User reviews

THE SWARM

Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)

Sound format: 4-track magnetic stereo

A swarm of African killer bees rampage across America's south-west before descending on Houston, destroying everything in their path.

Contrary to popular opinion, THE SWARM is not the worst movie ever made, and anyone who says otherwise clearly hasn't seen the collected works of Jesùs Franco, Andy Milligan or Woody Allen (just kidding!). Representing the last gasp of the disaster cycle inaugurated by Ross Hunter's big-time adaptation of Arthur Hailey's AIRPORT (1969) and further popularized by the likes of THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972) and THE TOWERING INFERNO (1974) - the latter a bona fide Hollywood classic - THE SWARM encapsulates director Irwin Allen's basic commercial ethos: Big stars, big set-pieces, and big drama.

Taking its cue from previous small-scale entries like THE DEADLY BEES (1966) and TERROR OUT OF THE SKY (1978), Allen's old-fashioned monster movie revels in the destruction of towns, trains, nuclear power plants and the reputations of numerous high-profile actors. However, Stirling Silliphant's script is so hokey, it's difficult to believe he wasn't poking inglorious fun at the entire project: Michael Caine is so obviously miscast (as a 'brilliant' entomologist), and so clearly contemptuous of the material, his expression never changes throughout the entire film, though co-star Richard Widmark gives it everything he's got as a gruff military type who's eager to quell the threat by bombing everything in sight. Henry Fonda rises above the fray as a dedicated immunologist, and Slim Pickens is quietly dignified as a bereaved father, while Olivia De Havilland forms the centerpiece of a gentle romantic subplot (she's courted by Fred MacMurray and Ben Johnson). Richard Chamberlain, Lee Grant, Jose Ferrer, Bradford Dillman and Patty Duke Astin are featured in supporting roles alongside leading lady Katharine Ross, who seems particularly embarrassed by her ridiculous dialogue (get a load of her hysterical reaction to the death of a sympathetic younger character - if you lean forward, you can almost *smell* the ham!).

The film exists in two separate versions: The 116 minute theatrical print, and an expanded 'director's cut' running 155 minutes which pads the narrative with pointless dialogue exchanges, turning a tightly constructed disaster thriller into an endless yak-fest. Stick with the original.

There is no doubt that Irwin Allen's killer bee thriller "The Swarm" is considered by most people who have seen it as one of the worst motion pictures ever made. Movie critics came down hard on it when first released in 1978, putting it on their lists as one of the worst movies of the year. I hate to admit this, but "The Swarm" is one of my guilty pleasures. Sure its a bad film, but I found myself kinda liking it anyway. I don't know why. If it weren't so stupid like Allen's other disaster epics, this would be a great film. But its stupidity keeps this from being a classic. However it can be considered a classic on another level, a camp classic. To watch all these wonderful actors (Michael Caine, Katherine Ross, Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Richard Chamberlain, Olivia De Havilland, Fred MacMurray, Ben Johnson, Lee Grant, Jose Ferrer, Patty Duke, and Slim Pickens) in a movie featuring some of the most laughable dialogue ever heard is kind of a shame (seven of those actors are Oscar winners!), but the scenes when the bees are on screen attacking everybody and destorying property are entertaining. The special effects are mediocre to be sure, but not as bad as they were in Irwin Allen's dreadful "When Time Ran Out" which came out two years after this. I dunno. "The Swarm" is no doubt one of the strangest movies I've ever seen. Bad movie buffs will lap this up. The raising question I ask myself about this film is "How can you like a movie that is so badly made?" The answer is "I don't know." I did like some of it, but surely not enough to recommend it. I give "The Swarm" a mixed review.

**1/2 (out of four)

Michael Caine should have got his Oscar for uttering that line.

I was actually scared by this movie on TV when I was young because of the scene of the children being "swarmed" at recess. Yet a quarter of a century later, I had to get the DVD because this is one movie guaranteed to cheer me up. It's all been said in other comments - cheese, camp, so bad it's good. Ed Wood would be proud.

The scenes between Caine's scientist and Widmark's general are all classics. The icing on the cake is the two scenes with Slim Pickens. And the debate between Caine and Chamberlain over whether the bees should be called African or Brazilian. By the way, why does Richard Chamberlain look like he's on a break from a touring company of Victor/Victoria?

