THE SWARM
US, 1978, 116 minutes (fuller DVD expanded version 156 minutes), Colour.
Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, Jose Ferrer, Patty Duke, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred Mac Murray, Henry Fonda, Cameron Mitchell.
Directed by Irwin Allen.
Irwin Allen was a producer for many decades, especially of big-budget films and of a variety of disaster films. However, he was not so good as a director. He directed one of the weirdest films of all time, The Story of Mankind (1957). He also directed Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and Five Weeks in a Balloon. However, he had great success in the 1970s with two mammoth productions, The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. When he directed himself in the late 70s with The Swarm and Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, they both lacked the finesse and drama of the earlier films. Critics were very severe on both The Swarm and, more particularly, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure. Michael Caine appeared in both.
This film has an extraordinarily large cast, with several Oscar winners. However, it is a B-budget story about a group of killer bees coming to Houston, Texas, and destroying the city with various demands made by the military to thwart the bees, various personal crises in the vein of other Irwin Allen productions.
1. How interesting and enjoyable an example of the disaster genre or the seventies? What characteristics of the disaster film did it use, how well? The basic danger situation, the animals as hostile enemy, devastation? The use of a gallery of stars especially older stars? The heroism and the solution? The basic patterns and structure of such a film and its effect?
2. The impact of the spectacle and the special effects? The various locations especially the Walter Reade Centre, the town of Marysville, the nuclear plant, the train and its destruction, the city of Houston? the train crash, the explosions, the fire-fighting? The bees themselves and the visual presentation or the swarm, of the bees attacking
human beings? Audience response to bees, to the horror?
3. The mystery of the introduction and the basic situation of destruction? General Slater and his assessing the situation? strange presence of Dr Crane? Helena and her looking after the wounded? The netting of the stage for mystery, confrontation, romance? How well were these blended throughout the rest of the film?
4. The clashes of authority? Crane's backing by the White House and the picturing of communications by television? the two ways of coping with the situation - the military way and the immediate need to hound out and destroy? The scientific way with repercussions for ecology? the irony of Crane being a security risk and Slater getting his Assistant Major to spy? The picturing of Slater and the clashes with Crane? Slater'& style of commanding, Crane's authority and his usd of it, moving from the plant into the town, work with Helena? The work with the Major compiling the dossier on kin?
5. The transition to the picnickers and the sudden deaths and the horror? Paul and his escape, hospitalisation, Crane and Helens, interviewing him? His escaping and confronting the swarm? His grief and his responsibility for the attack on the town itself? The build-up to the evacuation and the boss attacking the train and its consequent destruction?
6. Audience response to the human themes, the sentiment - the family portrait at the picnic, the way of life in the town especially the folksy way of talking, the Sheriff and his responsibilities, Maureen and her role in the town as headmistress, as being courted by Felix and Clarence? (The presentation of the stars for the older audience?), their coping with the situation, their proposal sequences, the train trip and the irony of their deaths?
7. The presentation of the nuclear installation, the reaction of the authorities, the statistics for the repercussion of destruction and loss of power, the sudden impact of the bees and the deaths especially of the doctor who came to warn?
8. Dr Crane and his assembling his team of exports, the briefings as giving information, Dr Krim and his rival, his coping with the situation, the various explanations, the suspense of Dr Krim's test on himself and its success and then his death? The importance of Henry Fonda playing this role?
9. The film's comment on television coverage and the presentation of the crew, the lady journalist and her presentation? and the humanising of this with the pregnant girl and her going to the hospital?
10. The continued devastation by the bees, the film spelling out the ecological repercussions, especially of the military solutions? Slater and his disgust at the scientists failing? His decision to bomb and so devestate the area around Houston?
11. The climax of the film in Houston? The failure of the military solution, the failure of the scientific solutions? The fires burning the city down and the repercussions for American audiences watching such a large city be destroyed? The numerous deaths? The iInevitability of General Slater ard his assistant also being killed?
12. The climax and the build-up to the solution, the plausibility of the sound waves, the way that it was handled, the oil slick, the visualizing of the bees going out to sea and being destroyed?
13. How satisfying the ending for the audience - after such large numbers killed, life going on?
14. The quality of this film as a disaster film with its big budget, the values that it presented, ordinary story, danger, heroics? The characters - cardboard characters for this kind of film - how well done?
