The Andromeda Strain (1971)

26Jul08

The Andromeda Strain IMDB Link

Directed By: Robert Wise

Written By: Nelson Gidding

Starring: Arthur Hill, David Wayne, James Olson, Kate Reid

I have a love hate relationship with The Andromeda Strain. I love that it has a complex story, a not so Hollywood science feel (although it partly was) and is a rarely seen mystery sci-fi flick that was overall awesome. I hate that the film is a beacon to film makers that emphasis on special effects can really hurt your film.

The film is based on a Michael Crichton novel about a downed satellite that must’ve carried either a microorganism or disease from space. It kills off everyone in a town with the exception of the town drunk and a baby. The movie has all kinds of cool shit. It’s basically a nerdy dirty dozen and they have the best of the best in the field of science and medicine get together to figure out what happened and how to prevent it from spreading. They go into this giant underground facility that is disguised in the desert as a crop growing farm. There a whole sequence where they have to go through 5 stages of quarantine with all sorts of intrusive procedures. The facility is bad ass and really unique. I’m not sure if it’s film and tv but because of them I really believe the military has all this crazy secret shit somewhere and that idea to me is sweet. What doesn’t make sense is we’ve all been to the DMV and Post Office yet believe that somehow the government run military is smooth as hell. Kinda strange and I’m guilty of this thinking.

If you took Michael Bay’s philosophy of how to present science, The Andromeda Strain is at the opposite end. One of the major decisions Robert Wise made (director of the classic and great The Day The Earth Stood Still) was to make everything sort of ultra realistic. The characters and the actors that play them aren’t the usual charismatic charming or quirky people but just scientists who want to get shit done and because of this a lot of the dialogue goes far enough to make you feel this realism. Sure, there are hokey computer screens and what not but it all makes the idea of a outer space germ/organism coming down to earth feel real. Of course, because it was made in the 70’s there is the slight notion that our government wanted it to happen to have some sick germ warfare stuff but whatever.

Lets talk about the bad because it really bothered me. The first half of this film concentrates an extraordinarily long time showing off what was probably amazing special effects at the time. The story would be completely halted and I would be forced to watch a robotic arm grab a cage and bring it down. There was no point in any of it except “hey look at this dope shit we can do in teh hollywoodz” It was driving me nuts because when they weren’t doing it, I would get really immersed in the story, I’d become emotionally attached then Bam “lolz look guyz!” Wise also seemed obsessed with split focus lenses as he must’ve used them a minimum of 8 times. They also did these split screens trying to permeate cool that weren’t really working for me either. It was again, frustrating because Wise is a good enough film maker not to have to rely on gimmickry or emphasis on special effects. How do I know? Well because the second half of this film is interesting, suspenseful, engaging and memorable.

I like a lot of the scientific ideas that came out the film like how our first contact with an alien species might be a micro organism. I also liked whenever they were talking about science stuff like alkaline acids or crystalline structure because it made me feel smart and stupid at the same time. Smart because there has to be a human out there who is smarter than this fictional character and heck, I’m human. Stupid because I didn’t know what the hell they were talking about. I love science but unfortunately was a straight up “C” science student. My favorite was when we had to build a bridge out of popsicle sticks and see whose could hold the most weight. I think I was dead last but god dammit my bridge looked cool.

Filed under: Classic/Old, Drama, Science Fiction   |  1 Comment
Tags: movie review, science, The andromeda strain