The Eruption of Mount St. Helens! (1980) User Reviews

Interesting documentary with live-footage!

[mennoa · 7/10 · 30 June 2002]

The first time I saw this movie I was in Castle Rock, WA. I was in the theatre with the rumbling seats. After seeing this movie it was an even more interesting trip to the actual place where it all happened... 'Mount Saint Helens National Volcanic Monument' is a very interesting and impressive daytrip you'd defenitely visit when you're in the Northwest. Leave I-5 at Castle Rock and first go see the movie... it'll show you the history of all what happened back in 1980.

Interesting in a Boring Way

[mrdonleone · 6/10 · 9 July 2020]

Told to us as if we were children at school, it doesn't leave that much of an impression, this film.. too bad. It could have been better.

One of the best Imax-films

[r-vdancker · 10/10 · 6 August 2005]

The eruption of Mount St. Helens. Sunday May 18th, 1980.

Years before during and and after the eruption the surroundings (up to 30 miles)are filmed. Breathtaking views of the eruption. With the neighbor away, set the output level higher then normal, en find yourself in the middle of one of natures greatest powers! One of America's greatest nature-disasters.

An out-of-earth landscape is formed, but within ten years already a livable place.

Filmed by rescue-helicopters. This film was nominated for an Oscar in the category Best Short Documentairs.

My favorite Imax-film.

This time it's personal

[bevo-13678 · 10/10 · 1 April 2020]

Another good volcano movie. There's plenty of them around

ain't no mountain high enough

[lee_eisenberg · 10/10 · 15 September 2021]

Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, I heard about Mt. St. Helens's 1980 eruption from an early age. The Academy Award-nominated documentary "The Eruption of Mount St. Helens!" focuses on the mountain's explosion and how it affected the terrain and population. The version that I saw is the updated version that includes footage shot in 1990 showing how Mt. St. Helens's cone was starting to build its elevation back up.

The fact remains that the Cascades' beauty belies their geological history. They are volcanoes, and even if they haven't erupted in record history, one of them might someday. The question is how powerful this potential eruption would be.

Anyway, a fine documentary.

Pretty pictures, few facts

[Annabun · 3/10 · 1 January 2004]

I'm surprised that the film won a short-documentary Oscar - it's so light on facts that it could have been a photo-essay - or maybe that's what it was. Lots of really lovely views of the mountain and the ashfalls and the devastation, but no real explanation of why it happened, how far it affected things, what the end results were. I like my documentaries to have facts, which is why I voted this one low.

Excellent footage of lava, but...

[walward-2 · 5/10 · 8 April 2001]

There are two documentaries on the DVD. The first is an IMAX film that describes the eruptions and show lots of footage of spewing ash, but it's quite shallow in its description. I watched it at home, so I didn't get the IMAX experience. I'm sure I would have liked it better in the proper theater (ie, the Science Museum in St. Paul, MN), but it was rather weak. The other documentary is simply 25 minutes of spewing, oozing, bubbling lava, and it's beautiful. It makes a rental worthwhile.