The Andromeda Strain

THE FACTS: I had been wanting to see the original "Andromeda Strain" ever since I watched a panel discussion of which it had been the focus. The DVD arrived within the Estimated Arrival Date window.This 1971 movie (Released on 3-12 in the U.S., and on 7-1 in the U.K.) stars a somewhat realistic-looking cast, which includes the following actors: Arthur Hill (turned 48 in 1970), David Wayne (turned 56 in 1970), James Olson (turned 40 in 1970), Kate Reid (turned 40 in 1970), and Paula Kelly (turned 27 in 1970).The Science-Fiction/ Disaster movie is set during 1971, and it plays almost like a real documentary about TRUE events; it is fictional, but, at times, it seems so real that it's almost believable as a scientific documentary.The plot (I'll try to avoid spoilers in this segment of my review) concerns an airborne virus from another planet; said virus kills people from the inside out, but, at first, there seems to be no way to tell how the virus works. And elite team of scientists (Head scientist Dr. Stone, an older doctor named Dutton, a younger doctor named Hall, and the team's one female scientist Dr. Ruth Leavitt) are suddenly called away from their routine, daily lives, by a company (?) called Scoop, so that they can collect the virus...and its source (a space capsule ? ...that collected it during a mission), and go straight to a top-secret facility called The Wildfire Lab, in order to study, and eradicate the virus, before more people die.Once they are at the lab, they have an entirely new set of problems. They have rescued a 60-year-old man...and a 6 month old baby...from the first town that was destroyed by the virus, and they have to figure out why these two survived, when everybody else died. One of the male scientists is equipped with a special key, which he MUST use, should anything go wrong (This movie confused me all of the way through, but the key has something to do with the fact that the Wildfire facility is designed to self-destruct, if that should ever be necessary). The head doctor has a few secrets of his own, as does the female scientist, who is quite a card (She's a scientist, but she smokes cigarettes incessantly, uses pot, believes in freedom, practices Yoga and meditation, and freely expresses her opinions through the use of jaunty, witty quips); it turns out that Dr. Ruth Leavitt might not be as innocent as she might SEEM to be, for reasons that don't USUALLY apply to female characters in Sci-Fi movies.At the lab, the only African American character appears; she's a scientist named Karen Ansen, and she proves to have some definite ideas of her own, in the form of some rather entertaining exchanges with other characters.Towards the end of the movie, the team learns something interesting about the virus, which they have named "The Andromeda Strain", and a hero must emerge; that person must perform a surprising act of courage, for rather surprising reasons.Overall, this movie IS DEFINITELY a pseudo Watergate Era "Don't trust the government!" type of scare tactic movie, because it is NOT afraid to force its viewers to deal with death, the threat of illness, betrayal, trust issues, and characters whom one cannot ALWAYS like (or even like at ALL).NOTE A (SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT): There are people who will speak about the nudity in this movie as though it is shocking, calling it "gratuitous". I don't believe this to be true. Dr. Hall's naked rear end IS shown...briefly, during one scene, and then there's that repeated shot of the infamous "naked Hippie chick"; well, that "naked Hippie chick" has skin, eyes, and hair that are various shades of brown/ black, and she's lying on a brown area rug, and the entire image is so dimly lit that even though her chest CAN be seen in detail, she's being shown as a DEAD WOMAN, and NOT as some Playboy Bunny type. I, for one, don't see what the big fuss is all about.NOTE B ( SLIGHT SPOILER ALERT): You WILL see a few images of dead CHILDREN! Those were the MOST disturbing images that I saw during the movie, because they actually frightened and saddened me; I mean, to think of a poor kid just lying there, dead, because of some mystery virus, when that kid hadn't deserved to meet their maker at so young an age... There was also some footage of scientists killing lab animals (mice and monkeys), by giving the virus to them through tubes, etc., during experiments, and THOSE images were saddening to watch.THE GOOD: I can't really praise this famous movie much, because, quite frankly, I didn't enjoy a great deal many aspects of it; there are, however, some cool aspects of the original "Andromeda Strain":THE OPENING CREDITS: When was the last time that YOU saw more interesting opening credits? These credits appear OVER images of documents, charts, etc. The opening credits sequence from "The Andromeda Strain" kept me interested, and the action of the movie hadn't even really started yet.THE SOUNDTRACK: The music, and the sound effects are really cool. I've heard the soundtrack all by itself, and it annoys the heck out of me, but it adds something to the movie itself.THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE DOCUMENTARY/ SCARE-TACTIC ANGLE: This movie reads ALMOST like a real documentary, and it drives home the message of "Don't trust your government!" The steady tone of the movie is maintained through frighteningly realistic images, devious character portrayals, and stark, hospital-like settings, including one that depicts a cafeteria that's so depressing that the HOSPITAL cafeterias that I'VE seen look more cheerful.THE INTRODUCTIONS TO THE MAIN CHARACTERS: I like the way that the main characters are introduced. They are a varied bunch, with unique lives, momentary goals, etc. The fact that the viewer is able to meet these characters during the moments BEFORE their lives are interrupted is super awesome; said viewer is able to get a better sense of exactly who these characters are, and the introductions to the characters are entertaining!THE COURAGE OF THE HERO: I like the fact that the hero has to go through so much hell in order to save the day; he's truly courageous!"DING-A-LING!": Need I say anything MORE? ROTFLOL!THE BAD: The bad aspects of "The Andromeda Strain" are as follows:THE ABILITY TO FOLLOW THE PLOT/ THE SCIENTIFIC DETAILS OF THE PLOT: If you're not a true science buff, this movie might confuse the heck out of you. The plot of the movie can be confusing, because the characters sort of behave as though the audience might be more knowledgable about what's happening than the audience really IS!THE DATED AND INCORRECT ASPECTS OF THE MOVIE: This movie is sometimes laughably dated (That fact can be good AND bad...at the same time...LOL!) There is also at LEAST ONE plothole that true science / medical buffs might laugh about.THE DEPRESSING TONE OF THE MOVIE: If you're looking for a more action-packed, comical, and / or cheerful