Andromeda Strain

[Finagle]

Well, the Sci-Fi Channel is running their usual stable of old and/or bad movies this weekend and I watched the last half of Andromeda Strain.

Pretty interesting, because I remember hearing about it when it first came out. In the early 70's, it was quite the thriller. The scenes of the town wiped out by the virus made quite an impression on people. The scientist climbing the core and dodging lasers to deactivate the bomb -- that was intense. In 1971.

Man, a movie like that would never get made today. Everything from the casting to the plot would be totally different. I won't even mention the special effects, but a teletype was considered to be pretty cool hi-tech.

First of all, there were no stars in the movie. Not only that, but the scientists all looked like scientists -- older and kind of nerdy. Not a love interest in site. From a box office standpoint, death.
The plot -- no evil government conspiriacies trying to coverup malfeasance while our heroes struggle. A bit of minor outrage that the complex was designed for germ warfare preparedness, but that's about it.
And the action -- nothing. Entire scenes consist of nothing more interesting that scientist manipulating waldos to open an animal cage or slice a sample for an electron microscope.
Finally, the conclusion, explained in a voice-over. They seed clouds and the bug dies. Thrills galore.


But you know, it's not a bad movie. Better than Jurassic Park II.

[Wendell Wagner]

The main actors (Arthur Hill, David Wayne, Kate Reid, etc.) may not quite have been the hottest stars of 1971, but they were fairly well known at the time.

Yes, no stupid conspiracies. Some much the better. The craziness of the conspiracies in today's movies gets really tiresome.

[The Bad Astronomer]

Originally posted by Finagle
The plot -- no evil government conspiriacies trying to coverup malfeasance while our heroes struggle.

It's been a while since I've read the book, but wasn't the virus manmade, and dumped into the town on a satellite as a test of the delivery system?

[Helen's Eidolon]

Nope, it was (um... spoiler?) a alien virus, brought back from a sattelite that men sent into space.

[CalMeacham]

Actually, although some faces were familiar (Wayne), I don't think any of them would qualify as major "star" material. Heck, most of them weren't even that well known.

AS was directed by the legendary Robert Wise (The Day the Earth Stood Still, not to mention The Sound of Music and West Side Story and a LOT of other flicks. I'm willin to forgive him for th firs Star Trek movie). There were a EW special effects by some of the team that did 2001.
AS was Michael Crichton's first big breakthrough book. I believe it made the best seller list. It also embodied the typical Crichton story -- some philosophy, some retread ideas, some original, and an annoying tendenc to "wow" people with things that aren't that impressive -- teletypes and the binary code (to which he devotes too much space in the book).

I liked it, probably more han any Crichton effort since. The movie was the purest example of transferring a book to celluloid that I have ever seen. The only difference was that one of the characters in the movie was made female. And,I must add, a middle-aged female, not a young cutie like Sigourney Weaver in Alien (which they made such a big deal about in 1979).