One plus of the DVD version is a half hour behind the scenes feature: "Inside the Swarm". You get to see several of the actors talk with utmost sincerity (and straight faces!) about the "real" dangers of killer bees.

The folks who wrote "Airplane!" couldn't even make a parody of this -- it's already hysterical.

As a point of reference, I don't rate every other movie I see a 1/10. Of the 1,005 movies I've bothered to rate over the past few years, I've only given 20 of them a 1/10. It takes a "special" movie can join the ranks of Prime Evil, The Creeping Terror, and Curse of the Swamp Creature. The Swarm is one of those "special" movies. Watching The Swarm is something of an endurance test. At one point, I felt like I had been sitting and watching for days. I checked the counter and discovered I had only seen 76 minutes - I still had another 80 minutes left to go.

So what went wrong? In a word - everything. As I've already indicated, The Swarm is dull and tedious. If I'm ever forced to watch this movie again, I can only hope it's the 116 minute version and not the 156 minute director's cut. In addition, the characters do and say the most unrealistic things. Take the movies supposed hero played by Michael Caine and the General played by Richard Widmark. Every conversation these two have is full of absolute nonsense and done in volumes usually reserved for football games. The fact that these two NEVER attempt to work together to accomplish anything is ridiculous. Or, take the fact that Caine's character, who has been appointed by the White House to head up the operation, spends more time tracking down a 10 year-old runaway than he does finding a solution to the bee problem. Unrealistic. The Swarm also features a couple of the most inane love story subplots I've seen. The first features Caine and Katharine Ross who never seem to get beyond admitting they "like" each other. How old are these people? 12? The second is the senior citizen love triangle that goes nowhere and has no real purpose. It's like watching a bad episode of "The Love Boat". Finally, some of the acting is downright atrocious. Caine and Ross are good actors when given decent material. But in The Swarm, Caine appears to be in it solely for the paycheck and Ross acts as if she realizes how bad it is and just wants out.

Picking the negatives out of The Swarm is like shooting fish in a barrel - it's impossible to miss. And I haven't even discussed the plot - killer African bees threaten the Southwest. Not a bad idea, but the execution in The Swarm is the worst.

In the 1970s, Irwin Allen had a string of hits using the same formula. He'd hire a bunch of A-list actors to appear in his films as 'guest stars' and then put them in the middle of some disaster such as an earthquake, shipwreck or a giant fire. While these films were pretty mindless and silly, they made lots of money...until "The Swarm". In contrast to his previous films, "The Swarm" kept the public away in (dare I say) swarms. It lost many millions--so much that Allen stopped making these mega-budgeted movies*. Frankly, this wasn't such a bad thing as the noted producer/director had simply gone to the well one time too many and the public was sick of these sort of pictures. Still, you have to wonder if despite all this, is "The Swarm" a decent film? Read on....

When the film begins, a variety of bee-induced accidents occur. When a top beeologist (or whatever you call them) tries to help, Dr. Crane (Michael Caine) is treated like dirt by the military, particularly General Slater (Richard Widmark). Grudgingly, they allow him to help but what can they do with some seriously nastified Africanized bees?! Not much--at least for much of the film, as you see tons of folks being attacked by these nasty bugs. Time and again, folks writhe about with bees or stunt bees buzzing about them.

Technically speaking, this film really isn't much different from other Allen mega-pictures. The characters are shallow and underdeveloped and writing is certainly NOT a strong point in the film. What sets this one apart is the bee attacks. While Allen and his staff tried hard to make it look realistic, watching famous and respected actors writhing about and thrashing as they're supposedly being killed by bees is unintentionally hilarious! Seeing someone burned to death in "The Towering Inferno" or drowning in "The Poseidon Adventure" isn't funny and really couldn't be. That is the main difference between "The Swarm" and previous Allen epics. Seeing Olivia de Havilland (one of my favorite actresses) moaning is funny! How often can you see super- famous Oscar-winning actress embarrass herself like this?! And don't just blame her...lots of other very respected actors appear in this silly film. However, the funniest acting is by the extras--as folks being attacked by bees invariably drive into walls (and explode), run about screaming as they're engulfed in flames and generally just run amok!!

