Today’s movie is a disaster film with a scene set on March
23. I hope you will enjoy this film and watch it tonight.
DEAD AHEAD: THE EXXON VALDEZ DISASTER
On March 23, 1989 [2:36 to 6:.12]
the oil tanker Exxon Valdez hits the rocks in Prine William Sound,
Alaska and starts leaking oil. Captain Hazelwood was not on the bridge at the
time of the collision. Dan Lawn with
the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation springs into action to
start the cleanup, while Frank Iarossi, President of Exxon gets the bad news.
The Coast Guard notices that Captain Hazelwood smells of alcohol. The ship leaks
8 million gallons of oil. Due to various problems the Alyeska Pipeline
Company’s response is very slow. Gov. Steve Cowper goes on board the Exxon Valdez
and Dan Lawn tells him Alyeska is not handling the cleanup like it is
supposed to do so. Frank Iarossi’s plane flies over the spill site and the
ship. Exxon’s cleanup proceeds very slowly. The State of Alaska learns that it
can’t take over cleanup unless Alyeska fails to do so, at which time it’s too
late to do anything, but if the State tries to intervene before Alyeska has
failed Alyeska could escape liability. Exxon starts spraying chemical
dispersants, over the objections of environmentalists and fishermen. Dan Lawn authorizes Exxon to do a test of
burning off the oil. He also recruits local fishermen to deploy booms to
protect bays. Exxon finally gets permission to use dispersants, but a storm
comes up and the oil starts washing up on
shore. Hazelwood gets fired for being
drunk. The oil devastates the wildlife in Prince William Sound. The Exxon
Valdez is finally hauled off the rocks and emptied.
This is a very good docudrama. It
tries to give an objective view of the incident. Keeps from becoming too
political.
Out of The Channel: The Exxon
Valdez Oil Spill in Prince William Sound by John
Keeble (HarperCollins, New York,
1991) at pages 36-39 and the film at 3:40 give the date of the disaster.
Director - Paul Seed
Producer - John Smithson and
David M. Thompson
Screenplay - Michael Baker
Runtime – 1 hour 26 minutes
Released – December 21, 1992
Starring –
John Heard as Dan Lawn
Bob Gunton as Larry Dietrick
Mark Metcalf as Dennis Kelso
Christopher Lloyd as Frank Iarossi
Remak Ramsay as Craig Rassiner
Paul Guilfoyle as Cmdr. Steve McCall
Rip Torn as Adm. Paul Yost
Copyright by Ivan Walters 2014
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