NIGHTWING

US, 1979, 100 minutes, Colour.
Nick Mancuso, David Warner, Kathryn Harrold, Stephen Macht, Strother Martin.
Directed by Arthur Hiller.

The 70s saw old B-budget plots and conventions (especially in animal menace, horror and science fiction) get large budget treatment and gloss. Here vampire bats attack, but in light comedy director Arthur Hiller's film, beautifully photographed New Mexico/Nevada desertscapes are settings for Indian rights themes (anti-mining companies) for the use of Red Indian mythologies to supply meaning for the apocalyptic-overtoned invasion of the bats. They are seen and spoken of as evil incarnate, especially in the portentous, beautifully Englished articulation of David Warner (to make them more credible?). Like John Frankenheimer's Prophecy, widely popular entertainment is used as a vehicle for ecological, social preaching, though Nightwing uses religious evocation as well.

1. The traditional audience response to horror conventions, the popularity of B budget horror and science fiction film? Animal menace? Popularity of fright, dreams of evil, symbols?

2. The horror conventions and their basic look, message? For whom, how do they work? How effectively?

3. The film's large budget, popular director and cast, Henry Mancini score, colour photography, beautiful desert locations, the special effects? How well did they combine for the successful impact of the horror and menace?

4. The title and its evocation of the vampire bats, its sense of menace and effect? The opening sequences? the desert, the religious and mystical man, sunrise, the horses and animals running, the dead animals and the savage bites, the ammonia smells? The victim of the vampire bats and their being bled? The migration of the bats and the places of their attack? Philip Payne and his declaring himself an exterminating angel? The visual presentation of the bats, their feel? Audience and victim' fear? Payne's information, definition, discussion of them as evil incarnate? The religious overtones, philosophical waning? The mythology of the vampires as applied to the bats? Payne's wanting to destroy them because they were there and evil? How successful a symbol in themselves, within the framework of the film?

5. The ecological background of the film: the companies' chief and his betrayal of Indian traditions, the presentation of the white man's business methods and buying people off, takeovers, the exploitation of the shale, the use of reason rather that religious instinct, deals and pressures and plans to buy people off? The irony of Abner and his using the bats against the companies? The fact that to destroy the bats the shale should burn and for so long? The instruments of evil as the way of defeat for commerce and exploitation? The background of Indian lore: sacred lands.. sacred places, rites? The desert locations, canyons and caves? The old way of life and the way this was presented, even in vision and hallucination? Folk lore, religious ritual, rain dances, the priests and their beliefs about power? Abner within this context? How much of this Indian lore was the audience asked to accept? The possibilities of religious meaning?

6. The focus on Abner and his appearance during the credits, at the end? As a religious man, his role amongst the Indians. his cruelty and capacity for instilling fear? His art, religion, the opening of the circle, the dropping of the blood? How much superstition and magic, how much ritual? His apocalyptic vision and the end of the world? His explanation of this to Duran? His prophecy about the end of the world, his death? The discovery of the death, Payne's trying to take the tissue? Duran and the ritual of burial, the bleeding wounds, the empty tomb and its evocation? The priests and their vision and their stealing the body, their death because of the plague? The use of the roots for hallucinations? Duran at the mountain and his visions of Abner? How much of Duran was in Abner and his manifestations of his unconscious? As an Indian leader, religious man? Abner's message and van? needing to come back? What did Abner know about the bats? How did he combine religion, superstition, fear, to win against the companies and to preserve the Indian rights?

7. The film's presentation of religion, superstition, authority and power, fear?

8. The importance of Selwyn as a bridge between the white and the red? His work in the shop, wife and daughters, his chatter? His memories of his role as a missionary, his religious attitudes and then changing? His beliefs? The explanation of the Indian background to the visiting religious white group? His participation in the search for Abner?

9. Duran as hero? Seeing him in the ordinary context of contemporary life, the car, the Tucson radio? The investigation of the animal deaths, his role as tribal policeman? The ideological clash with Chee? His love for Ann Dillon? The importance of the night scene and the hot baths? The confrontation with Abner, his burial of him? Hostility towards pain? His attempts to try to get some understanding, the visit to the priests? The deal with Chee and the betrayal and attempted arrest? His escape? His being lost in the desert? Payne's rescuing him? The relief in finding Ann? The exploration of the caves, the hallucinations? Visions? His helping Payne live, the breaking of the circle and the burning of the shale? An Indian hero, American hero?

10. Ann as the white heroine? Seeing her participation in the birth, the emphasis on the needs of the Indians? Love for Duran, need to study? Her work as a guide, her horror at the attack of the bats, at the behaviour of the people and their deaths, the men trying to escape? Herself a victim of the bats? Her helping the man to survive and her grief at his death, the burial? Her desert knowledge and the fishing for snakes, the survival? The interaction of white and red? Her participation in the attack of the bats to destroy them, in the finale?

11. The character of Pagne and his role as avenging and exterminating angel? A Briton? his British background and accent, articulation? His learning and skill? A loner, a pursuer of evil? His belief in technology, attitudes towards superstition and religion? His being rejected by Duran, the deals with Chee? His skill in investigation, his discovery of the animals, of Abner, of the boy with the sheep? His technology to find Ann? The rescuing of Duran? Their exploration together, the setting up of the cage, the attack and its failure? His confidence in closing over the cave? His dangling, the decision to drop? The achievement of his mission?

12. The tour people, their being in the desert, the viciousness of the attack, the cruelty, the deaths and the running over of the woman, fear and panic? The religious background of the group?

13. The bats and their appearance, how effective were the special effects for presenting them? The vampire mystique? The explanation of blood draining, ammonia, their cave? The attack on the cage and their biting? The importance of the setting of the sun, the closing of the circle? The burning of the bats and its apocalyptic tone?

14. A contemporary horror story? The modern U.S.A.? The role of the Indian, the meeting of red and white? Expectations of white civilisation, of red? The apocalyptic message and its relevance?