(https://i.imgur.com/UlhNBQv.png)
Studio: Arrow Video
Release Date: 5/13/2025
Rating: G
Film Grade: A-
The Story: A satellite has crashed near the small town of Piedmont, NM and the results have been swift and deadly. Surveillance reveals lifeless bodies scattered throughout the streets and buildings. But the crash didn’t kill them directly; what it brought back with it has all the hallmarks of a biological agent from an unknown origin.
It turns out that the U.S. government has a plan for just such an event and quickly assembles a select team of scientific and medical experts: Nobel Prize winner Dr. Jeremy Stone acts as the de facto leader. Charles Dutton is the elder of the group, skilled in pathology. Dr. Ruth Leavitt is a research microbiologist, and Dr. Mark Hall, a well-respected surgeon who specializes in blood chemistry, rounds out the group. Together, they face a fight against time to discover what the US, and potentially the world, is facing and how to combat it.
My Take: What would happen if we were to face a pandemic of unknown origin? The last few years have given us a pretty good idea, but this movie was made almost five decades earlier and deals with a completely different scenario. It was based on the first novel Michael Crichton wrote under his own name, while he was still in medical school and a rather amazing and mature piece of fiction for someone so young.
Going into this, I expected to have to frame it mentally as a product of the 70s, and while it’s certainly joined to that era, it still holds up narratively and thematically. It’s a solid, intellectual thriller, exchanging theory and conversation for the more action-laden struggles we’re accustomed to. Conflicts are verbal rather than physical, but no less engaging.
The movie is rich in flavor, from stark and coldly efficient military installations with a secretive lab to a run-down, lifeless desert town. Projects and programs are given dynamically intriguing names. We have cutting edge equipment (for the time, anyway) mixed with speculative tech. Establishing scenes quickly create contrast between the scientists’ normal lives to where they’ll be living while researching the pathogen, while also showing what’s at stake for all of them.
Intertwined in the story are some important themes including how much power the government needs to exercise in the name of public safety, the ethical treatment of animals in the name of research, military’s role in the safeguarding of society, and the balance between following established procedures and taking risks. All of which are no less relevant today and are handled in a way that never overburdens the plot.
Director Robert Wise chose not to cast any big name starts for the movie, and it was the right one. Rather than seeing how, say, Charlton Heston would fight such a threat, we see Dr. Stone leading the team, who happens to be played by Arthur Hill. By choosing experienced actors Wise was sure to get capable performances unencumbered by any preconceived expectations from the audience. It works really well, as we can accept them as experts from the get-go, allowing our focus to remain on the story.
I will mention that the role of Dr. Leavitt was originally male, but screenwriter Nelson Gidding thought it would be more interesting to switch it up. Wise was hesitant at first, but after testing the idea with some scientists, quickly was on board. This may disappoint some fans of the novel, but it doesn’t hinder the story in any way and her character adds some breadth to the storyline.
There are two small areas where the movie is a little off the mark. There’s an elaborate decontamination sequence that could have been trimmed. The scenes themselves are valuable. We see just how many safeguards have been built into the plan and it’s also used to demonstrate the characters’ different traits, but it does go on longer than needed. It’s not to the extent of Wise’s endless flyovers of the Enterprise while in drydock in Star Trek: The Motion Picture but still could have been cut down to give more time to the meat of the story.
The second is the actual ending. While we do get a solid resolution, it comes too fast compared to the events leading up to it. In this case, the scenes could have been extended or slowed to provide a little more clarity while also giving the audience a chance to absorb what just happened.
Visuals: This new 4K release was supervised by James White and looks fantastic. Grain is still present (thankfully), and most of the shots are surprisingly clear and sharp. A few slightly fuzzy, but this is most likely due to what was originally captured on film.
Outdoor shots are on the dim side, looking as though a neutral density filter was used to tame the desert’s brightness. That’s not a complaint, merely an observation, and it doesn’t hinder the movie in any way. Wise made extensive use of a split diopter filter, allowing subjects at different distances to be shot in focus at the same time. I was too engrossed to notice it while watching the movie but caught many of them on rewatch after checking out the extras.
Audio: The disc contains the original mono mix, which purists will enjoy. With it being dialog-heavy, there wouldn’t be much call for additional channels other than for ambience. It’s engrossing enough that I didn’t think about it at all once the film started. There’s an early sequence built around a two-way communication that mirrors the feelings of those great old radio dramas, where a listener’s imagination is engaged only through sound. It works remarkably well in setting up the drama and mystery of the movie, while also (unwittingly?) drawing a loose connection to one of the greatest examples of that medium that was ever created, along with a tie-in with one of Wise’s earliest collaborators.
