Biological classic: The Andromeda Strain. (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

I enjoy this film quite a bit as well. To discuss the nontechnical aspects for a bit, I like the way it avoids the usual Hollywood fluffiness rampant in today’s films. The female scientist isn’t some jiggling bimbo put in solely to give the film sex appeal, and the males don’t stand around making Cruise-esque poses. The focus is on the ideas and the science. Wonderful dialogue, and the Wildfire facility always fascinated me.

 

[andySu]

Robert

The blonde stereotype bimbo is rather old hat in some of these new films, I thought Dr. Ruth Leavitt” played by “Kate Reid” was rather convincing and believable.

“Talk about the odd man hypothesis”

 

[RobertR]

Yes, she had dimension to her. She seemed like a human being (brilliant, but with her own weaknesses) instead of a cardboard character.

 

[Todd Stout]

Really? I think I may have to break out my DVD and watch it tonight then.

I read the book when I was in 10th grade (about 20 years ago). My biology teacher gave the class the option of reading The Andomeda Strain and writing a report about it or doing normal school work. Of course most of the class chose to read the book. I really enjoyed reading it but I just haven't gotten around to watching the movie for some reason.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Oh, you really must see the film, Todd. Crichton loves it and even as a film-in-itself, it is a superb achievement.

 

[WillG]

It's also a very faithful adaptation of the book (aside from a character change or two)

 

[Todd Stout]

Okay, I watched the DVD last night and I'll say that I really enjoyed the movie. The filmmakers obviously went to great lengths to remain true to the book as well as to convey a sense of realism. One of the things I remember the most about the book was the intricate detail in the description of how the scientists were decontaminated while descending from one level to the next. I think the film did an effective job in showing that onscreen. I was also impressed with what appeared to me to be real world science that was used throughout the film.

My only complaint was in having already read the book, I pretty much knew how things were going to end up. I think if I hadn't known where things were going, I would have had a greater sense of suspense while watching. Other than that, I really liked The Andromeda Strain.

 

[Don Mankowski]

The film has many nice details, some that only a scientist or a student might appreciate. The way the color fringing indicates that the've cut a slice of the sample that's sufficiently thin. The blocky graph of pH versus Andromeda growth that one guy improvises (complete with typing error). The printer malfunction that halts communication (printers are vastly better now, but I still *hate* them). The surefire, failureproof government system that has to be subverted.

Robert Wise did well with this one. He always did.

 

[Kevin M]

On the DVD front,
I really liked the two doc's that universal offered up, short though they were they offered some very interesting behind the scenes looks at both the film and Crichton himself.

 

[Gordon McMurphy]

Glad to see so many people digging this movie and DVD.

On a more depressing note, it is only a matter of time before a biological virus decimates life on Earth, only for it to slowly reassimilate itself in ever stranger forms in the eternal being and endless flux of the cosmos. For all his wars, man is still an amateur in the destructive shadow of darkness that Nature casts. The Andromeda Strain presents the disturbing notion that even in the vast and unwisely thought of 'emptiness' of space, there lurks unseen, unconscious and unknown threats; off-world colonies would in actuality offer no haven from the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to. But, as I suggest, life will manifest no matter how the deck is stacked: Life on Earth could well have arose from spores that were borne on solar winds from other planets. These spores may even have been engineered by a supraintelligent species - possibly in their death throws - whose innate presence may still be present on Earth in the form of plants and fungi, more precisely, psilocybin-containing psychoactive mushrooms and dimethyltryptamine-containing plants. The effects - the worlds - that these chemicals induce are otherwise impossible to explain. The Universe either contains significant entities, either purely physical or otherwise or merely us magician monkeys, but I doubt it. The Earth itself is either aware of itself to some degree, or it is not and either we play a part in that confluence of consciousness or we do not. We can kill our gods, but we cannot kill the desire to concieve of them. We can will our own destruction, but we cannot will the destruction of that which created us, whatever it was or is.

So, how about that, uh... sports... team?