The Swarm (1978)

everything you have heard about this movie is true.

What a freaking movie. So many twists and turns. Absolutely intense from start to finish.

Entertaining from beginning to end, it maintains the spirit of the franchise while establishing it's own seal with a fun cast

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

I have not seen many films by Irwin Allen, but I somehow get the idea that he was quite a primitive filmmaker. This, I think, is best shown when one reads that he was confused by the success of the original Star Wars, in that it had no love story or major stars and yet became the highest-grossing film of its time. The Swarm, one of the disaster movies that killed his career, could not possibly be more primitive. One of the problems it has is one that it shares with killer bunny movie Night of the Lepus: it has way too serious of a tone and yet seems to be filled with silliness, intentional or not.After a break-in at a military base, Dr. Brad Crane (Michael Crane) takes charge of an operation meant to get rid of a giant swarm of killer bees headed for the United States. That is as simple a story as you could get. Most of it is just repeated attempts to find a way to destroy the bees. However, there are a couple of sub-plots that have nothing to do with anything, such as the wooing of Olivia De Havilland's school headmaster by Ben Johnson and Fred MacMurray; all classic movie actors who have seen better days. Another sub-plot includes Patty Duke being widowed due to killer bee attacks and giving birth to a child, after which she falls in love with her doctor. Neither of these go anywhere as Johnson, MacMurray, and De Havilland are all killed in a train crash caused by the bees before the latter makes a decision about who to marry, and Duke disappears after the birth of her child; none of these people even interact with Dr. Crane or his love interest, Dr. Anderson played by Katharine Ross from The Graduate.Other problems include the acting; it's downright awful. Even Caine, who is usually fantastic, seems dull and uninterested. He did get to buy his mother a house with the money he earned, so he got something out of it. Everyone seems half-hearted, and Ross competes with Caine in terms of dullness. With the characters constantly referring to the killer bees as "Africans," one can be excused for thinking the film is racist, or even anti-immigrant.The script even calls for the characters to do things that border on the hilarious. After losing his parents to the bees, a kid sneaks out of the hospital to throw Molotov cocktails on the beehive, which causes the bees to rampage in his town and kill over 200 people. The kid rightly acknowledges that he is to blame, but Crane tells him "I would have done the same thing." All I can say is, "No you wouldn't." This is an example of Allen's weak attempts to get emotions out of the viewer, along with the unneeded sub-plots and ill-defined relationships. Crane and Anderson are supposed to have a romance, but that hardly seems to come through in the movie. That kid who firebombed the hive is important to Anderson, but how? The film is also too long, as there is very little story to go on, even with an attempted conflict between Crane and Richard Widmark's General Slater, who only seems to dislike Crane because he is a typical tough-guy American general.One detail mentioned in the film is that the fight against the bees has been going on for 15 years. What I don't understand is, if the bees have been killing people for that long, why have they only just started to invade America? I'd say a flashback was in order.To conclude, The Swarm is a film I do not recommend watching, as it is not an enjoyable creature feature. Even Frogs, which was arguably a worse movie, was more entertaining. Irwin Allen has done good work in the 70s, such as with The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno, but The Swarm shows what happens if you try to be as pretentious and simple as possible and make money from an audience in a decade when people wanted their movies to be smarter and fresher.

When those African killer bees finally do make their way North to the States, I bet nobody will be laughing then! How long has it been now? I recall hearing about them decades ago, what's taking them so long? Well in a way, the premise of the story has an element of believability to it, but when it comes to battling the little suckers, the whole thing gets rather absurd. Seriously, what was the deal with the poison pellets being dropped from those helicopters - how was that supposed to do anything? Were they supposed to knock out the bees as they fell from the sky, or were the little buggers supposed to die eating them? It just didn't make any sense to me.And wait a minute now, Dr. Walter Krim (Henry Fonda) injects himself with the equivalent of six bee stings when just three will prove fatal? And then waits sixty seconds to give the poison a fair chance before going for the antidote? That was just a bit too bizarre to contemplate, but no more so I guess, than a whole host of famous film stars showing up in this disaster travesty.I hope director Irwin Allen wasn't thinking sequel here because the ending was just a bit too sophomoric to have killed off all of the pesky little critters. You know there had to be a few bees that would have gotten away from that oily inferno to close out the story. Sequel or no though, once was enough for me. I won't get stung again.

