St. Helens
Tags: tragedy

Plot synopsis:
The film opens up with an image of Central Oregon's Mount Bachelor and the Central Oregon Cascades, which is the fictional setting for Mount St. Helens itself. On March 20, 1980 an earthquake of 4.1 on the Richter Scale strikes Mount St. Helens, signalling the first signs of volcanic activity in 123 years.
During the first earthquake, a flight of quail becomes disoriented and smashes into the windshield of an Aerospatiale SA341G Gazelle helicopter being used for logging operations. Pilot Otis Kaylor lands the helicopter, only to be accused of nearly killing a group of loggers.
Shortly afterward, David Jackson (a fictionalized analog of real-life volcanologist David Johnston), a United States Geological Survey scientist, is sent to investigate the activity. Upon arriving in the small town of Cougar (a real-life town located 12 miles south of Mount St. Helens), he quickly befriends a single mother named Linda Steele (played by Cassie Yates), a waitress at a fictional restaurant named Whittaker's Inn. While there, he stirs up concern with the owner, Clyde Whittaker (Albert Salmi), and a group of farmers and loggers.
Art Carney stars as the 83-year-old Mount St. Helens Lodge owner Harry Randall Truman, who has a defiant attitude toward the idea of leaving his home.
Later in the film, as the volcanic activity increases, so does the attraction between David and Linda, and the two eventually fall in love. In their last scene in the movie, he packs Linda and her son off to safety and stays behind for the work that needed to be done on Johnston Ridge, presumably on the day before the eruption. Later that night, he pays a last visit to Harry Truman.
On May 18, 1980, David hikes to a ridgetop on the north face of Mount St. Helens to monitor some scientific equipment, then the mountain explodes, apparently killing him and Harry Truman in his nearby house. As the film ends, Linda soon realizes the horror of the day's events when a radio announcer declares that one of the first victims was Jackson.
The film ends with a scene of a small tree growing back to life amidst the barren moonscape that was the North Fork Toutle River valley.

Review: First I must take issue with the reviewer who found this film boring because he classed it as a disaster movie, and felt there was not the suspense necessary for a good disaster movie.
Personally I would question whether disaster movies really comprise a distinct category -  they are dramas in the thriller category where the more usual dramatic excitement of violent action is replaced by the tension of waiting to see whether or not the impending disaster can be staved off.
To maintain this tension, such a movie has to be based on a fictional story.
By contrast, films of real events can be full documentaries which were filmed only in advance or concurrently; or semi-documentaries in which some of the essential scenes have had to be fictionally, but as accurately as possible, reconstructed and filmed after the event.
Such films should have a sufficiently dramatic story to retain the viewers interest throughout, but they also have a very important role to play in conveying to the general public in dramatic terms the actual impact of the event in question on the lives of the ordinary people who were affected.
In my view St. Helens meets both objectives well, and was artistically a most successful film.
Volcanic eruptions are not rare events, but the eruption in North America of a volcano generally regarded by the public as extinct, attracted enormous public attention as events unfolded day by day.
Millions in North America experienced dull skies and falling ash over a period of several days, and those of us who are old enough remember the story very well.
Ultimately this eruption cost fifty nine lives, but two of these in particular provided the media with ongoing human interest stories and later provided the core story for this movie.
One was the young geologist from the U.S. Geological Survey who allowed his enthusiasm to run away with him to such an extent that he was conducting monitoring in an area very close to the mountain when the eruption took place.
He saw it happen, and had time to report it by telephone before he was overwhelmed by the escaping gases or falling rocks.
The other was the elderly retired man living alone in a cabin on Spirit Lake very close to the volcano who consistently refused to be evacuated until too late.
These are the principal characters in this semi-documentary, and both are portrayed very sympathetically so that their self destructive behaviour becomes quite understandable.
I would rate this as a very good film - I also have an 'official' full documentary account of this eruption on videotape, it provides many interesting facts about the scientific impact on the area; but this dramatised semi-documentary with its human interest stories is the one which will bear watching repeatedly, and it is commendably careful not to seriously distort any of the facts in the interests of artistic licence.
