Not to be confused in any way with the 1939 John Ford big-screen classic of the same name, "Hurricane" is one of many made-for-TV disaster films that were even more prominent on the small screen than they were on the big screen during the 1970s.
Based on William C. Andersen's book "The Hurricane Hunters", and inspired by the massive destruction caused by two different Category 5 hurricanes, Hilda in 1964 and Camille in 1969, the film focuses in on a massive hurricane about to nail the Gulf Coast of the United States, something that wasn't unknown to them in those days but which, in the real world of 2017, was made manifestly different on two occasions with Harvey and Irma. And it isn't just those on the coastline that are in the bulls eye of this monster cyclone, with winds approaching 175 miles per hour swirling around the eye wall, who are being threatened; there is also a Coast Guard aircraft, flown by Martin Milner (of TV's "Route 66" and "Adam-12") to rescue a boat captain (Larry Hagman).
Absent all the CGI technology we've seen on recent big screen spectacles like "2012", "Geostorm", and "The Day After Tomorrow", "Hurricane" must inevitably rely on some fairly vivid film-to-TV footage of Hurricane Camille hitting the Gulf Coast in the late summer of 1969. It's not as effective as it likely would have been had it been made a couple of decades on, but it's good enough. Where the film falters to a fair extent is in having to put its cast through many of the expected disaster film hoops courtesy of Jack Turley's teleplay, including Frank Sutton (of TV's "Gomer Pyle") holding a "hurricane party" at his apartment, which just so happens to be right in the bull's eye of the storm. Such things might have been common in that era, but they'd never pass the laugh test today, either in reality or in the movies.
When the film concentrates on the storm itself, however, that's where it gets its greatest effect, thanks to the typically efficient handling of the proceedings by director Jerry Jameson, a specialist in small-screen disaster (he also did "Terror On The 40th Floor", "A Fire In The Sky". and "Starflight One", among others), though he also did a good job on the big screen with "Airport '77". The cast includes, among others, Patrick Duffy (later to star with Hagman in the legendary TV soap opera "Dallas"), Michael Learned, Will Geer (both from "The Waltons"), Barry Sullivan (whose many fine roles included portraying John Chisum in Sam Peckinpah's 1973 Western classic "Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid"), Jessica Walter ("Play Misty For Me"), and Lonny Chapman.
I'm willing to overlook the problematic things of "Hurricane", which are, after all, part-and-parcel of this genre, and give it a '6'.
Based on William C. Andersen's book "The Hurricane Hunters", and inspired by the massive destruction caused by two different Category 5 hurricanes, Hilda in 1964 and Camille in 1969, the film focuses in on a massive hurricane about to nail the Gulf Coast of the United States, something that wasn't unknown to them in those days but which, in the real world of 2017, was made manifestly different on two occasions with Harvey and Irma. And it isn't just those on the coastline that are in the bulls eye of this monster cyclone, with winds approaching 175 miles per hour swirling around the eye wall, who are being threatened; there is also a Coast Guard aircraft, flown by Martin Milner (of TV's "Route 66" and "Adam-12") to rescue a boat captain (Larry Hagman).
Absent all the CGI technology we've seen on recent big screen spectacles like "2012", "Geostorm", and "The Day After Tomorrow", "Hurricane" must inevitably rely on some fairly vivid film-to-TV footage of Hurricane Camille hitting the Gulf Coast in the late summer of 1969. It's not as effective as it likely would have been had it been made a couple of decades on, but it's good enough. Where the film falters to a fair extent is in having to put its cast through many of the expected disaster film hoops courtesy of Jack Turley's teleplay, including Frank Sutton (of TV's "Gomer Pyle") holding a "hurricane party" at his apartment, which just so happens to be right in the bull's eye of the storm. Such things might have been common in that era, but they'd never pass the laugh test today, either in reality or in the movies.
When the film concentrates on the storm itself, however, that's where it gets its greatest effect, thanks to the typically efficient handling of the proceedings by director Jerry Jameson, a specialist in small-screen disaster (he also did "Terror On The 40th Floor", "A Fire In The Sky". and "Starflight One", among others), though he also did a good job on the big screen with "Airport '77". The cast includes, among others, Patrick Duffy (later to star with Hagman in the legendary TV soap opera "Dallas"), Michael Learned, Will Geer (both from "The Waltons"), Barry Sullivan (whose many fine roles included portraying John Chisum in Sam Peckinpah's 1973 Western classic "Pat Garrett And Billy The Kid"), Jessica Walter ("Play Misty For Me"), and Lonny Chapman.
I'm willing to overlook the problematic things of "Hurricane", which are, after all, part-and-parcel of this genre, and give it a '6'.