"The Official Razzie Movie Guide" listed this film in their book of biggest mistakes in Hollywood history. Given that their list is heavy on the films of the last 40 years and how much money the film lost, I think it's a reasonable inclusion. But this does not mean its a horrible film--far worse have been made over the years. But few lost as much money as this one did and made bigger fools of a bunch of famous actors.

*Allen did make "Beyond the Poseidon Adventure" a few years after this film but with many more B-listers in the film and a budget a tiny fraction of "The Swarm".

A disaster of a movie but not the kind of disaster the film makers intended. Just awful movie with inept "special" effects and a host of usually fine actors giving atrocious performances. Katharine Ross in particular is terrible, beyond wooden to positively inert but Caine is hardly better. The only one who is seemingly trying to earn his paycheck is Richard Widmark who gives his all while surrounded by bored costars. Although who can blame them with a script that stinks like year old cheese. Let's hope they were well paid. Do yourself a favor and don't watch. If you have to see a bee disaster movie seek out "Killer Bees" a TV movie with Gloria Swanson and Kate Jackson which at least is entertaining.

Highly enjoyable (and very expensive) flop from Irwin Allen, the Master of Disaster. Michael Caine, with help from a bunch of other famous actors, fight against a huge swarm of African killer bees and almost destroy the entire city of Houston in the progress. Try to get hold of the longer version (about half an hour longer than the original), which contain more drama and longer action scenes. Considered a turkey among most critics, but this film is far better than many recent box-office hits. Note that the local cinema is showing "The Towering Inferno".

The Swarm was one of Irwin Allen's later disaster films where he was forever trying to top what he did in The Towering Inferno. In fact he creates something of an inferno in this film.

African killer bees have arrived in the USA and are proving to be most hardy creatures. Their calling card to the United States is to invade a top secret missile silo in Texas and kill nearly all the personnel stationed there. That's how the film opens up with General Richard Widmark arriving to investigate and coincidentally finding Michael Caine, renowned entomologist there as well.

To make up for the lousy script, both Widmark and Caine take turns shouting at each other throughout the film. Maybe Widmark is jealous because Caine's got lovely Katherine Ross at his side. Anyway they are three of a whole bunch of film names that signed on for this disaster film, took their paychecks and ran.

I remember on the old Dobie Gillis television series, Bob Denver's character Maynard G. Krebs was forever talking about going back to see his favorite film, The Monster That Devoured Cleveland. In this film Richard Widmark is the monster who set fire to Houston after the bees decide to make Houston their home. Actually he was partially on track in how to ultimately fight them.

The Swarm marked the farewell performance of Fred MacMurray. He, Ben Johnson and Olivia DeHavilland have a senior citizen romance thing going as citizens of the small town of Marysville Texas. The bees come there because they are having their annual flower festival. Couldn't resist that if you're a bee.

For fans of disaster films and stargazers only. By the way, does anyone else think Michael Caine sounds an awful lot like the Geico Gecko?

Saying that The Swarm is a disaster of a disaster movie would be a slap in the face to the 'Master of Disaster', Irwin Allen. True, is does seem a bit hokey in its approach of displaying the killer bees. However, it does play on the fear of bees (this film is DEFINITELY NOT for those who have the deathly fear of bees)rather well. It doesn't always work, but it's still pretty good. A true highlight is Jerry Goldsmith's score. You don't have to see the movie to hear his score. The score is truly one of his best, in my opinion. The cast reads like a Who's Who in cinema of the 60's and 70's. Out of the many seen in the movie, Richard Widmark, Katharine Ross, Michael Caine, and Henry Fonda truly stand out. By the way, this was Fred MacMurray's final film. Though mainly ignored when it debuted in 1978, it has now achieved somewhat of a cult status.

