Calling Chadzilla! Re: "The Swarm"

[Squishy]

I'm ashamed to admit it, but I didn't get my long-awaited "Swarm" DVD until just recently--and only tonight have I found the required three hours (including the occasional rewind) to enjoy it in all its, um, glory.

You know, I'm going bonkers trying to find the scene in which Dr. Krim (Henry Fonda) kicks open a door, in spite of being parapalegic. I know it's there--the shot has been referred to elsewhere--but I can't find it! Unfortunately, my DVD player--my PlayStation2--lacks a "time" function, so I have to estimate using your review. Is it during the "town hall meeting" Crane arranges in the missile base (snort)? Somewhere else? Help!

Random observations:

--The DVD Chapter Title for Slim Pickens' only scene is "Sheriff Calls The Shots." Uh, WB--just because Pickens is wearing a hat don't mean he's no sheriff.

--That scene is supposed to be sad, but it's too damn funny. For this scene to work, not only do we have to believe (as Chadzilla pointed out in his review) that the base's water can be shut off from outside, but we also have to believe that the US Army can't do simple subtraction (if there are only seven survivors--Katherine Ross and six "missile men" she got into the "interlock" in time, and none of them are named "Hawkins," then Hawkins is on The Other List, General); we have to believe that out of all the dead "missile men," only one family member gave enough of a damn to actually come out to the base to find out what happened to Johnny; we have to believe that Pickens would actually be led into a crowded morgue full of day-old unpreserved bodies while Slater checks the tags one by one; and we have to believe that the Army would rather keep a useless secret rather than save themselves trouble by issuing an announcement (the movie stops just a little short of making the US Military Hollywood-standard eeeeeeeeviiiiiillllllll).

--As bad as that scene is, Slim Pickens gives it everything he's got. He's really crying, his eyes are red and swollen and everything. For that brief display of near-real acting, he comes out smelling like a rose (relatively speaking). Richard Chamberlain's awful delivery and crap-phony accent bring him in second place for worse performance in my book, but Olivia DeHavilland's time-hogging slow reading and the scene in which she starts baying ("Whhhoooooooaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!") at the sight of the dead kids (uh, thanks, Irwin, that's entertainment) wins her Grand Prize: a hive full of bees in her underwear.

--Lee Grant leaves her cameramen outside to die during the Marysville attack. b***h. Unfortunately, they leap off the van and climb inside, covered with bees--so everyone inside dies. Oh, wait, I guess not.

--I love how close-ups of victims show them covered in bees (not one of which is actually attacking), but immediately afterwards, far shots show the bodies without one bug on them. Give Olivia a little credit, though--she did a "death scene" covered with bees, which must have been scary...but it was cut and seems to be lost forever. Credit to the victims for those close-up shots as well--even though Mrs. Durant is wearing excessive clothing for a picnic (in anticipation of her fate), she has a few bees on her face who seem determined to crawl up her nose. Yaaaaaagghh. Even in death, she and Mr. Durant--who seems to be tickled by the bees--keep their mouths tightly sealed.

--Paul thinks the picnic site is "neat." What, do they keep him locked in the attic? It's a few trees and a lot of dead scrub. It's hideously, appetite-killingly ugly scenery. I'm glad you die in the long version, you little punk.

--The Durant's car is still covered in bees when Paul crashes it in the middle of Marysville. I guess they decided that discretion was the better part of valor, and in the confusion, slipped quitely away rather than attack, swiping a wallet or two for bus fare.

God, I love this movie. Now if they'll just put the long version of "...When Time Ran Out" on DVD...

[Chadzilla]

There is an establishing shot of Crane, Slater, and Anderson (I think) crossing the command center as the Big Meeting is called to order.  Allen pans the camera across the set to follow them but, for a moment, centered in the background, we see a door opening onto a hallway.  An extra strolls past, followed by Fonda in his wheelchair.  He slows the wheels with his hands and sticks out a leg to stop the door the extra has just walked through from closing.  It takes a moment to find it, but it sticks out like a sore thumb afterwards.

Thanks for pointing all the other stuff out Squishy.  I swear each and every reader (and Andrew as well) could do a review and point out something completely different about that doofy movie.

I think I'll watch it again this weekend!

Did you notice that Chamberlain's *ahem* Southern Accent kinda came and went from scene to scene?

[Squishy]

Thanks! By the way, thanks as well for pointing out the window to the missile silo. I never actually noticed that before! Distracted by all the little blinky lights and television screens, I guess. I assume they use the same glass as the UN does for MOGERA's launch bay.

[Squishy]

,,,and there it is. Thank God it wasn't a snake!

[Squishy]

And I have to get one last lick in. It has become my new all-time favorite scene in the movie. Watch for it:

Brad and Helena are shouting at the people of Marysville to get inside. Behind them, the swarm is now scant yards away and descending upon them. They whirl and see the approaching menace. They look at each other.

And wait. Looking at each other. And wait. And wait.

Finally, Brad seems to reboot (finally got his cue I guess).

Brad: "Run."

Yes, thank you, Dr. Crane. Bloody genius, that is. I can see why you're in charge.

[Squishy]

OKAY--ONE MORE REQUEST, Chadzilla...

Since you seem to love this thing as much as I do, have you ever seen the publicity still of Olivia De Havilland's "bee death" that I mentioned earlier? She's laying in the train wreckage, covered with the bugs. I thought it would be a shoo-in (ha ha, I make a punny) for the DVD's supplemental material, but no.

I clipped it out of a newspaper waaaay back when the movie was still in production. Now I'm obsessed with it. I've tried searching Google for every possibility I can conceive, and eBay has some items but not this.

Have you at least seen this scene/still at some point? I hate to think I'd have to go back to Gainesville, Florida and search the Sun's microfiche...

[Chadzilla]

No I haven't, but there is a nano-second long shot of Maureen laying on the floor of the train just before it explodes (???).  I don't know if the still was in the film tie-in release of Herzog's book or not.  Microfiche might be the way to find it.

That making-of documentary is priceless.