The Andromeda Strain
It was in February 1971 that the object fell from the skies near Piedmont, New Mexico, population listed at sixty-eight, all but two of them dead, as were the team from Vandenberg Air Force Base sent to retrieve it, followed more carefully by Doctors Jeremy Stone and Mark Hall in full hazmat suits, able to transfer the probe and the two survivors under full quarantine to Flatrock, Nevada.
The Wildfire Laboratory a top-secret underground base equipped with state of the art-equipment and a small nuclear detonator to sterilise the area in the event of a containment breach, they are joined by Doctors Charles Dutton and Ruth Leavitt and nurse Karen Anson, taking care of the survivors, infant Manuel Rios and curmudgeonly derelict Peter Jackson, a race against time to understand the extra-terrestrial agent codenamed Andromeda before it spreads.
The first novel published by Michael Crichton under his own name, The Andromeda Strain was adapted by director Robert Wise’s frequent collaborator Nelson Gidding with whom he had worked on The Haunting, released in early 1971 and constructed with meticulous care taken over every aspect of the production, presenting an authentic simulation of a “four day scientific crisis” which threatened not only the Americas but all life on Earth.
Structured around documents and diagrams and realism, from the buzzards circling the bodies to the Petri dishes of growth medium, none of them apparently retarding the spread of Andromeda, it is a slow and deliberate film but in scientific research there are no short cuts, there is only the process which must be followed, dead ends eliminated in hopes of finding an answer with the unstated fear that there may be no solution.
Gil Mellé’s electronic score adding a sense of the encroaching alien threat, the rapidity of the disease syndrome is terrifying, causing death within moments of exposure, yet along with the two survivors can be found there were also two apparent suicides, meaning there should be a correlation which can be determined between them, time the crucial factor which will determine whether Andromeda will evolve in its new environment into something unstoppable.
The ensemble character actors rather than stars, Arthur Hill, James Olson, David Wayne and Kate Read are the researchers while Paula Kelly is the most sympathetic presence, equally diligent and dedicated but with an immediate duty of care to her patients rather than the more abstract peril to humanity, a thought so immense it would overwhelm if given voice, the windowless curved corridors providing a necessary isolation and remove.
Cinematographer Richard H Kline using split dioptres to allow both foreground and background details to remain in focus, there are also split-screen effects, allowing parallel simultaneous action to unfold, far from a gimmick and instead adding technical detail or showing a discovery and the reaction of the characters at the same time, such as during the initial reconnaissance of Piedmont.
With so much going on, there is insufficient time for every avenue to be explored, every question answered, and with the scientists necessarily focused on the task, remaining calm through sheer force of will if they are to succeed, healers who must go forward even through their outrage as they realise that the facility and equipment they are using would in other circumstances serve just as well to develop an agent of biological warfare.
Wise having touched science fiction three times in his career, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Andromeda Strain and Star Trek The Motion Picture, each is a classic in its own right while taking different approaches to the subject, but despite superlative work by matte artist Albert Whitlock and effects designer Doug Trumbull to expand the illusion this eschews any notion of fantasy, similar to the contemporary investigations of Doomwatch in that it is entirely, horrifying plausible.
Presented from a 4K restoration of the original camera negative for Arrow which showcases the impressive design, both art direction and editing having been nominated for Academy Awards, the new edition of The Andromeda Strain carries an audio commentary by Bryan Reesman, an appreciation by Kim Newman, an archive featurette featuring interviews with Wise and Gidding, a featurette on Crichton, an annotated script gallery, an image gallery and trailers.
The Andromeda Strain is available on Blu-ray and 4K UHD from Arrow Films now