We may never be near a volcano that is threatening to erupt, but we read about such eruptions each year and this film helps to give us a better understanding of what one is really like..
This film is pretty good for emotion and drama.
I've been to St. Helens and love the region.
I liked the movie the first time I saw it probably about 20 years ago on TV.
Harry Truman (Carney in a real departure from Ed Norton), the crusty old soldier who won't do what he don't want to.
And David Jackson (Huffman) who is based on the late David Johnston who died on the mountain in the eruption.
He and Harry hit it off despite their differences and find common ground in the love of the mountain about to destroy everything.
I rather liked Tim Thomerson, the sheriff, who's out of his usual stand-up routine but a 'stand up guy' in the local community, as he tries to keep peace as the drama unfolds.
Probably untrue, and in my opinion, unnecessary in the film.
A bit of country-western 'local yokels' in the bar, getting to know one another is a decent way of helping us like the town and the folks, but one wonder something.
And when the news report of the eruption comes on, the first thing they say is that Harry Truman was at his lodge and David Jackson, the 'Young Geologist' was on the face of the mountain when it erupted.
The end theme, "Here's to You, Harry Truman," is a pretty good ballad, and catchy, even if old Harry himself would probably have scoffed at the overly maudlin lyrics.
"Sounds like pigs being murdered." The film of the eruption and the later destruction are impressive and gut-wrenching.
Yet, if you go up to St. Helens, the thing you'll be most surprised by is the roadside attractions.
HELENS: FEEL THE ERUPTION!
All over the place, you can see movies, buy lava chunks and explore houses buried under ash.
This is a superior made for TV movie about one of the worst natural disasters in the history of North America.
The film centers on the crusty old mountain man Harry Truman played by the fine actor Art Carney who gives one of his best performances.
Harry was a cracker barrel philosopher of sorts who loved all the attention given him my the media.
Determined to stay put come hell or high water or a mountain blowing up in his face, Harry represents the stubborn American type who wants to hang on to cherished memories of his wife and daughter at any cost, choosing to die with his canine companion than to face an uncertain future elsewhere in a world he doesn't know.
Art Cartney captures the spirit and essence of this eccentric oddity out of place in the present high-tech world he never made.The weakest aspect of this film is the awful music.
Too bad they couldn't have got someone of the caliber of Merle Haggard or Dolly Parton to give the flick some real s**t-kicking hoedowns and barroom crying in your beer songs.The cast other than Art Carney is adequate.
David Huffman and Cassie Yates make a cute couple of opposites attracting, he a professional geologist, she an uneducated waitress with a failed marriage and a son.
But they make the relationship believable and the ending probable.
He is perhaps the most famous villain in screen history because of his work as the Mountain Man in "Deliverance." In "St. Helens" he gets the short end of the stick.The on-location photography is an added attraction with actual shots of the Mt. St.
Helens eruption inserted.
The scene toward the end where Harry is fishing as the mountain spews forth its load is harrowing.
The attentive viewer will come away from this picture with new questions concerning the meaning of life and its brevity..
The cataclysmic eruption of Mount Saint Helens..
"St.Helens" centers around the events leading up to the eruption of Mount Saint Helens in Washington with the story beginning on the day volcanic activity started on March 20,1980 and ending on the day of the cataclysmic May 18,1980 eruption.David Huffman plays David Jackson,a vulcanologist who is sent by US Geological Survey to investigate the activity.His character is based on David Johnson,a real life vulcanologist who died during the eruption.Art Carney plays Mount St. Helens Lodge owner Harry Randall Truman.He refuses to leave his place of living during the volcanic activity.Jackson falls in love with a single mother named Linda Steele.On 18th May the volcano explodes..."St.Helens" is very loosely based on facts.It's an entertaining disaster drama with lovely score by Italian band Goblin.The entire movie was shot on location in Bend,Oregon and at Mount Bachelor in Central Oregon's Cascades,but there are some real-life images of Mount Saint Helens taken during an eruption.8 out of 10..
Dramatic re-creation of the events leading up to the eruption of Mt. St.
