ordered it for my Mother and had a chance to watch it. Now I will get a copy. Art Carney played the old man on the mountain that would not leave and with reason he played the character very well. I enjoyed it very much.

I went to Mt. St. Helens on vacation and came back home and saw this movie on TV. It's very good, but you can't appreciate the movie and the real life event unless you've been there or experienced what happened. It was a very good movie

I thought a word or two from a guy who was running through the flying simulated ash while cameras rolled in downtown Bend, Oregon might help you enjoy this great movie even more. The producers decided on Bend for the fall 1980 filming because of the resemblance to Cougar, Washington which was the real life town near Mount Saint Helens. The ash you see flying in the movie as people scramble to safety is actually Bentonite shoveled in front of a large gas driven fan, I remember having to squint as my real life 4 year old son and I scurried through a makeshift swap meet supposedly fleeing the eruption. Set back with your popcorn and watch vehicles flip and collide, fireballs overtake cars trying to flee, and the old stubborn mountain man Harry Truman, not the President, played by Art Carne arguing his point with experts over why he should stay at his secluded mountain cabin in spite of the imminent danger. Awesome! I also set idle in line, setting in my blue VW Squareback for what seemed like hours waiting for welders to fabricate a small launching ramp to flip a car in an intersection.
I recommend this movie because it builds great suspense as the dedicated scientist David Jackson, played by David Huffman studies the mountain as it continually rumbles and bulges with tremendous pressure build-up, and ends with some very sobering facts about the power of nature and the consequences of ignoring official warnings and restricted areas. It's actually quite educational. Be sure to see this entertaining semi-docudrama, and look for this then 23 year old Oregonian in a brown patch leather vest running from right to left with my own 8 mm camera and case around my shoulder, I had originally traveled the 10 miles to town to film a movie being filmed and ended up in it, I still have that memorable home movie footage. My son was nearby, but it's pretty tough to spot him on screen unless you pause and search. THINK I'LL GO WATCH IT NOW FOR OLD TIME SAKE. Happy watching!

I first saw this movie on cable not long after it's release. The movie is not particularly accurate historically, but Art Carney's characterization of Harry Truman, makes the film. For those of us living in sight of Mt. Ranier, another semi-active volcano, it makes for a thought provoking movie.

I love trivia so I'll share a few intriguing facts that I've read: Washington state has cornered the U.S. market on volcanos, we have five active ones. Geologists predict Mt. Ranier will blow catastrophically in the foreseeable future (1 chance in 6, during our lifetime). The lahar (a Hawaiian word), is an avalanche of mud and ash which will race down the nearby Nisqually river valley at freeway speed. Not if mind you...when. Reaching south Seattle, the lahar will erase a quarter of a million people and there may be no warning whatsoever. One geologist was quoted saying that of all the worlds volcanos, it's Mt. Ranier that scares him most. Yikes! It's no wonder we have to take the lessons of Mt. St. Helen seriously.

Movies about apocalyptic event's have always held a facination for most of us. Just ignore the fictionalized stuff and focus on the true events. This movie does a pretty good job of that. One thing to note, this film has a slightly soft focus and muddy colors. Almost certainly, it's a second or third generation print. Also, there were several scenes in the film where I could hear annoying flaws in the soundtrack. Fortunately, these were fairly infrequent.