Customer Reviews

Phase IV

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Phase IV (Saul Bass, 1974)

Mid-seventies killer-bug flick of the type that was so popular right about then, but pretty good for having such a sedate pace. Two scientists, Lesko (Michael Murphy) and Hubbs (Nigel Davenport), head out into the American desert to study killer ants, but soon find those ants are far more intelligent than they-- or anyone-- had originally believed. After their initial attempt to kill the ants, they find Kendra (the late Lynne Frederick) hiding in the basement of a nearby house, and she, too, becomes part of the team when the ants isolate their base and start with concerted attacks.

Unlike most killer-bug movies, the ants in Phase IV never really show any supernatural powers; they do their thing not by having super-instincts (or, god help us, telekinesis), but by doing what ants do-- chewing through wires, building nests, biting people, that sort of thing. (Well, okay, not the whole time. But the supposed supernatural-ant-powers that crop up we never get any details about. It's like showing the monster's shadow rather than spending $15 million on special effects to show the monster, and by the time you get that far, it's almost believable.) It's almost minimalist in comparison to such flicks as Them! or Night of the Lepus. And therein lies its strength; the horror of the thing is that it halfway makes sense. It doesn't bludgeon the viewer about the head in any way.

This was Bass' only feature-length film (he spent most of his career as a title designer), and it makes one wonder what could have been had he chosen to direct a few more movies. Well worth seeking out. *** ½

...one of my favorite science fiction films is released on DVD. Why did this take so long? Good transfer and widescreen, but no extras (see 42nd Street Forever Vol. 3: Exploitation Explosion for a trailer).

Phase IV is almost too obscure to approach a cult film status. I'd consider the story to be "hard" science fiction - an emphasis on science rather than fantastic plot devices. Amazing photography of real ants gives Phase IV the feel of a documentary. This is the only feature-length film directed by Saul Bass.

The fragments of information surrounding this production spells sort of a tragedy, I think. I was given the impression that Saul Bass (Director) had been eager to create films of his own, was afforded very little opportunity to do so, and exhausted many of his connections to assemble and fund Phase VI, which ended up a commercial failure and was later relegated to late night TV reruns and low rating time-slots, soon after it's theatrical stagnation and fiscal no-show. Saul is quite famous for his visual acuity, creating title sequences for several dozen films, many of them impressive, and designing movie posters, mostly. In his resume are a few short films as well, one being a promotional film for Solar Energy, which can be found on Youtube, along with several interviews. He also worked with Hitchcock on Psycho and one can find some interesting controversies surrounding the production of that film, specifically regarding accreditation for certain scenes.

Subsequently lost to Phase IV was a Kubrick-like montage, tailing the film and comprising the ending, which had been removed from the original film without consultation with Saul himself and which the studio felt muddled the effect of the ending or confused the audience. This was done prior to release for purely commercial reasons and as one would expect outraged the director. Unfortunately, this sequence is not included on the DVD, nor can it be found online, although fragments can be viewed in the trailer of the film.

Also of note: this DVD offers little in the way of extras, presumably there aren't many regardless, but this isn't quite the selling point. For a while Phase IV has basked in obscurity, and it's a blessing to see it in such relatively high quality on the DVD format. As far as I know the aspect ratio of the original film differs from the 1.78:1 format found on the DVD, but the ratios were close enough for a beautiful transfer. The picture is adequately clear, surprising considering how little the source material was likely valued by its keepers, and the packaging is what one would expect, and is minimal, hardly an issue for me personally.