Helens and the unsuccessful efforts to evacuate the area even with so many warning signs.
Special effects combined with actual footage give added reality..
The best kind of history: involvement with the people who lived through it..
The best kind of history: involvement with the people who lived through it..
With its low-key acting, and real, believable characters, this film was a superb re-enactment of what became a nightmare for those closest to it.
With its low-key acting, and real, believable characters, this film was a superb re-enactment of what became a nightmare for those closest to it.
Art Carney, as Harry S.
Art Carney, as Harry S.
Truman, is completely believable, and understandable, as a man set in his ways and content with his life, unwilling to run away and perhaps unable to comprehend the totality of the disaster that is looming.
Truman, is completely believable, and understandable, as a man set in his ways and content with his life, unwilling to run away and perhaps unable to comprehend the totality of the disaster that is looming.
We would all like terrible realities to go away, but often they are worse even than the forecasts.
We would all like terrible realities to go away, but often they are worse even than the forecasts.
In light of 9/11, the poignancy of the human relationships in this film is even greater.
In light of 9/11, the poignancy of the human relationships in this film is even greater.
We are so vulnerable in the face of many of the events of life, and the most important things we have to cling to are each other, and our relationships to the people we love, and to life itself.
We are so vulnerable in the face of many of the events of life, and the most important things we have to cling to are each other, and our relationships to the people we love, and to life itself.
A haunting, under-rated film..
A haunting, under-rated film..
Somewhat a slow movie but predictable..
The movie St. Helens was a bit slow, especially how the film was drawing up the timelines.
Simply I knew what I was waiting for during the whole time was May 18, 1980 at 8:32 a.m. for the "big explosion."  Needless to say, the film was a bit dull but that is almost an unfair comparison when its compared to witnessing Mt. St.
Helens unleash her fury in real life.
Like most docu-drama disaster flicks, this film is pretty boring and has little to note.
About all it has going for it is the fact that you know how the film is going to end...
The only reason you keep watching this is the morbid curiosity of which characters are going to die..
This movie purports to be a true story, but other than some geographic references, it is true only in that Mount St. Helens erupted violently and two of the fatalities.
While the differing perspectives of innkeeper Harry Truman and geologist David Johnston on the peril posed by the volcano could have made for a compelling human interest drama; but while the acting is generally acceptable, this isn't it.
The special effects are laughably cheesy, even given the state of the art in 1981, and the music is screwy.
Much of the geologic phenomena that the movie associates with the eruptions are pure fantasy, and the sequence of the eruptive events before the final blast is entirely wrong.
The climactic line of the movie is yelled without any context to indicate what the actor is talking about.
Helens, the only way I would recommend this fiasco is to fans of Art Carney, who valiantly tries to carry the film.
The stock footage of the St. Helens eruption is better seen in a context that rightly explains the eruption, rather than exploiting it in such absurd terms..
Renegade geologist David Jackson (an excellent and engaging performance by David Houffman) tries to warn people about the impending eruption of the volcano Mt. St.
Helens while crusty and stubborn old-timer Harry Truman (a wonderfully ornery portrayal by Art Carney) refuses to leave his lodge home despite the fact that he lives in the immediate proximity of the volcano.
Director Ernest Pintoff, working from an absorbing script by Larry Ferguson and Peter Bellwood, relates the compelling story at a steady pace, ably creates and sustains an ominous atmosphere of slowly mounting dread, and presents believable characters who are firmly grounded in a totally plausible everyday reality.
This movie further benefits from sound acting by a top-drawer cast: Carney and Huffman excel in the lead roles, with bang-up support from Cassie Yates as the sweet Linda Steele, Albert Salmi as mean and greedy local mill boss Clyde Whittacker, Ron O'Neal as tough Vietnam vet helicopter pilot Otis Kaylor, Tim Thomerson as the amiable Sheriff Wayne Temple, Bill McKinney as belligerent lumberjack Kilpatrick, and Henry Darrow as arrogant scientist Lloyd Wagner.
The climactic eruption is genuinely exciting and makes effective use of actual newsreel footage.