The subject line says it all: this is a B-Movie about, well, bees. Sorry about the pun! Despite the big budget and big cast, this essentially is an old 1950's style B-Movie, and in that way it works very well as a guilty pleasure. Mixing together the cliched concepts of both a creature feature with a 70's disaster epic, what The Swarm ends up as is not quite exactly either one, but certainly a good part of both. The effects are good but not great, some of the performances are pretty good (Richard Widmark I thought played Slater very well), and it kept my interest for its entire (extended) running time. This one is worth checking out if you are a fan of Irwin Allen, bug movies, or 70s-style monster movies.

This movie begins with a small squad of armed airmen clothed in chemical protective gear cautiously entering a small Air Force substation near the town of Marysville, Texas. Upon their initial investigation they find several dead bodies and an unauthorized civilian named "Brad Crane" (Michael Caine) on the premises. It soon turns out that Brad Crane is a world famous etymologist who believes that billions of mutant African killer bees are responsible for the deaths of these airmen. Not long afterward the search party subsequently finds a medical doctor by the name of "Captain Helena Anderson" (Katherine Ross) who was hiding in a sealed room and she reports that there are a handful of wounded airmen with her in need of serious medical treatment due to bee stings. This report validates what Brad Crane has told them and as more reports come in about deaths related to these swarms of African killer bees. In no time the military turns over all of the resources they have to him but even with the excellent team of scientists that Brad Crane manages to obtain the situation soon becomes even more perilous. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this was much better than a similar film by the name of "The Bees" which was made during the same year. For starters, the director (Irwin Allen) made good use of the CGI technology available at the time which certainly helped to some degree. Likewise, he also managed to assemble an all-star cast as well. Additionally, unlike the previously mentioned film of the same year, the ending wasn't nearly as ridiculous. In short, although this movie has its faults and certainly won't appeal to everyone, I found it somewhat entertaining and I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Irwin Allen's first two disaster movies, "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" worked as above average productions because there always seemed to be one foot in the ground of pseudo-reality that made you feel compelled by what you saw. But more importantly, Allen had competent directors like Ronald Neame and John Guillermin handling the actors and the end-result usually produced good performances, considering the material (especially Steve McQueen in "Inferno.") Unfortunately, with "The Swarm" Allen went to the well once too much and served up a more outlandish kind of disaster story, and to complicate matters further he took over the director's chores himself and boy does it show. There is literally no coherent story structure at all in this film, and the all-star cast is uniformly bad from top to bottom. What was Allen thinking with that pointless love-triangle plot involving the over-the-hill gang of Fred MacMurray, Ben Johnson and Olivia de Havilland? Did he really expect people to take seriously lines like "The bees have always been our friends!" or "Attention, a swarm of killer bees is coming this way!" This is the kind of movie that might have worked as a short, low-budget B/W flick in the 50s (okay, a "B" movie, no pun intended) but as a follow-up to solid efforts like "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno" this film is only good from a silly camp standpoint.

Others have written much better synopses than I can. I'd rather give some historical context to this movie.

There was a shift in cinematography in the 1970s as a response to the loss of the Vietnam War, the distrust of government following Water Gate, and repeated environmental disasters like the Cuyahoga River Fire. This movie, albeit cliché and contrived, exemplifies this: the bees are an environmental mutation, the military just wants to nuke the bees, but the scientists refuse, and the protagonists shouts down the general stating that the bees annually pollinate billions of dollars worth of crops and people would starve. The nuclear power plant manager ignores the scientists' advice creating a nuclear explosion.

The miltary is heavy handed and incompetent. The population is under threat because of the environmental disaster of migratory and mutated bees. Nuclear power is dangerous - even if just used for electricity generation. The towns people themselves are oblivious and helpless to what is happening to them. Even the end has an ominous warning: "if we use our time wisely, the world just might survive."

If one wants to watch this from an analyticals perspective regarding subliminal take on popular culture's turn against the Cold War dominating the United States for the last 3 decades, have a gander. Or, if you like cheesy monster movies, give it a spin.

But otherwise, it's overripe with a flimsy, cheesy, and predicatable plot, generic dialogue, and a laughable premise. As such, I'd tell most people to pass on it.

A good example high caliber actors honoring their commitment to do their best in a poorly written movie.

They must have sensed from the second day of shooting what a mess they were involved in, but they kept going and finished the job. That is admirable.

