andromeda

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The Andromeda Strain: Worth a second look?

October 2001

Whether the biological weapon Anthrax in it's present usage in the United States is a direct retaliatory act by al Qaeda or not, it hardly seems like a "weapon of mass destruction" in it's current usage. Anthrax in the mail is a weapon of "area denial", and a temporary one at that, but it certainly does give Americans pause to contemplate what a wider usage of this weapon could mean.

Biological warfare has been explored before in some rare and brilliant occasions in American films, most notably in the epic "Andromeda Strain", a novel by Jurassic Park author Michael Crichton which was turned into a brilliant, big-budget, hard sci-fi thriller and released by Paramount Pictures in 1970.

Directed by Robert Wise, Andromeda Strain must be praised again for it's stunning authenticity, it's compelling story, and the awesome technology evident in it's sets and special effects. Even today, the science of The Andromeda Strain — it's networked computers, electron microscopes, and xenodochium setting — holds up exceedingly well. . . such a refreshing change from so many fiction films with credibility gaps large enough to sail an aircraft carrier through them.

An experimental Air Force satellite falls to earth, carrying with it an unknown and very powerful space germ, and wiping out the small town of Piedmont, New Mexico. Some of the nation's top scientists are dispatched to find out what happened and retrieve the germ for study in a special laboratory, deep underground in Nevada.

After they have been scrubbed and singed from head to toe and certified scientifically sterilized, Dr. Jeremy Stone and his cohorts proceed to find out what makes the Andromeda Strain tick, and to discover why two of Piedmont's citizens survived the devastation.

Among the best dramatic scenes are the contrasts between the private lives of the scientists, and the military imperative which summons them from their homes and laboratories, thrusting them into an enclaved environment which is the very ideal of government secrecy and iron-clad seclusion. In addition to the scientists themselves and a superb supporting cast, the hardboiled army officers who pursue the germ above the ground, especially Ramon Bieri as Major Manchek, provide some of the film's best performances.

Gil Melle's exciting electronic score can be favorably compared with the score of Fantastic Planet; for while the bizarre, cold, electronic score of Fantastic Planet would have been better left in the can and replaced with a more emotionally involving orchestral score by a composer such as Bernard Herrmann or Jerry Goldsmith, Melle's highly unconventional, electronic score for Andromeda Strain provides a tremendous energy and emotionally involving terror which seems to come from the organism itself.

I love the way this film puts scientists and researchers front and center in dramatic roles, much like the original Jonny Quest cartoon series (and Don Messick is in the background on this one, too) but in the end, the US Government itself takes the rap for letting a biological weapons experiment get out of control.

If you are ever trying to get your AVID to work properly, tweedling with computers or cabling, or studying intensely, The Andromeda Strain can provide the kind of inspiration to help you get more into whatever you are doing. It is indispensable entertainment that, among it's many other accomplishments, takes a deeply probing look into aspects of biological warfare.

— October, 2001