To The Max -- Now Imax Has Come Out With Its First Long Feature

Mount St. Helens is the subject of two popular IMAX movies: "Ring of Fire," at the Pacific Science Center, and "The Eruption of Mount St. Helens," at the Omnidome on Pier 59. ---------------------------

In 1955, the top-grossing movie released in the United States was "Cinerama Holiday," a super-wide-screen travelogue that could play only in a handful of auditoriums that were equipped to show Cinerama.

History could repeat itself with the super-70-millimeter IMAX process, which has already been established in more theaters than Cinerama - and has just produced its first feature-length film. For the past dozen years, Seattle has been one of the lucky cities with two IMAX theaters, and they're still going strong.

At the moment, both are showing volcano movies by three-time Oscar nominee George Casey, who received one of those nominations for "The Eruption of Mount St. Helens." It's been playing for years at the Omnidome on Pier 59, while Casey's spectacular new 38-minute documentary, "Ring of Fire," has just settled in for a long run at the IMAX Theater in the Pacific Science Center. Both films play daily.

"I've wanted to make a film like this since I witnessed an eruption in Hawaii 13 years ago," said the self-described "volcano junkie" during a recent Seattle visit. "I rely a lot on geologists to tell me where the best volcanoes are, so maybe 60 percent of the film ends up as planned."

Two of Casey's cameraman friends were recently killed in Japan when they got too close to an erupting volcano.

"I've had some narrow escapes," said Casey. "In Hawaii for this film, we were so close that our sleeping bags got burned, but we had to move the cameras first. It's extremely critical which way the wind is blowing. The temperatures and noxious fumes are quite unpredictable."

In addition to the Hawaii and St. Helens footage, "Ring of Fire" includes eruptions in Japan, Hawaii, Indonesia and Chile - plus a visit to San Francisco following the earthquake of October 1989. Casey used some of the footage he shot at St. Helens last year to rework "The Eruption of Mount St. Helens," expanding it from a 16-minute to 24-minute short.

Before 1991, there were no feature-length IMAX movies. Casey described the average 38-minute running time of most IMAX productions as "a magic length - it fits on one reel and you can get people in and out every hour."

But that's about to change. "Rolling Stones `At the MAX'," an 89-minute concert movie filmed in the process, has recently opened to phenomenal business in Los Angeles, Vancouver B.C., and other cities, and it's due here in early January at the Pacific Science Center. A critic for Variety wrote that "for capturing the spectacle and excitement of arena-sized rock shows, IMAX makes 35mm look like the visual equivalent of vinyl records."

But Casey questions whether "this is a film for museums and science centers. It's not really family entertainment. I have a feeling they'll find other ways to present it."

Meanwhile, the G-rated "Ring of Fire" continues at the Pacific Science Center, which is also continuing its yearlong run of the ecological IMAX movie, "Blue Planet." And the Omnidome continues to show "Ocean," "Magic Egg" and "The Great Barrier Reef" along with Casey's St. Helens movie.