I remember very well paying money to see this movie. I love bad campy movies, but this is really bad. I remember looking at my watch a lot during this one. I also remember when one character says something like "what can kill them?" some joker in the audience said show them this movie. It was the only truly entertaining part of this film. I love almost everything Irwin Allen has ever done, but not this. The movie is about a swarm of bees that for some reason goes around stinging people to death. You find out what causes them to do so at the end of the movie. The cast of the movie is amazing. Henry Fonda, Michael Caine, etc. This movie has more Oscar winners then most, but it does not do any good.

I just ran across The Swarm on cable TV and sat watching in horror, not because of the killer bees but because of the incredibly wooden acting by an all-star cast! This flick shows that a bad plot, bad script, and bad directing can produce bad performances from Oscar winners like Henry Fonda and Michael Caine. Like the Jaws sequel he so often mentions, I hope Caine bought himself something nice with the proceeds of this clunker. Katherine Ross holds a special place in my heart because I met her on the set of The Hellfighters in 1968 (a movie that really WAS made in Houston) but it was painful to watch her plod through this one.

As for the special effects, The Swarm was made in the era of Star Wars with none of George Lucas' magic. The train scenes are particularly pathetic. My own HO model railroad was more realistic! Irwin Allen should have been ashamed of himself.

I saw this movie a long time ago when I was little. All I remember were some bees that attack some town and that people were running around screaming trying to seek cover indoors.

I also remembered that it was called "The Swarm".

Now that I'm all grown up, I thought I might try to hunt that little movie down at the video store and watch it again. I located the video on the bottom shelf in the "Action" section of the video store. The cover had long been faded, but I recognised the "boxed" faces of Olivia, Henry, Fred, Richard, Michael and Katharine below big red letters that read "The Swarm". The first thing I thought was, "Wow! I don't remember all these actors being in this!" The second thing I thought was, "Wow! I can finally watch this again and appreciate all the new things I missed out on when I was a naive young little boy!"

Oh boy, was I in for a surprise!

When I put the video cassette in my VCR, some fool had forgotten to rewind it. As I rewound the film, I thought to myself, "How dare he treat this classic with such disrespect!" When the movie started, the opening titles boomed the names of Oscar winning stars and well-known faces to both the silver screen and the television screen. After I recognised about twelve names in secession of each other, I thought I was about to witness a lost film of epic proportions.

Unfortunately, I sat through about 2 and a half hours of bad acting, bad scriptwriting and EXTREMELY bad special effects. What looked like stock footage of a swarm of bees placed onto a film of people running around trying to look scared turned out to be something that made me feel like an idiot. Most disaster films have some sort of a background plotline running through it. In this film, it was about some ridiculous love triangle going on between Olivia De Havilland, Ben Johnson and Fred MacMurray. They bicker whilst preparing for the town festivities. They bicker while the bees attack them. They bicker on the trail as it derails and plunges into a fiery explosion. In what may have been one of Olivia's finest performances (closely behind "Lady In A Cage"), she spends one scene shouting into the school P.A. system, "There is a swarm of bees heading this way!" I kept hoping that the camera would catch a small smirk on her face while she said it, but she looked all too serious.

Henry Fonda makes a 2 minute cameo appearance in a wheelchair predicting where and when the bees will attack next. Richard Widmark plays a megalomaniacal military officer who thinks that the best way to erradicate the "bee problem" is to hose them with fire (!!). Michael Caine and Katharine Ross spend a good part of the movie racing around trying to either catch up with the bees or run away from them. I'm not sure that they could make up their minds half the time as to what they were supposed to be doing. The rest of the supporting cast spend their precious four minutes on screen running around screaming and flailing their arms in the air as the stock footage of bees swarm around them.

Richard Chamberlain turns in one of his most campiest performances to date. His grand finale is in a nuclear power plant that explodes with about as much excitement and authenticity as an episode of "Thunderbirds".

The screen extras were basically paid to scream one line only, "The bees are coming!... The bees are coming!".

When the credits finally rolled,(and my eyes finally stopped), I hit the eject button on my VCR, drove tight-lipped and pale-faced and returned the movie to the video store. The only understanding I got out of renting this movie was why the previous viewer before me never rewound the movie.

