Had I seen Dante’s Peak prior to September 11th, 2001, my reaction to it would have been notably different. But when I picked up the DVD earlier this weekend at the Carnegie Library, it was not because I genuinely wanted to see the movie, but more so because I wanted to try and get the DVD player on my notebook working and so I just needed a DVD to test it with.

The storyline of the movie is predictable, but then again, so was the storyline of the Titanic right? We all knew what happened. So though the dramatization of the handsome geologist (having a Volcanologist that looks like Pierce Brosnan is about as believable as having a geek that looks like Sandra Bullock 🙂 ) out to save the town didn’t have as profound an impact on me, what did was the special effects that were captured in the movie. As I watched the ash from the volacano engulf the small town at its base as it bellowed lava up into the sky with smoke and debris all around it, what I thought of was the twin towers at the WTC – because I still cannot imagine 2 x 110 stories coming crashing down in the middle of Manhattan.

This was meant to be a review, but it turned into more of a diatribe. Will Hollywood try to capture the events of September 11th? I’m sure they will someday – because the very thing that keeps the world ticking is enterprise and capitalism – and while to some extent, the stories that our cast in the form of books and movies based on these events will evoke memories of the horrendous event, it will also generate lots of revenue for the publishers and the producers who capitalize on it.

Dante’s Peak as a movie is just a little above average, (I’ll give it a partial thumbs up) but seeing it now and linking it with the devastation of September 11th, gives it a different significance. The difference is one event was natural, and there was little that could be done to control it and the other was the nadir of humanity.

Before I get into the meat of this entry, I would like to acknowledge the The Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh which offers an amazing collection of books, audiobooks and DVDs to everyone for free. If you’re in Pittsburgh and not using the Carnegie Library, then you are missing something.

This entry is about movies and books that have haunted me as a child – literally. These are stories of danger and courage which got embedded so deep when I saw them or read them that the very thought of them used to invoke the feeling of fear. In fact one of these movies had me petrified for long time as a child… for no rational reason – which I can recognize only now. As I write about the things which hanuted me, I realize that they were and some possibly still are numerous. For most of these I remembered the name, I remembered the story, and remembered the parts that haunted me. For others, I even forgot why they scared me so much and remembered only the fact that they had a profound impact on me.

So what were they? Well, the one that tops the list is the 1978 Charleston Heston movie – Gray Lady Down. I have no idea how old I was when I saw this movie or where I saw it. My guess is that I was probably four or five years old and I do remember that I saw it in a cinema hall. In the movie a nuclear submarine is incapacitated by a collission and lands up several hundred feet under water resting on a precarious incline. The movie depicts the rescue of the few who survived the collisions and the courageous men who traveled to the depths of the ocean to literally try to get humpty-dumpty back up again.

It took me over a decade to come to terms with Gray Lady down and nearly two before I was able to seek it out and watch it again in order to re-assure myself that though it is a chilling story, my reaction to it was more than extreme. I’ve since watched Gray Lady Down twice. It still gives me the chills, but I think I’m finally over it. But as a movie, it told an amazing story and it hit home.

The next item on the list of things which haunted me was a book – The Poseidon Adventure (sorry for the lack of a link, but neither Amazon not Barnes and Noble had this one…). Now, I am guessing that this was the bok, because in this case, I remember the story, in fact I remember distinct parts of the story, but did not remember the name of the book. But this past weekend, while at the Carnegie Library, the DVD for The Poseidon Adventure – the movie, caught my attention and I just had to see it if it was what I remembered.

The thing about the posiedon adventure which has me mesmerized till today, is trying to imagine the world upside down… our whole perception of how we see things is based on a certain orientation. And a change of orientation can really throught things for a loop. In The Poseidon Adventure, the survivors of that disaster, had to climb up to the bottom of the ship that had been complete flipped over by a tsunami caused by an undersea earthquake. The ship was completely inverted… floating…. no sinking as they clammered to reach the bottom — now the top of the ship with hopes of somehow penetrating its steel hull to escape.

There are several other books and movies and stories that have left their mark and I am sure there are several more that will. But to each that has the ability to cause such a long lasting effect I have to give them all a thumbs up.