The Andromeda Strain
Have you ever wondered what a good movie adaptation of a Michael Crichton story would be like? Well, The Andromeda Strain is not it. In 1971, this story by the late Crichton was produced into a movie, and then later in 2008, they needed to make it into a miniseries on A&E. What baffles me is how this movie was up for Oscars. Although, not very important ones, they were still Oscars.
I honestly can not see the political thought and theory in this film. The only type of political film I could think it may be is socially political. It represents the struggle between the people and the government and the way they control things they don’t fully understand. The government tries to control the American people all the time when they don’t understand society. For most of history the government has been run by generations who are not in sink with the times. Most Congressman and Presidents are well over the age of fifty and don’t have that connection with the majority of the American people.
The political message here is that the government controls all of us and to an extent we have trouble controlling. The message here is very important to tell the story and make it try and flow well. From the music to the scenery and the symbols of the alien life form and so on really helps tell the story. The fact that it is set out in the middle of know where gives the audience a sense of isolation from the rest of the outside world. Also with the doctors trying to find the cure, they represent the government trying to find the cure to the “problem.”
The political message in this film was represented was conveyed pretty poorly I think. The usage of a Sci-Fi story to tell this sort of political struggle works only if you enjoy Sci-Fi films. I clearly do not enjoy these types of movies so therefore the message was lost in all the science jargon and alien life forms. I can not for one moment even begin to think about why someone would use science fiction as the background for a movie that is suppose to be political. The unfortunate thing about this movie is if it was released today in 2009 it would do extremely well. The 2000s have brought an onset with this sudden love and craze for science fiction garbage. This is the type of movie that would be taken in well, but the political message would be lost in a mass audience.
This is the worst movie watched for this class. I am not sure if it’s the story, or the fact I couldn’t get into it, or because it was sci-fi. I would never recommend this movie to anyone. The one thing I am looking forward to is the discussion about this movie, to see what it was exactly I missed that maybe some other people got. It was just very hard to sit through this movie and concentrate fully on the task at hand.
I suppose you have a better thought on the subject?