The Andromeda Strain (film)
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
The Andromeda Strain is a 1971 science-fiction film, based on the novel published in 1969 by Michael Crichton about a team of scientists who investigate a deadly disease of extraterrestrial origin which causes rapid, fatal clotting of the blood. The film was directed by Robert Wise and starred Arthur Hill, James Olson, Kate Reid, and David Wayne. The film follows the book very closely. The special effects were designed by Douglas Trumbull. A young Michael Crichton makes a cameo appearance in a non-speaking role during the scene where Dr. Hall is told to break scrub because he has to report to Wildfire. The character of Dr. Peter Leavitt in the novel was replaced by a woman, Dr. Ruth Leavitt, in the film. In addition, the character of Charles Dutton in the film--played by Wayne--was named Burton in the novel (no reason was given for this name change).
There is a strong feel for technology and government procedures and formalism. The main set, in bright primary colors, becomes increasingly claustrophobic as the four scientists work in isolation, interrupted only by disembodied voices of the computer or PA system. A single set was repainted to create all the color-coded corridors of Wildfire. Robert Wise filmed all the scenes that take place on a "level" and then the set was repainted. Wise would use this trick again in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. When filming the scene in the movie where Dr. Ruth Levitt has an epileptic seizure due to watching a blinking red light, care had to be taken when choosing the frequency of the blinking, so it was the least likely frequency to induce seizures among the theater audience.
Comic relief is provided by George Mitchell as a town drunk who survives the "strain", as well as Dr. Hall and Dr. Leavitt's interactions with the base's automated systems.
At the end of the movie, the "strain" is carried out over the Pacific Ocean where cloud seeding causes the "strain" to be carried into salt water which kills the "strain".
Footage and stills from the movie were used in the first serial episode of the Six Million Dollar Man. The episode itself deals with a town where all the citizens have succumbed to some external force.
A miniseries based on the same novel was released in 2008; see The Andromeda Strain (2008 miniseries)
Soundtrack
The film had a soundtrack release, but it was a limited edition of 10,000 records released by Kapp Records in 1971 under the supervision of director Robert Wise (at a cost of $20,000). The records were hexagonal and came in hexagonal record sleeves. The album was re-released shortly afterward as a conventional 12" LP in a regular square sleeve.
Cast
- Arthur Hill – Dr. Jeremy Stone
- David Wayne – Dr. Charles Dutton
- James Olson – Dr. Mark Hall
- Kate Reid – Dr. Ruth Leavitt
- Paula Kelly – Karen Anson (nurse, laboratory technician)
- George Mitchell – Mr. Peter Jackson (Piedmont)
- Mark Jenkins – Lt. Shawn (Piedmont Team)
- Peter Helm – Sgt. Crane (Piedmont Team)
- Joe Di Reda – Sgt. Burk (Wildfire Computer Tech)
- Ramon Bieri – Major Arthur Manchek (Scoop Mission Control)
- Carl Reindel – Lt. Comroe (Scoop Mission Control)
- Frances Reid – Clara Dutton
- Peter Hobbs – General Sparks
- Kermit Murdock – Dr. Robertson (White House Science Advisor)
- Richard O'Brien – Grimes
- Eric Christmas – Senator Phillips (Vermont)
- Ken Swofford – Toby (Technician)
- John Carter – Capt. Morton (military police)
- Richard Bull – Air Force Major
- James W. Gavin – Dempsey (helicopter pilot) (uncredited)
- Garry Walberg – scientist (uncredited)
- Victoria Paige Meyerink - Additional Character