The musical score isn’t traditional, featuring lots of electronic sounds creating a mysterious and strange atmosphere, which fits perfectly with the movie’s themes and tone. Sharp-eared animation fans will recognize uncredited Don Messick’s voice over the research base’s PA speakers.
Special Features: The set includes a nice variety of supplemental materials. The Cinescript document is a photocopy of the final draft of the script and includes some illustrations and corrections. It’s a nice piece of the film’s history, preserved for fans to check out for themselves and follow along with the movie. I haven’t seen anything quite like it included with a disc before. I’ll mention that the commentaries date back from before the Covid pandemic, so you won’t hear any of those parallels drawn, but they are insightful in other comparisons.
The making-of featurette was a good watch, where Wise, Crichton, Gidding, and special effects designer Douglas Trumbull all reflect on their experiences. It’s well worth the viewing, and especially enduring since they’ve all passed on now. The Crichton short lets him talk about his work and how the film came about to read, and he comes across as surprisingly modest and low-key, making it a worthy retrospective.
The supplementary booklet is split into two main parts. The first is a 2019 commentary on Wise’s work and the movie by author Perter Tonguette. He writes about the director’s evolution from editor of Citizen Kane to working for Val Lewton, to the musical epics of West Side Story and The Sound of Music, right through The Andromeda Strain, leaning heavily on the latter. The second part features an interesting reprint of the study guide material that was distributed to schools as part of the film’s publicity material. It offers some unexpectedly deep fodder for student learning. One can’t help but wonder how it would compare to what might be offered today. Both are well worth the read.
- Audio commentary by critic Bryan Reesman
- A New Strain of Science Fiction, an appreciation by critic Kim Newman
- The Andromeda Strain: Making the Film
- A Portrait of Michael Crichton
- Cinescript Gallery
- Theatrical trailer, TV spots and radio spots
- Image gallery
- Illustrated collector's booklet
Final Verdict: I remember seeing this movie on TV when I was still just a kid. Even though much of it would have been over my head, it left an impression. It was even more entertaining to revisit it as an adult, especially after having gone through our recent pandemic. There are aspects to the story that would have gone way over a child’s head, but I was surprised at just how clear and key the scientific rational was integrated into the story. No, it’s not some stilted production filled with jargon, instead it’s an engaging, logical investigation executed by smart experts who don’t always agree but understand that they have to work together in order to be successful. That’s an important theme that can be applied in everyone’s daily life, not just those living in a scientific world.
I will caution that while no animals were harmed in the making of this film, there are some sequences that some particularly sensitive viewers may find disturbing. Today, it would likely be handled by CGI, but that wasn’t available back then, so they had to use other methods that are fully explained in the extras. I only mention it so that viewers don’t have to expend any thought wondering if they actually did what was shown on screen and can continue concentrating on the story.
This is an easy recommendation for anyone that likes speculative science fiction, investigative stories, or intellectual thrillers. The presentation is fantastic in this new 4K release. The extras are an added value to those that like to delve further into movies and their origins as well.
Fun Fact: When developing the script, Nelson Gidding immersed himself in the novel and decided to check out all of the references cited at the end of the book, only to find that they were all fake, simply made up by Crichton.
The trailer has not been restored, so do not take it as a representation of the quality seen on the disc. To preserve the maximum number of surprises, I don’t recommend watching past the first minute (when a door is opened to reveal the downed satellite).
https://youtu.be/MmGK95ueF7c
My Review System:
JVC DLA-RS3100 4K Ultra High-Definition Front Projector
Elite Screens Sable Frame B2 117” Width with Infinitely Variable Height
Monolith by Monoprice HTP-1 16 Channel Processor with Dirac Live
Monolith by Monoprice 7x200 Watts Amp
Monolith by Monoprice 3x200 Watts + 6x100 Watts Amp
JBL Studio 590 for Left, Center, Right, Wides, and Rears
JBL Studio 580 for Side Surrounds
JBL Studio SCS 8 for Tops
JTR Captivator 1400 Subwoofer X 4
Panasonic DP-UB420 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Player
NVIDIA Shield Android TV - 4K
Xbox One X
HTPC Running madVR (work in progress)
Remote: URC MX-780
Mini DSP 2X4 HD controlling all subwoofers
APC S15 Power Conditioner with Battery Backup