The Andromeda Strain [1971 film] (1971)

The Andromeda Strain (1971)

Arthur Hill – Dr. Jeremy Stone
David Wayne – Dr. Charles Dutton
James Olson – Dr. Mark Hall
Kate Reid – Dr. Ruth Leavitt
Paula Kelly – Karen Anson
George Mitchell – Jackson
Ramon Bieri – Major Manchek

Screenplay by Nelson Gidding, based on the novel (1969) by Michael Crichton
Directed by Robert Wise

Colour. 131 min.

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This is a remarkable movie: genuine science fiction that almost never veers into fantasy and has aged very well. It follows the novel very closely, for better and for worse. The story and the dialogue are straight out of Crichton’s pages; there are many cuts, of course, but very few changes. Most charmingly, Dr Leavitt is a woman, and a cranky one, fortunately played by the marvellous Kate Reid who makes short work of immortal lines like “I never liked red lights. They remind me of my years in a bordello.” Robert Wise goes for a slow but steady pace and manages to keep the tension until the end. The cast does an excellent job with keeping the human interest in the foreground. The character clashes are intensified without lapsing into melodrama. Many works of “hard science fiction” come off bland and even cold, but this is not one of them.

On the downside, the movie duplicates the novel’s overdose of science and technology. That’s fine with me, but less scientifically minded viewers might well find the whole thing slow and boring, in the case of animal experimentation even disturbing. But those who find the plot half-baked should improve their general scientific knowledge (if anything, the plot is overbaked). Those who degrade the movie because of the dated science and technology are hopelessly muddleheaded. I’m afraid nothing can be done about them. Unfortunately, the script repeats even the novel’s last-second escape that tries to mask the anti-climactic (but scientifically plausible) ending of the main plot. The hasty conclusion after that is also faithfully reproduced.

Nevertheless, this is a very fine adaption of a great book. Neither is perfect. Both remain relevant fifty-odd years later. Touchscreen is no longer cutting-edge technology, but the human animal’s ability to bungle things in critical situations hasn’t changed one bit.

Last and least, the whole thing has its own kind of visual beauty. This is a strange thing to say about an intellectual movie, as far from spectacle as they come, but there it is. The spooky town of Piedmont (here in New Mexico, not Arizona; never mind) and the colourful but claustrophobic Wildfire labs are impressively done. The attention to detail is something to marvel at. They are “dated” in the sense that Gothic cathedrals and Old Masters are dated. If the IMDb trivia is to be believed, when Michael Crichton was invited to visit the set he admitted there was a good deal in the novel which he had never fully considered visually. I can believe that. ( )

Scientists in a secret lab fight a disease from space.

Wise tried valiantly to make a serious science fiction film emulating A Space Odyssey. Any possibility at taking it seriously, though, is undermined by extreme corniness. Combining Space Odyssey's pace with a B movie level of intelligence is a fairly disastrous recipe. Of course, luckily for me, that didn't stop Wise from using that same recipe again to make Star Trek: The Motion Picture - but that film had enough grandeur and spectacle to make it work, while Andromeda Strain is forced to fall back on its half-baked plot to hold your interest.

Concept: C
Story: C
Characters: D
Dialog: D
Pacing: D
Cinematography: B
Special effects/design: A
Acting: D
Music: B

Enjoyment: C

GPA: 2.0/4 ( )