The Swarm (1978) review

10. The Swarm (1978)

Directed by: Irwin Allen

Produced by: Irwin Allen

Screenplay by: Stirling Silliphant

Starring: Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia de Havilland, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, José Ferrer, Patty Duke Astin, Slim Pickens, Bradford Dillman, Fred MacMurray, Henry Fonda

Remember who Harold P. Warren made that bet with over whether he could make “Manos: The Hands of Fate?” Screenwriter Stirling Silliphant, and now he makes an appearance on this cult marathon, so who’s the real loser here? Okay, all joking aside, when you look at the credits for “The Swarm,” you might wonder, “How bad could this be?” It’s directed and produced by Irwin Allen, the “Master of Disaster” who came out with classic genre films of the 1970s, “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Towering Inferno,” with this as his next theatrical release, and it has an all-star cast of Oscar nominees like Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Olivia de Havilland, José Ferrer and Patty Duke. Based on the Arthur Herzog novel, this unlikely epic about a deadly swarm of killer bees tries to up the ante in the prolonged trend of “when nature attacks” cinema like “The Birds,” but ends up a bloated, unintentionally funny mess, albeit with committed performances and impressive craft.

Taking place in Texas, the movie opens with an Air Force bunker being attacked and devastated; entomologist Dr. Crane (Caine) explains that it was a massive swarm of mutated venomous African killer bees, who soon after destroy a pair of helicopters and attack a family of nearby picnickers, with the young son Paul (Christian Juttner) the only survivor. Crane—along with his wheelchair-bound colleague Dr. Krim (Henry Fonda)—is put in charge of a campaign to come up with a solution before the bees continue their assault on much more populated areas, although his ecological philosophies frequently conflict with General Slater (Richard Widmark), who would sooner just poison the swarm and call it a day. But their efforts to either subdue the bees or negate the effects of their venom prove futile, causing desperation to sink in as the death count rises across the state.

First and foremost, we can’t deny the talent on the screen; Caine gives Crane the appropriate gravitas despite some cheesy line deliveries, Ross is both sweet and intense as Helena the base doctor, and I didn’t even mention Henry Fonda in one of his final roles as Krim or Slim Pickens in a brief but powerful scene as county engineer Jed who demands and is shown his dead son’s body at the bunker. Other roles are well-acted but mostly ineffectual, while the one that surprised me was Slater. This is a character stereotype that’s usually pretty boring, the gruff general butting heads with the scientist over who’s better at their job, but Richard Widmark performs it well, giving him actual dimensions; I like the moment when the sniveling Major Baker (Bradford Dillman) tries to bad-mouth Crane to him during an evacuation, and Slater immediately calls it out as a transparent attempt to kiss his ass.

But with that said, it becomes especially tedious just sorting through all the various developments; aside from the main action, there’s a pregnant waitress named Rita (Duke) who falls in love with Dr. Martinez (Alejandro Rey) at the hospital, reporter Anne McGregor (Lee Grant) who’s mainly looking for exciting footage, and a love triangle between schoolteacher Maureen (de Havilland), retiree Felix (Ben Johnson) and town mayor Clarence (Fred MacMurray). Even if the performances are good, these subplots are so sprawling and often unnecessary, you start to lose interest. I know “The Towering Inferno” also has a lot of characters and storylines, but they’re all stationed in one location and often interact with the main cast; here the action moves around a lot, and many of the players with a lot of focus barely cross paths. So while it’s all still the same conflict, there’s no sense of cohesiveness or collectiveness that helped make Allen’s previous efforts so captivating. Keep in mind, however, that the theatrical version ran almost 40 minutes shorter than most home releases, so maybe it used to be more forgiving.

Now let’s talk about the bees; I must give credit to the sheer ambition in bringing a story like this to life by practical methods. An estimated 15 to 22 million bees were used for filming, including 800,000 with their stingers removed for close-up and medium shots with the actors, and admittedly, the visual of a large black mass approaching an unsuspecting population is quite foreboding. Bees in general do instill irrational fear in a lot of people (Hi, Dad!), so I can see how some might find this subject scary; supposedly, there was a looming threat of invading killer bees around this time. But there’s no getting around it; this just looks ridiculous in how over-the-top the story unfolds with them, as they’re able to derail trains and even cause an explosion at a nuclear power plant. If they could learn how to use guns, humanity would be toast in less than an hour.

Watching people get swarmed and stung to death can be unpleasant, but the more outlandish it gets, the harder it becomes to take this stuff seriously. I don’t know what’s more hilarious: the scenes of characters hallucinating giant bees superimposed into the background, the sight of Paul and his two friends hiding under trash cans after trying to firebomb the bees, or all the images of characters flopping around like silent film actors—sometimes in slow motion—when the bees approach. It is impressive how Allen fills up the screen with set pieces that portray the theme of a national emergency, most prominently when Crane drives by a row of covered dead bodies on the ground. But by the time it reaches the point of soldiers taking flamethrowers to Houston, the absurdity levels are off the charts.

“The Swarm” was a critical and financial disaster when it came out; it did so poorly that Allen refused to mention it again, and Caine has since called it the worst movie he’s ever been in, albeit one that bought a house for his mother. Clearly, he’s never seen “Jaws: The Revenge,” if he thinks that. I think it’s more the fact that it had so many big names attached to essentially a stupid B-movie without any self-awareness that caused it to flop so hard. If this came out in the ‘50s or ‘60s with a no-name director and cast, it would just be seen as a product of the time and maybe get forgotten about. But because it’s such a big project with clearly a ton of effort, we have no choice but to declare it a terrible movie, right? Well, it’s definitely bad, but I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t part of me that admires its chutzpah; it’s a killer bee movie with an A-list cast on the same budget as the first “Star Wars” film. There’s going to be something to enjoy here; it’s silly, but on grandiose levels.

My rating: 5/10