Sci-Fi movie, "The Andromeda Strain" might not be for you, because it is more of a documentary-style movie, and because it's both a Sci-Fi movie AND a Disaster movie. Its constant focus on death, the threat of illness, betrayal, and danger make it one movie that could easily depress you.THE UGLY: There are THREE really, reallly UGLY aspects of this movie, one of which deals with the treatment of African Americans, another of which deals with the treatment of women in general, and the third of which deals with the portrayal of the disabled!I am usually the LAST person to deliberately view EVERY movie through a hyper-vigilant, extremely critical Feminist lens, but THIS movie is ONE movie that dings women SEVERELY, to the point that after having watched it, I felt that the message of "Girls can do ANYTHING in this world!" had just been erased.Let me explain the three really major issues that I have with this movie:THE TREATMENT OF AFRICAN AMERICANS / AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN: Karen is the ONLY African American character in the ENTIRE MOVIE, and, even though she is a scientist / a doctor, her primary duty is that of...<drumroll please>...FEEDING THE BABY! So smart, witty Dr. (?) Karen Ansen gets to give bottles to a baby, watch over the baby and the older guy, and do any other sundry duties that the male doctors feel like barking orders about. Karen is treated like a subservient, not only as an African American, but as a woman, in general. She is spoken to rudely at least once, and she is criticized by one of the male scientists for wearing her modest uniform; his act of complimenting her beauty comes with the suggestion that she should be showing that beauty OFF, instead of wearing the modest uniform all of the time. Karen Ansen IS able to be of some more IMPORTANT assistance later on during the movie, but she is, of course, NOT the hero of the movie, and she is certainly not as important as Dr. Leavitt, either.THE TREATMENT OF WOMEN: Dr. Ruth Leavitt is one of the most INTERESTING female scientists to ever appear in a movie, and "The Andromeda Strain" positively TRASHES her character, and the credibility of her character! The trailers for the movie make the viewer believe that Dr. Leavitt is intelligent, serious, morally sound, and totally committed to her work. When the movie begins, she proves to be unlike ANY female scientist that most viewers have ever seen. In ADDITION to being intelligent, serious, NON-Barbie-like (With regards to her physical appearance) morally sound, and totally committed to her work, she is ALSO a complex woman! She likes her cigarettes, and her pot, and her Yoga, and her meditation, and she's not opposed to giving everyone a piece of her mind...WHENEVER she's in the mood to do so! She's an absolute CARD, what with her entertaining quips, her keen observations, her realistic disgust with the awkwardness of modern (For 1971, that is...LOL!) technology, her occasional "YOLD ya' so!" attitude, and her humanitarian mindset! Her constant commentary can sometimes be annoying, but it also makes her interesting; she's the ONLY WOMAN on the MAIN team, and she's the ONLY ONE who has an attitude like HERS; Karen is more cheerful than Ruth!Then, something happens! Dr. Ruth Leavitt turns out to have a dark secret that could put the EVERYONE in danger, and I'm NOT talking about a secret that involves sex, sexual orientation, OR sexual harassment. When her secret is revealed, people panic, and even though the panic is unfounded in logic, Dr. Leavitt turns out to be a traitor of sorts, which really, REALLY hurts her credibility as a good, strong female character, because, not ONLY is her STRENGTH taken away from her, but her LIKABILITY is put in danger as well. She basically "proves" that "no matter how good a woman SEEMS to be, with regards to scientific matters, she's not REALLY capable within that field", and that, as USUAL, some GUY will save the day for everyone else! What a BACKWARD message that was for girls and women during 1971; it's almost as though "I can STILL feel" the depressing nature of that message TODAY, and I hadn't even been BORN when this movie was released!THE PORTRAYAL OF THE DISABLED: This movie features at least two dishonest characters, and one of them is disabled, to a certain extent. It's a pity that the disability itself has to rob that character of their credibility, strength, and appeal. It's not the disability itself that's really bad; it's the way that the disability is used within the plot of the movie that makes the disabled character seem to be unsympathetic, desperate, and ultimately unable to really BE ANYBODY at ALL! Said character retains their original personality at the end of the movie, but they are not even shown in a recovery room, so that the viewer has no idea as to what that character's psychological state really was right after the medical incident that took them out of the action.SIDE NOTE: Dr. Ruth Leavitt wears a wedding ring, and yet, there's not one iota of information given about her married life. I always think that it's interesting when a married actress chooses to leave her ring ON during the filming of a movie, because that decision on the part of the actress always makes me more curious about her character...ONE MORE NOTE: I am aware that the author of the book upon which the movie is based might have written his female characters in a sexist way, but the 1970s strove to be a decade that stood for the message, "Women are smarter than men think!", and then this movie went and trashed its two female characters in the most dream-dashing ways imaginable!RECOMMENDATIONS: I can ONLY recommend this movie to Feminists because a true Feminist should know WHY she's a Feminist, and WHY she believes in her cause. I can also recommend this movie to those who love it, and to general viewers 13 (I am SO tempted to say "16" instead) and up, because it's a documentary-style, serious Science Fiction Disaster movie that is WAY too disturbing for younger kids! This is also not one for that person who has just recovered from a surgery, or from a really nasty virus, unless they really like this type of movie; that sort of goes without saying, though...LOL!IN CONCLUSION: I realize that this movie review has been fairly negative. I think that I was hoping that "The Andromeda Strain" would be something more along the lines of the exciting, if medically-oriented/ scientifically-oriented movies like "Alien", "The Black Hole", and "Jurassic Park". I was expecting to enjoy myself, and I wound up feeling depressed, and feeling as though I'd just been fed the message that women can't do anything that has to do with science.If you can look at "The Andromeda Strain" with a far LESS critical eye, and you can pair it with the 1970s values from which it was born, and you can enjoy its documentary-style seriousness, and it's cool credits, then it just might be the perfect movie for you!

