1997’s Volcano: how a L.A. disaster movie became 'good‑bad' entertainment

Maya Salam wrote in The New York Times that the 1997 disaster film Volcano, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Anne Heche, has come to be seen as a striking example of “good-bad” entertainment — a big‑budget Los Angeles disaster movie whose implausibilities produce unintended comedy. Salam notes that Jones plays Mike Roark, L.A.’s director of emergency services, and Heche is seismologist Dr.

Amy Barnes; Gaby Hoffmann, Don Cheadle and John Carroll Lynch are among the supporting cast. Directed by Mick Jackson, the film opens on sunny Los Angeles and follows a river of lava running through subway tunnels and erupting via the La Brea Tar Pits. Salam also points to Janet Maslin’s contemporary reviews, including Maslin’s remark about the film’s lavish effects and her question of whether an apocalyptic nightmare can pass for escapist fun.

The New York Times piece highlights where the film falters: Salam describes its social commentary as heavy‑handed or “anvilicious,” citing awkward references to the O.J. Simpson and Rodney King cases and a cringe‑worthy subplot about racial tension that includes lines such as a character calling himself the “volcano version of Rodney King” and another child saying, “Look at their faces.

Key Topics

Culture, Volcano Film, Tommy Lee Jones, Anne Heche, Mick Jackson, Gaby Hoffmann