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| Director: Robert Wise
Actors: James Olson, Arthur Hill, David Wayne, Kate Reid, Paula Kelly
Studio: Universal Studios
List Price: $6.99
Buy Used: $2.00
You Save: $4.99 (71%)
New (3) Used (28) Collectible (2) from $2.00
Rating:  118 reviews
Sales Rank: 2156
Format: Color, Hifi Sound, Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: G (General Audience)
Media: VHS Tape
Number Of Items: 1
Running Time: 131 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 7.3 x 4.2 x 1.1
ISBN: 6300181537
UPC: 096895503733
EAN: 9786300181533
ASIN: 6300181537
Theatrical Release Date: March 12, 1971
Release Date: August 6, 1996
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Average used video with original case * * We carefully inspected this * Great customer service * Satisfaction Guaranteed!
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 21-25 of 118
 It Was Worth The Wait! January 8, 2005
Orion E. Hubbard (Portland, Oregon United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have seen reviews where the reviewer didn't like this film because it wasn't true to the book. Having read the book, I'm glad that this film turned out to be so much better than the book ever was.
After watching the movie on DVD, I watched the bonus feature about the making of the Andromeda Strain, saw the interview with the book's author, Michael Crichton, who himself was very pleased with the way the movie expanded upon what he had written. It was also a chance to see how much extraordinary effort that went into the movie, and seeing the groundbreaking techniques in photography needed to visualize the Andromeda virus itself as well as the "three dimensional" diagrams of the Wildfire installation. Too many people onsider the movie hoaky by today's standards, but the then new technologies that went into the Andromeda Strain made it possible to have the special effects of today.
I had a copy of the Andromeda Strain on VHS, commercials included since it was recorded from a "Sunday Afternoon" movie show many years ago. That tape is now somewhat lost in my huge video collection and I don't get the chance to see it too often. But even if I see this movie only once in every three or four years, the movie still has an impact on me today and every time I watch it. Robert Wise created such a sense of urgency that was never truly present in the book, which to me, read more like a
congressional report on C-Span rather than a good sci-fi book. Watching James Olson trying to dodge the lasers in the core but not succeeding too well, then reaching the place he needed to be only to find some hysterical technician run away in fear from him-- that is an unforgettable moment. Eighteen seconds to nuclear self-destruction; can he get the key in the slot before the big boom that not only will kill him and his colleagues, but will also spread Andromeda around the world in a vast super-colony. We know our hero will save the day, but that's the kind of suspenseful moment I always find myself holding my breath no matter how many times I see the film.
I wholeheartedly recommend this film to any science fiction fan because there has never been anything like this since; not even the newer films like Outbreak or other virus/plague movies.
sci-fi classic June 7, 2005
Rottenberg's rotten book review (nyc)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
Scientists looking into deep space for microscopic extraterrestrial lifeforms accidentally stumble on "The Andromeda Strain". Previous attempts - using small capsules shot into space - are unsuccessful. After one of the "scoop" capsules soft-lands in a remote southwestern US town, investigators find the town wiped-out. Unfortunately, the errant capsule found its way to the town doctor who (not inclined to run his office like a top-secret government lab) opened it. A lethal microbe from beyond Earth - one that would have burned up had it reentered our atmosphere - is now alive. Desperate scientists, picked by a computer, are brought to "Wildfire". Their task is to identify and perhaps destroy the lethal new germ. The scientists - physicians and microbiologists - struggle against the clock and the restrictive conditions of their underground facility to isolate the alien bug. But they also rack their brains on its meaning - it's alive, but could it perhaps be intelligent? As the scientists pick the scoop capsule apart using a blinding array of techno-gadgetry, the infected town is targeted for nuclear destruction. (How the politicians will end-run treaties banning aboveground nuclear explosions, as well as doing so without having to inform the Russians of their suspicious intentions in "acquiring" the space-bug is just one of the issues the script adroitly maneuvers past.) As the scientists close in, they find that the bug is a simple chain of molecules arranged in crystalline form. Given the name "Andromeda", the bug remains an enigma. Every secret uncovered leaves another two to bedevil the scientists - about the bug's purpose as well as the US government's odious role in bringing it to Earth...