Love this movie.

This review is for the Blu-Ray edition of 'The Andromeda Strain' released by Universal Home Entertainment in 2015.I'm going to keep this review to a minimum (for me) because this movie is very well known, much talked about over the years and very well reviewed. I don't have a lot to add to what has already been said on this one.If you have never seen this film and you are among the younger crowd, it is still worth watching. The production values were excellent for the day and it mostly stands up today.BLU-RAY: This film is shown in widescreen format with a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. I thought the picture looked excellent. I'm sure experts in photography could give you more details but to these 50+ year old eyes the picture looked almost like new.EXTRA'S: You get some good extra's. There is a 'Making of' documentary called 'The Andromeda Strain: Making The Film'. There is also a 'Portrait of Michael Crichton'. You also get the theatrical trailer.PLOT/SUMMARY: The movie opens with a government recovery team investigating a crashed satellite in New Mexico. Almost everyone has died. The only survivors are a baby and an older alcoholic man.The survivors are brought to a secret underground facility to be studied. There are four scientists and they undergo extraordinary decontamination procedures before they are brought into the laboratory. The remainder of the movie focuses on their attempt to solve what was brought back by the satellite and what is causing it to kill almost everyone it comes into contact with.PRODUCTION/COMMENTS: This movie was released by Universal in 1971.-This movie had a large budget for the time period. It was made for $6.5 million. Ultimately it was a financial success.-The movie was directed by Robert Wise. He is the director of some excellent Sci-Fi and horror films such as 'The Body Snatcher', 'The Day the Earth Stood Still' and 'The Haunting' among many others.-The movie was based on the book of the same name by Michael Crichton, who would go on to much fame for the many movies based on his books.-The female character of Ruth Leavitt was a male character in the book.-This movie is notable for using many accurate scientific procedures.-The fictional town in the movie was located and filmed in Texas.-Micheal Crichton makes a cameo appearance in this film. He is in the background as a doctor. He was put in the background because of his height.RECOMMENDATIONS: I'm giving this release 4 1/2 stars which I'm bumping up to 5. The only thing that it is lacking as far as I'm concerned is an audio commentary. The picture is excellent and you get some pretty good extra's.Recommended for all fans of science fiction films.