Only some shoddy optical special effects of the deadly billowing clouds of volcanic ash fail to impress.
The old man and the mountain.
(Mild Spoilers) True modern day Don Quixote like story of a somewhat nutty old man Harold known as "Give em Hell Harry" Truman, Art Carney, who against everyones advice stayed steadfast at his Mt. St.
The hard as nails Harry is waiting for the end to come together with his fitfully pooch and a years supply of bourbon to keep him both warn and happy.
That's as Mt. Saint Helena is about to blow sky high and flatten everything within as much of 50 miles around it!This real life drama began on March 20, 1980 as Mt. St.
Helena started to rumble and churn out hot lava causing the people living around it to become concern that it might just erupt for the first time in over 100 years.
With handsome geologist David Jackson, David Huffman, sent by the US Government to check the mountain out he comes to the shocking conclusion that the mountain is very likely to blow it's top at any moment.
Helena Wayne Temple, Tim Thomerson, to evacuate the ares before the now active volcano ends up vaporizing the town with everyone in it.Harry for his part is totally unafraid of what's about to happen in his determination to stick it out and ride out the storm or volcanic eruption even if it ends up killing him!
There's also the owner of the Whittaker Inn and local logging company Clyde Wittaker, Albert Salmi, who despite warning of impeding doom refuses to closed down his inn and timber business putting profits ahead of people like the true money grubbing and unfeeling, for his fellow human being, capitalist swine that he is!The drama of the St. Helena eruption that everyone watching the movie knows is going to happened since it was broadcast around the clock,for some six weeks, at the time it did is seen in stages as the mountain continued to rumble and grumble as the pressure builds up inside of it for it's massive and powerhouse eruption!
An explosion that has the destructive power of, God help us all, at least 500 Hiroshima like atomic bombs!We also have in the movie David Jackson's love interest single mom Linda Steele, Cassi Yates, who works at the Whittaker Inn who by the time the movie is over falls in love with David who instead of returning the favor leaves her to take photos of the big once in a lifetime eruption despite the danger he's to face photographing it.
There's also the butt kicking and karate black belt helicopter pilot Otis Kaylor played by Ron "Superfly" O'Neal who together with David flies into the belly of the beast, Mt. St.
Helena, to check out if its about to blow that almost cost him and David their lives!
We also have as comic relief, if you can call it that, this whacked out Reverend Dr.Lucus Romarantin, Biff Manard, who in an effort to keep Mt. St.Helena from erupting is willing to offer up to it a human sacrifice, not himself of course, of a virgin from his congregation Pamala, Julie Phillips, in order to placate the God Vulcan.
It's Vulcan that Dr.Romarantin feels is the reason that the mountain is acting so angry toward the world or better yet the state of Washingon and its surroundings!***SPOILERS*** As the fateful day-May 18, 1980-approaches it's old man Harry Truman who turns out to be the real hero of this end of the world earth shaking drama.
With Harry not giving as much as an inch to the mountain that's about to bury him he and his dog go out for a days fishing at Spirit Lake that by the time the movie is finally over would be vaporized together with Harry and 59 other people as the big bad and angry Mt. Saint.
Helena lets off the steam, as well as fire and brimstone, that's been building up in it for over the last 100 years!!.
The dumbest movie i have ever seen.
Call me an immature little boy, but i've had a more profound experience just watching a documentary on Mount St. Helens.
To that end, there was actually some real footage of the eruption mixed in there somewhere.
Now that was good, about all that actually was good in this dumb movie.
(some people might think of this as a spoiler) The actor who plays Harry Truman is.
Truman was probably in his seventies, the actor looks like he's barely out of his fifties.This movie runs about ninety minutes.
Am I ever thankful for that, ninety minutes of sheer torture magnified by the fact that they swear (i'm talking S-words here) like it's 1999 just all the time.
they must swear at least three times every scene.
I'm telling you, it's out of control.The only good line in the whole movie is "Ahh, hayte bahg pypes!" oh, sorry, translated version: "I hate bagpipes!" That line has become legendary around my house.1 star is way too many.
Watch a Mount St. Helens documentary instead.