This was a classic film - the prototype for some of Crichton's novels/screenplays (a team of professionals is brought together in isolation to solve some mystery; the other Crichton plotline involves some scientific invention that goes out of control - like nanobytes, robot gunslingers or velociraptors). The plot is formulaic, but it works - the point is that there isn't supposed to be a human element, but one surfaces anyway. Our characters are shallow - but they go at each other an leave deep scars. Arthur Hill is Stone, the team leader, who perhaps has his own plans for Andromeda. James Olson is Hall, Stone's moral counterpart, and the team's physician. It's his job to find out why two of Andromeda's victims are still alive - even as Stone considers them little more than guinea pigs. Kate Reid and David Wayne are Levitt and Dutton - who play their roles like an old married couple - even when they're apart they seem to echo two sides of the same argument for trying to understand Andromeda rather than destroy it. The scientists, professional at first, slowly come apart, subtley teasing us with the possibility that they have already become infected. Director Robert Wise (in what may have been an audition for his later role directing the first Star Trek film) brilliantly weaves the techno-babble through the story. After 18 hour days just trying to identify Andromeda, the scientists are about as receptive to techo-bbable as we are. The technology which weighs down most stories actually smoothes over the plot rather than dragging it down. This is probably the film that taught Hollywood that thinking charachters can still be human. Now if only the film could give hollywood a refresher.....
Smart, thrilling, and entertaining. April 12, 2006
James Duckett (St. George, Utah)
5 out of 6 found this review helpful
It is nice to find a movie that believes that its viewers have an IQ over 60. Hollywood doesn't make enough of these types of movies.
The movie itself is quite thrilling. The last half an hour actually has you sitting on the edge of your seat. I found it to be quite entertaining and well worth checking out.
The acting wasn't the best, but I've most definately seen worst. It was refreshing for the director to choose several "no name" actors so that we can enjoy the progress of the story and not be distracted by celebrities. It added a lot of realism to the movie.
The best part about the DVD was the makeing-of feature. It is amazing how much was done with the lack of technology that Hollywood has now. It was even interesing how they had killed their monkey. If you enjoy the movie I highly suggest you check out the feature as well. It is only half an hour long but I had wished it could have been longer and more detailed.
Okay, Okay But Why Is This Movie Good ? July 17, 2006
J. E. Robinson
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
From the other reviewers you already know it is about some foreign piece of bio-hazard that lands in this small town in New Mexico killing everyone but two people. But the question is... why is this old move based on a story by Michael Crichton so good? There are many sci-fi movies.
We know why Jurassic Park was a hit. It was the first time someone thought of taking DNA and then re-created pre-historic dinosaurs - and then it was all done in fabulous beautiful color with special effects and helicopter shots and scenes in the rain. But this movie does not have that.
Andromeda Strain is in black and white about a small group of people and dominated mainly by Jeremy Stone (Arthur Hill) and Dr. Ruth Leavitt (Kate Reid) locked underground in this small laboratory trying to figure out what is this biohazard (exactly) and how can they control it. They use various gadgets including scanning electron microscopes etc. all dressed in white lab coats - the stereotypical scientists, never entertaininng people!!
My take on it is that it has a certain feel like the "Twilight Zone" where you really do not know if this investigation will succeed or suddenly go terribly wrong. It leaves you glued to the movie (TV). In fact it turns out that the "thing" is not from our world. It grows when it is radiated and they almost have a disaster blow up in their face. It is all just very suspenseful and well executed, i.e.: good acting and directing, with enough technical stuff to make it seem credible.
5 Stars.
Science Fiction for Grown-ups April 5, 2003
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
I will not go into detail about the plot and the seventies look and style of the film (which I think hold up pretty well). Those points are well-covered in other reviews.
Among the things I find interesting about the film is its place in cinema history. This was one of the last science fiction films made before Steven Spielberg (with Jaws) inadvertently showed Hollywood that astonishing amounts of money could be made from a motion picture and George Lucas demonstrated the best way to do it was to cater to the tastes and sensibilities of fifteen-year-old boys.The Andromeda Strain is remarkable in a couple of ways. First, it is one of the very few films ever made with a plot driven by the scientific approach to problem solving. The approach of the Wildfire team is meticulous and logical; most of the "action" is at the microscopic level. This probably would account for the fact, according to some of the other reviews here, that the film is still shown in school science classes. The other remarkable this is how the producers made every effort to remain loyal to the book, even in casting. If a team of today's producers were transported back to 1971 to make the film they would: cast Flip Wilson as a microbiologist (to provide comic relief); put Donna Douglas (fresh off "Beverly Hillbillies" and looking for an image change) in the role of the woman scientist (and potential sex partner for one or all of the male cast members); and somehow shoehorn one or more of the Brady Bunch kids into the plot no matter how convoluted or inane the explanation for his or her presence at the Wildfire lab. The Andromeda Strain harks back to a time when mainstream science fiction films were aimed at general audiences rather than at a narrow demographic that, having nothing more important to do, will pay the see the same movie over and over and over again.
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