Such an incredible trainwreck! And, yes, there is a trainwreck in the movie! You can say that it is at that point in the movie where the movie goes off the rails. (Get it?)First, I have to tell you perhaps the funniest story of my movie-going life. It was summer 1978. Our family had rented an RV, and were about to go to Colorado. I loved disaster movies, and still do! Well, back then, with a truly great movie like "The Poseidon Adventure," and recent silly, but still likable ones like "Airport '77," I was ready for Irwin Allen's latest! Like, really ready!Now, I couldn't just see it. I had to see it on the BIG SCREEN! That meant the Grandview II, with two 550-seat auditoriums, in St. Louis' North County, 30 or so minutes away. So, I basically dragged my mother and brother up on the opening day afternoon to see "The Swarm!" And, it is as delightfully awful as you know!So, instead of getting ready for our trip, I had the three of us spending hours in going up and back and seeing this crazy movie! You can bet that I didn't hear the end of it for a while. And, the thing is? I didn't care! I loved it. It's awful, it's gloriously insane! It all-but-immediately ended Irwin Allen's career!Plus, I got to read the terrible one-star (at best!) reviews all during our vacation!Everything else you know, if you've seen it. The hilarious actor's reactions to being killed by bees. The endless disasters within disasters: the aforementioned trainwreck, the nuclear plant magically blowing up (!) because bees got into the control room (what?!). It goes on and on.Plus, introducing all these characters, just to kill them off for the heck of it! And, the only-here-for-the-paycheck actors of the requisite "All-Star Cast." Lastly, you have to LOVE the way they deal with the bees at the end! The one thing I can unequivocally endorse is Jerry Goldsmith's score. 1978 was his greatest year, with one great score after another (plus, another Oscar nomination for "The Boys from Brazil") Here, Goldsmith again provides a score as if he is providing music for the greatest film ever! I love this movie, as impossibly bad as it is! Please, please, remaster this and release it on Blu-ray. After all, we could all use a good laugh these days!******* (7 Out of 10 Stars)

Run for you lives, viewers, a "moving black mass" is on the loose. Soon revealed to be African killer bees, "The Swarm" levels some people and helicopter pilots. Bee-savvy entomologist Michael Caine (as Bradford "Brad" Cane) quickly swings into action. He's a real smarty-pants. Likewise surviving a bee attack, attractive Katharine Ross (as Helena Anderson) joins Mr. Caine. Initially called a "crackpot" by bee-skeptical Richard Widmark (as Thaddeus Slater), Caine is put in charge of fighting the bee invasion. Action continues in a small Texas town, which is holding its annual "Flower Festival". As you know, bees dig flowers...In Maryville, we meet two of the bigger names in the all-star cast, schoolmarmish Olivia de Havilland (as Maureen Schuster) and mayoral Fred MacMurray (as Clarence Tuttle). This fiasco was Mr. MacMurray's last appearance on screen. Neither he nor Ms. de Havilland spend much time on camera, fortunately. Also making it to town is young Christian Juttner (as Paul Durant), who has a very big bee in his bed. Folksy insect expert Henry Fonda (as Walter Krim) arrives in his wheelchair...More stars appear. More bees fly… "The Swarm" was produced by Irwin Allen, who usually knows how to do this sort of thing. First of all, he should have assigned someone different to direct this disaster. The performances show how those considered good actors and actresses can quickly turn into amateurs without the right script and director. Costume designer Paul Zastupnevich, a regular on Mr. Allen's crews, received an "Academy Award" nomination. This film doesn't warrant an "Oscar" award, but Mr. Zastupnevich consistently contributes well. The bee attacks are laughable and there are a few funny lines buzzing around.*** The Swarm (7/14/78) Irwin Allen ~ Michael Caine, Katharine Ross, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda