The Hellstrom Chronicle

For 10 plus years, "The Hellstrom Chronicle" was regularly plugged into the 2am/4am movie slot on a local station in the middle 80's through 90's. Too bad it couldn't get more coverage, because this is how a documentary should be made.

The problem with documentaries is if you focus too much on the clinical data, it becomes dry. If yo try to interject drama into it, you run the risk of sending up the piece, into parody or even farce. Hellstrom interjects just the right amount of fiction, in the form of Lawrence Pressman, that links the documentary portions at a pace that keeps it from losing one's interest. It's obvious that "Dr." Hellstrom, a fictitious entomologist, is paranoid that insects will take over the world through their superiority over men. The most interesting thing, though, is he may very well be right! If the insect world footage has any say in how future matters may turn out, it will.

Of particular interest is the portion of the footage devoted to the driver ants. As has been quoted in other reviews, this is a prime example of "How DID they film that?!" documentary in motion. It's an inspiration out of "Leinengen Vs. The Ants," only it's real!

If you can find this "movie," give it a roll. Expand your mind a bit with some facts, while at the same time, become entertained by Dr. Hellstrom... even if he isn't a real doctor, but, he plays one on TV! (Actually, he did! Pressman went on to play one on Doogie Howser, M.D.)

"The earth was created not with the gentle caress of love, but with the brutal violence of rape."

This portentous statement opens THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE, a stunning quasi-documentary which is, in its own way, one of the most frightening movies I've ever seen, with themes that are eerily prescient in today's world.

Winner of the 1971 Oscar for Best Documentary, this mostly non-fiction film - the dark side of MICROCOSMOS - recounts the history and nature of the insect world, as well as the myriad ways insects are more equipped to outlive Man in the long run. Insects have a 200-million-year head start, don't have feelings, don't ponder their own existence, don't fight within their species, can adapt to their surroundings, live harmoniously with their environment, have been using "robots" and the airwaves long before we came to be, and aren't afraid to die. Nothing Man throws at them (like pesticides) can stop their reproduction; insects quickly develop immunities while Man chokes on its own weaponry while polluting its environment. And, it would take Man a million years to repopulate the world after nuclear fallout; insects could do it in three weeks.

This ominous storyline is framed in the film with Dr. Hellstrom, a fictional entomologist who narrates with an effectively brooding yet pragmatic tone that somehow comes off as dire but soothing. Some may feel that the human segments of the film distract from the force of the narrative. I, however, believe these breaks from the storyline give the viewer a breather, for the foreboding menace would be nearly unbearably intense otherwise. Also, there is one segment of the film that's obviously faked, but that's okay: it wouldn't have been prudent to film it realistically, and it nonetheless succeeds in making its point as is.

Similar to THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT in that what's waiting for us in nature is scarier than any boogeyman, THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE raises questions about Man's arrogance - our fatal flaw which will be the reason for our ultimate downfall. While the film never uses the word "God," it speaks of a "Creator," and ponders the significance of the only species that believes in a higher power yet uses "intelligence" to disprove its existence. THE HELLSTROM CHRONICLE is edge-of-your-seat drama about the horror of war and our inevitable fight to the death with the insect world - a battle that we're sure to lose.

10/10

One of the best documentaries ever to come to the screen "The Hallstrom Chronicle" is not only educational about the insect world but visually stunning with its eye popping microscopic and telescopic photography showing the viewer a world that for the most part he or she are almost totally unaware of.

Were introduced to Prof. Niles Hellstrom, Lawrence Pressman, who's study of the insect world has had him become greatly alarmed in that the final battle of mankind would not be among itself in an Armageddon like nuclear holocaust but in a life and death confrontation with the what seems like indestructible insect! The insects who've been around for some 300 million years are the only creatures on earth who can give man a run for his money living space and food supply. In fact besides man the insect is the only species on earth who's population has increased instead of diminished over the last two or three centuries! with the insects now threatening the worlds food supply,like it did since Biblical times, and killing far more people, with insect borne diseases, then all the wars of mankind put together it's only a matter of time according to Prof. Hellstrom before man not insect will disappear off the face of the earth! That's unless man learns to live within his environment and not end up killing himself in wars pollution and nuclear radiation which the insect has over the centuries, unlike man, became completely immune to!

A film not to be taken lightly "The Hellstrom Chronicle" is just as effective now as it was back in 1971 when it was released in showing that man is not in control of his own destiny but he for either good or bad has to work within the world he lives in and the life forms he share it with in oder to survive. The insect world is by far the biggest threat to mans survival and the sooner man realizes that the better chance he has to survive in the future.

The fact that insects have shown that they can survive and even increase despite everything that man throws at them, like DDT and other insecticides, should tells us something. They unlike man have only one thought, if thats what you can call it, in mind survival of the species! Something that man in his greed and arrogance has yet to learn in his obsession of destroying himself in both wars and polluting the world that he lives in. The insect world seems to have no problem or worries in its future existence. It's been around for hundreds of millions of years and will continue to be around for countless more long after man like the dinosaurs have disappeared and been forgotten off the pages of history.

Well, why not? The way things were/are going here on Earth, the speculation presented by the narration in this film could come true. Might serve us right! Anyway, the cinematography is terrific! Excellently done on a whole, even tho some critics panned the narration. It is unique, so see it. I gave it a 7 out of 10, and it could be rated higher.

This film. when I saw it years ago, had me convinced that it was a real "documentary." Excellent special effects and a very good performance by Lawrence Pressman.

More convincing it its way than the current Blair Witch Project which also purports to be a real story