Visually, as in from an artistic standpoint, the film is a mixed bag. Scenes on the farm plot are a bit mediocre but the insect sequences, the desert landscapes, the geometrically abstract, seemingly Easter Island inspired monoliths and the clever use of macro lenses, the color palette and desolate feel of the yellow poison sequences and set designs are all beautifully done and inspiring. Good things can be said for the hard-suit designs as well, which contrast nicely with the environment and alien undertones. I believe there's a lot of merit in the film just from a visual standpoint, and although clunky and somewhat campy at times, the dialogue is dry enough to suspend disbelief if one is forgiving of certain lines and shortcomings, which do tend to interject themselves, specifically regarding the sonic messages delivered by the ants a la geometrical symbolism: the interpretation there is just a tad bit far fetched and the revelations in the thinking-out-loud mind of the biologist a bit beyond belief and awkward. Also, the romantic interest involved is a bit contrived, hyper-developed, unfortunately tacked on, which is not a new thing in Hollywood trends and tends to be expected. The film still manages to be believable. This is mainly due to the excellent sound design, the music especially being stellar, the very moderate and mostly implied presence of the insects "out there" and only a few examples of direct confrontation, and the general feeling of dread maintained mostly throughout (whilst the insects are shown, direct human-insect interaction is thankfully moderate and therefore we get less a sense of disbelief, such as one gets with movies involving murderous dolls or toys). This is what low budgets tend to do sometimes, in the hands of a skilled director, budgetary restraints can actually increase the value of the film, as scenes are well planned and tasteful, rather than absurd and DIRECTLY impacting. The terror is mostly psychological.

Regardless of the flaws in the script, and regardless of some banal scenes mucking up what is otherwise an inspired visual poem, I love this film. I'm very glad it was finally released and that I can relive some memories of my childhood, watching a taped version of this, or whenever it aired on TV. I've grown to appreciate the film much more since then, and would recommend it to any forgiving person interested in brooding science fiction or inspired visual design, or in the possible tragedy of Saul's stunted career as a director, which might have been exceptional.

PHASE FOUR is an effectively creepy science fiction film that uses a semi-documentary cinematic style to present a scaled down version of man in an Armaggedon against intelligent ants. Hollywood has used ants before but most often in Big Bug presentations like THEM or heroic encounters between the stalwart lead and a voracious ant army as in THE NAKED JUNGLE. Here, director Saul Bass opted to place the viewer "in medias res," that is he uses a voice over narrative of Michael Murphy to announce that an ant colony has taken over a town in the American desert and he and fellow scientist (Nigel Davenport) have been dispatched to learn how to terminate this latest threat to man's supremacy. Bass wisely chose to divide the film into four "phases" with each phase corresponding to a plan eminating from some far distant extraterrestrial source that focuses on giving earth's ants the capability to co-operate with each other to annihilate humanity. Further, this intergalactic radio wave boosts the ants' intelligence such that they now can think and plan in a collective gestaltic hive, much like the Borg collective from Star Trek.

The action of the film seems deceptively simple--at least at first. Murphy and Davenport study the ants to probe for weakness. They try different means to slow their rate of reproduction. Then, to their horror, they learn that it is they who are being studied. Murphy and Davenport learn to communicate with the Queen ant via radio wave signals. What these signals mean is unclear. Complicating matters is the entrance of Lynne Frederick, who promptly gets annoyed at the ants for killing her grandparents and takes a wrench (literally) to a glass case that serves as a study receptacle for selected ants. The ants are always one step ahead of Murphy and Davenport. What makes PHASE FOUR so effective is that, except for the ants' uncanny ability to work together against humanity, they are pictured as ordinary garden variety ants. The film merely suggests that there is a Master Plan at work in the ants' minds. That we have to guess this plan is what invests the film with its staying power. The ending--which I shall not reveal here--is the only false note of intellectual chicanery that director Bass could not resist inserting. Still, PHASE FOUR is a stimulating if deliberately slow-paced journey into the recesses of the imagination that demand of the viewer time to think about what appears on the screen before rushing to a judgment which in any case is tantalizingly downbeat as to the prospect of who will win this war.

