Twister (1996) Review
Putting on Jan de Bont’s 1996 disaster movie Twister, I wasn’t sure what to expect. When the movie was first released I was only two at the time, but I have a pretty vivid memory of it coming out on VHS and the trailers being everywhere. The cow flying across the screen, people being pulled up into a storm, and lots of screaming. So as the first act progressed, I realized I was watching more than a simple disaster movie. Helen Hunt’s Dr. Jo Harding is looking for the reason that tragedy struck her within these clouds, Bill Paxton’s Bill Harding thinks he’s looking for some divorce papers to be signed, but he’s simply trying to find his bravery again, Cary Elwes’ Dr. Joans Miller is looking for the spotlight within the storms, and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s Dustin Davis is just looking for the ride of his life. A beautiful collection of egos enhanced with a strong style, and some killer practical effects, but lacking a bit in surprises and an atmosphere that can lift this film to another level.
Jan de Bont calls his shot in the opening moments of the film by bringing us into Jo’s past and her experience with a category five twister that rips her father away from her trying to protect her from that same fate. We’re given zero time to process this as we’re briskly introduced to Bill, Melissa (Jami Gerz), Jo, Jonas, Dustin, Rober (Alan Ruck), Allan (Sean Whalen), and a ton of other characters played by wonderful character actors (another being “Tar” director Todd Field). From the jump, all the actors know what type of movie they’re in. At best, they hope it’s a wonderful summer film, but at worst, it could be a decent B-movie. De Bont being mostly a cinematographer at this point, knew exactly what the audiences wanted to see and how to show it.
The script written by Michael Crichton & Anne-Marie Martin is great at getting us to the action after setting up the basic motivations of Bill just wanting Jo to sign their divorce papers, Jo wanting to use the device she & Bill created to try and understand tornados better, hopefully saving more people by giving them a better head start, and Jonas using a stolen version of that device to get to that information first. From there, we’re on the run to our first tornado encounter. What the script is not very good at is letting the audience naturally reach the true motivations of these characters without blatantly having them monologue about them after we’ve put those puzzle pieces together. This is not a knock at all on the performances mind you. Even if these moments are drab or straight on the nose script-wise, the actors deliver them with such passion and believability, that they almost don’t’ stick out.
When it comes to the tornado/disaster part of the movie, de Bont delivers the best he can with ’96 CGI at times. The practical effects of the destruction and the tornados themselves are pretty incredible, but when other CGI items get mixed in with the storm, the flaws become apparent in the year 2024 (yes sadly that includes the cow). Paxton’s ability to sell fear and terror in any scenario at full power here. The third act Category Five scenes are beautiful when it’s just the actors panicking as debris flies at them. There’s a scene where Paxton and Hunt are driving a truck through a two-story house that just wouldn’t happen today, but I’m glad they were able to pull it off.
That is what ends up being the biggest bummer of the whole film, while not perfect, it’s a movie with a lot of heart, a lot of character work, and a lot of practical effects. This kind of movie is all but dead on the blockbuster level. My favorite scene of the whole movie is Jo’s crew visiting her mother (played by the wonderful Lois Smith). They’re all just eating large steaks and mashed potatoes. Swapping storm stories and watching the news. It’s a scene that has some purpose to develop the main character’s history, but that could’ve been done elsewhere. What this scene does is let the characters sit and breathe with an audience. It helps them feel real and makes the danger that comes next get even tenser with the idea that we could lose one of these people. You just don’t get anything like that today within the 100+ million blockbusters.
Twister is worth revisiting just for a brief visit to a good age for the movies. It’s even better to revisit performances by two legends we’ve lost, Bill Paxton & Philip Seymour Hoffman. — 7/10