If you want to see a movie where Oscar winners and much-cherished film veterans drive a stake through their movie careers and announce either their retirement from the industry on the spot or on this planet altogether, then you should rent this movie.

If you want to have a good laugh - forget this movie. Rent "Dawn of the Dead" instead. At least the zombies had more life in that movie.

0/10

Killer bees attack residents in a small town preparing for a flower festival. Fred MacMurray begs Olivia de Havilland to marry him and she looks to the heavens with a glowing, "Oh, how lucky I am!" (they both perish.) When the train--packed full of stock characters--derailed, the theater audience I saw this with actually cheered; too bad producer Irwin Allen wasn't aboard. This film ranks right up there with Allen's "When Time Ran Out...", still to this day the reigning champ of bad cinema. The special effects are actually very good, but the script is so lame and the direction so stilted that the results are not uneven so much as they are unintentionally funny. B-grade actors like Richard Chamberlain must've been mighty grateful for Irwin Allen's disaster films (and the chance to work in big-budget productions), but that's no excuse for Michael Caine's limp appearance. Had Mel Brooks put his name on it, "The Swarm" might have been the top comedy of its year. NO STARS from ****

"The Swarm" has its share of flaws, no doubt about that: it's overlong, it's filled with genre cliches (many veterans cast in pointless supporting roles, indifferent romances) and it's occasionally overacted, especially by Michael Caine, who has a role far below his abilities. However, those who are calling it "terrible" and "campy" are REALLY overdoing it. The special effects are actually FIRST-RATE and most of the attack sequences are utterly convincing. Don't judge the film on the basis of its bad reputation; watch it for yourself and you'll discover that, while it's not an "art" film, it's an agreeable way to kill two hours.

Lousy catastrophe movie by usual Irwin Allen with ordinary big actors and embarrassing filmmaking. Michael Caine plays a scientist fends off a swarm along with Katharine Ross . It is a swarm of killer bees causing death, destruction and wreak havoc. While the military high staff : Richard Widmark, Bradford Dillman, Cameron Mitchell attempt to take extreme measures. Later on, the feared swarm attacking Houston . Monsters by the millions - and they're all for real! This is more than a movie. It's a prediction! The most terrifying thing about THE SWARM is that it is based on Fact: It exists. Fact: It has awesome destructive power. Fact: We don't know how to stop it. It is more than speculation... it is a prediction! ...is here!

Low-brow insect movie with absurd script, primitive effects and average acting. This is a failed and boring catastrophe movie that even a wasted all-star cast cannot save .Disastrous catastrophe movie in which lacks characterization , being an immense bore . Silly screenplay by the prestigious Stirling Silliphant who was presumably well paid . Ridiculous and absurd FX, in fact the bees are really just black spots painted on the movie . This formula intrigue movie belongs to catastrophe genre of the 70s , being the undisputed king , ¨The towering inferno¨ along with ¨Earthquake¨ , ¨Two minutes warning¨ and many others ; this formula disaster movie was widely developed by Irwin Allen , previously winner of numerous Oscars for ¨Poseidon¨ until the failures as ¨Beyond Poseidon¨, ¨Swarm¨ and ¨When the time ran out¨ , retitled ¨Earth's final fury¨ . Filmed at the height of the disaster genre from the 7os , this entry in the spectacular series profits of an all-star though really wasted and a suspenseful final that takes place at the ocean . It is really a B movie on bees, but it is still better than "The Bees" film. However, the main and support cast are very good but extremely wasted, giving mediocre performances such as : Michael Caine Richard Widmark, Richard Chamberlain, Henry Fonda, Ben Johnson, Olivia De Havilland, Fred McMurray , Patty Duke Astin , Slim Pickens , Bradford Dillman , Alejandro Rey , Don 'Red' Barry and many others.

Atmospheric photography in Panavision by Fred J. Koenekamp . Intriguing and thrilling score by Jerry Goldsmith in his usual style . This big-budgeted disaster movie was badly directed by Irwin Allen ; this was his big flop . It was the ¨Swam Sing¨ by Irwin Allen, a great producer and director that financed several disaster movies . Rating : 3.5/10 . Inferior disaster movie and bottom of barrel.