Twister
When Twister arrived in theatres backing
1996, it blew audiences away (excuse the pun) with its awesome special
effects. They were realistic back then, and they still hold up pretty
well today. At the time of its release, the “Disaster” film had been
laying dormant for a while. It seemed that any possible disaster
scenario that could have been portrayed in the movies had been done. But
when “Jurassic Park” graced us with its presence three years before
Twister, big, booming special effects films were all the rage and the
pressure was on for the visuals to be as realistic as possible.
Twister starred the ever reliable Bill
Paxton and the “on-the-rise” Helen Hunt, who had found fame with the hit
TV series “Mad About You”. In Twister, Paxton and Hunt play a divorced
couple who are reunited for a day to realise their dream of studying tornadoes up close and personal – closer and more intensively than ever
before. Following behind our two leading scientists, are a mix of Storm
Chasers; outgoing, unorthodox, crazy individuals. The most memorable of
these being the unusual Dusty, played by the then little known Phillip
Seymour Hoffman.
Twister is a thrill ride of a film. The
story is simple, the dialogue is often cheesy and poorly written, but
lets face it… that’s not why you watch the film. It’s all about those
windy forces of nature tearing through the countryside, and lifting cars
and buildings like pieces of paper. Once they hit the screen you can’t
help but be swept up in the carnage as the tornadoes get bigger and
bigger, leading up to the monstrous F5 towards the end of the movie.
The film puts the audience in the path
of the tornadoes like never before, and one of the most memorable shots
from the film and of any film of the 90’s was watching a yellow pick up
truck drive furiously through a field, with a tornado following closely
behind, smashing a barn to smithereens and scattering the remains every
which way, forcing the truck to weave in and out of the falling debris.
And let’s not forget the flying cow!
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