This is an incredible interpretation of Michael Crichton’s best selling novel! The special effects, sets & music are very eerie & makes you think, “Could this really happen?” I highly recommend this film!!!!!

After the initial scenes, the movie is slow-going. It’s a good movie, though, believable concept, and worth having in our collection.

This is a terrible DVD,don't waste your money on it. The Izzy interview is just a short voice recording that only lasts about 20 seconds. The videos on this dvd are very poor quality.It's a pity that I even have to give this DVD 1 star.

Diese Blu-ray-Version aus dem Jahre 2016 setzt Massstäbe: Technisch aufgearbeitete Version des Sci-Fi-Klassikers von 1971! Inszeniert von Sci-Fi-Routinier Robert Wise (Star Trek), ist ANDROMEDA nicht nur die erste Verfilmung eines Romans von Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park). Dieser Oscar nominierte Klassiker darf gleichzeitig als einer der ersten Filme gelten, die sich dem packenden Wettlauf gegen Seuchen verschrieben und Jahrzehnte später Filmgeschichte geschrieben haben. Nach 50 Jahren immer noch top aktuell und in dieser Steelbook-Version ein Must Have für jede ambitionierte Sammlung: 5+ Sterne!

Dieser Film hat mich schon immer fasziniert und endlich gibt es ihn auf Blu Ray. Meiner Meinung nach war dieses Meisterwerk schon damals seiner Zeit voraus. Machart, Story und Musik reißen mich immer wieder in ihren Bann. Kann diesen Film nur empfehlen.Wer allerdings einen Actionfilm erwartet wird sicherlich nicht happy mit diesem Werk. Der Film wurde auf 16:9 konvertiert aber nicht komplett remastert (man sieht dem Bild das Alter an was aber durchaus ok ist). Mir gefällt es!

After a satellite crashes to Earth, all the residents of a small town, bar two, die mysteriously. The race is then on to retrieve the satellite and determined why the people died, before the contagion sweeps the Earth.At almost 50 years old, the story still holds up well today. The special effects and vision of a 'future' Earth are, of course, dated, but not as much as I was expecting.The film is quite long at 131 minutes, considering there is one major thread - the contagion (which includes the analysis of the satellite, the discovery of the threat and the finding of a solution). And although things start out quite well the pace does slow down considerably by half way and continues like this until about 15 minutes before the end. Then it's a mad panic to get the film finished. It's a bit like someone decided there needed to be some type of conclusion as an afterthought. And the ending is quite week leaving the film feeling unfinished. 3.5 stars.

Eine Weltraumsonde stürzt auf die Erde, in ein entlegenes Dorf. An Bord hat sie einen unbekannten Organismus, der zum Tode fast aller Dorfbewohner geführt hat. Nur ein alter Alkoholiker und ein ständig schreiendes Baby konnten überleben. Was haben diese beiden gemeinsam? In einem hochmodernem unterirdischen Labor versuchen die Wissenschaftler und Ärzte das Geheimnis zu entdecken.In der Zeit des kalten Krieges und der Mondbegehung, entstand durch den Film eine leichte Panik unter den Zuschauern. 40 Jahre später ist die Menschheit zu abgebrüht, um deswegen in Panik zu geraten. Auch wirken die damals hochgelobten Spezialeffekte heute eher hausbacken. Und es fehlen reißerische Handlungsstränge und familiäre Dramen, die zum "großen Kino" dazugehören. Trotzdem ist es den Filmemachern gelungen, eine recht einfache Geschichte, mit den damaligen Mitteln super spannend auf die Leinwand zu bringen. Wenn es dann noch gelingt, sich annähernd vorzustellen, wie die Menschen in den 70ern drauf waren, steht dem herausragenden Filmerlebnis nichts im Wege.