'70s Class?: The Hellstrom Chronicle

At least this one delivers on all of the bugs that it promised me!  This is The Hellstrom Chronicle, a 1972 Documentary that actually won an Oscar!  1972 was a strange year for the Oscars as The French Connection won big & (no joke) Shaft and Bedknobs & Broomsticks were competing in the same Category!  The 4 other Films this beat out sound interesting, but also have the barest of bare Wikipedia pages.

I guess history wins out, as this one at least has some background stuff and a full Plot Synopsis.  On top of that, this one inspired a Frank Herbert Book!  

So what is this Film and why am I covering it?  It's a Film telling us about the inevitable loss that we as a species will face.  It tells us that we will one day lose to the most innocuous of Species- the Insects!  Should I get rid of all my RAID and other bug spray then to appease my eventual overlords?  So yeah, this one sounds silly.  

What's great about it is that it is so self-serious.  It believes and you should too- dammit!  I mean, I don't...but alright.  This Film features lots of interesting nature footage and it sure has lots of things being killed.  

If you can't watch The Discovery Channel, don't watch this.  For the rest of you, let's see whether this Oscar winner is a joke or no joke...

The Title comes from the name of the man behind the Film (seen below).

This is him.

He's kind of an asshole, but does have a backstory involving the loss of some fellowships and jobs for his beliefs.

Given his hair, does he look more like young Bernie Sanders or Larry David?

As I said, this Film is about how Insects will one day be the dominant species.

So, naturally, he spends 5-10 minutes talking about killer plants that exclusively target Insects.  *Head Slap*

Later on, he uses giant-sized props to show how dangerous Insects are.

His main thesis- Insects are born perfect and ready to do their part.

Tell that to the Mosquito I smashed into paste.

...so naturally, he segues from that to talking about how other Insects go through metamorphosis to become complete creatures halfway through their life-cycle.

Was this really the BEST Documentary of 1971?!?

Don't get me wrong- the Film is chock full of facts.  It just can't ever do things quite right.

For instance, he talks about how Locusts adapt to the poisons we use to kill them.  

To demonstrate, he uses this obvious Actor to play a Farmer and tell us that...again!

For the sake of space, I'm glossing over how much Hellstrom loves Bees and seems to hate individuality.

In the final segment, we see a bit about African Army Ants.  They are dangerous and this is well-documented.

That said, we see a young Komodo Dragon attacked by the swarm...and then a dead one after a cut.  Did you kill it like the Turtle from Mondo Cane?

The Film ends with more bleak talk from Hellstrom and a shot of some Insects before one important reveal to close us out...

This is the worst kind of Shyamalan twist!  Seriously, what a weird thing to do here!  Certain people love to attack Michael Moore's Documentaries over claims that he distorts the truth with Edits.  It might happen, but at least Michael Moore is actually a real person!  Yes, I know the Family Guy joke about that.  

The biggest thing is that this really hurts the already-strained credibility of the whole Film.  I get it- he's an amalgamation of people that feel like how the Character was written.  I get it- they wanted one guy to build the Film around, as opposed to multiple talking heads.  It just...feels really insulting that the Film is named after a fake guy and the Narrator is an Actor.  

Pressman does a good job here- almost too good.  Given how sardonic he is the whole time, I almost wonder if it is a Parody on his part.  There's a point when he brings up the 'people look like ants from up here' cliché and then insults anyone who's ever used it.  Maybe the Scientists who worked on this were kind of assholes and he just went with it.  

Whatever the reason, he is the biggest dick of a Narrator you'll probably ever see.  It's kind of fun, given how silly the Film feels.  

If you want to see lots of nature footage, this is an easy recommendation.  

If you want to see a self-serious Film that shouldn't be, another easy recommendation.  Just know what you're getting into with this guy...

Next up, I return to the 1950s to feature another Bug Film.  Sudden Theme is sudden!  Stay tuned...