Following a unique, but only vaguely defined, cosmic event which apparently bathes the Earth in electromagnetic radiation, biologist Ernest Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) begins to notice an abrupt paradigm shift in the behaviour of an ant population living in a remote valley region of Arizona. Nervous about the potential connotations of this behaviour, as well as the mysterious disappearance of virtually all of the ants natural predators in the area, and the resultant threat of biological imbalance, Hubbs, accompanied by game theorist and data analyst Jay Lesco (Michael Murphy), retreats to an experimental research station/bunker in the valley to study the phenomena and eradicate the source of potential threat to man's status as Earth's dominant life-form.

"Phase IV" is, sadly, Saul Bass only foray into the world of feature film direction. Best known as the graphic designer responsible for the creation of the ground-breaking credit sequences for Hitchcock's "Psycho", "North By Northwest", "Vertigo" and "The Birds", he imbues his directorial debut with a hypnotic, abstract sense of menace through the use of striking cinematography and a haunting electronic score composed by Brian Gascoigne and "White Noise" alumnus, David Vorhaus. Mayo Simon's screenplay is a clinical study of obsession and brinksmanship which observes Davenport's initially coolly confident scientist driven to desperation after deliberately provoking an evolutionary skirmish that threatens not only his own life but man's continued existence on Earth. Interestingly, Bass imbues his tiny antagonists with a positively anthropomorphic sense of humanity which suggests that his sympathies may actually lie with them rather than his human protagonists; micro-photographic sequences of worker ants running a heroically moving terminal relay race with a lump of pesticide and apparently arranging their war dead in neat rows and mourning their loss have haunted me since I first saw this film as a child.

An intelligent, impressionistic slice of seventies science fiction cinema with a nicely ambiguous ending, "Phase IV" remains one of the most underrated and intelligent films in the `nature-gone-amok' canon of genre cinema. Although not without its faults - the pacing towards the end is somewhat problematic -, it remains a personal favourite of mine and will, I suspect, appeal to fans of the likes of John Boorman's "Zardoz" and Nicolas Roeg's adaptation of "The Man Who Fell To Earth".

I've been searching for this movie for years. I even ordered the action flick by the same title twice by mistake just hoping it would be the "ant movie". I've seen this movie once or twice as a kid/teen some 30+ years ago and never forogt about it. Right now all I recall is the different color poisons they used (which still for some reason connects with me as an influence on computer games) and how the ants jammed the driveshaft of a Jeep.
Of course now I am afraid that what fascinated me 30+ years ago will look or feel totally different. But this is cult to me and I am thrilled to finally see it available commercially. Why did it take that long? Why was a second, totally different movie allowed to go by the same title?
Not much of a movie review, but I like to share with likeminded people who remember this apparently rather obscure sci-fi/horror flick.
What seems funny to me is that I grew up with so many sci-fi/cult/existential movies of the '70s at a young age 5-10 yrs later (I am 1965) and at the time never captured their true meaning. Or before my time. Yet they were either cool, must-sees or had a certain of the "forbidden" by parents' standards (Vansihing Point, Yellow Submarine, Zardoz).
Yet I remember them more than later movies and would attribute to them a certain meaning and outlook on life if not also nostalgia.

If Phase IV were to be remade in 2008, brother, would it be bad. It would be polluted with CGI, the dialogue would consist of annoying catch phrases, there would be a stereotypical ethnic caricature or two, and the story would be dumbed down to accomodate the Roland Emmerich and Jerry Bruckheimer crowd. As it stands, it's still a pretty obscure film that I have not heard of until about 4 months ago.

The story is about a cosmic event (planetary alignment?) that forever alters the destiny of mankind. Some scientists see nothing coming from it, while others see the earth being torn about by the conflicting magnetic fields. What happens takes everyone by surprise because the changes affect something that most of us don't pay much attention to - ants. In a small Arizona community which could be indicative of the rest of the world, different ant species that would ordinarily be natural enemies have aligned with one another. Also, they have virtually eliminated the spider, beetle, and praying mantis populations that would prey upon them.

Two scientists, Ernest Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) and James Lesko (Michael Murphy), are sent to investigate this bizarre occurence. As the story progresses it becomes apparent that the two scientists have very different ways of solving the problem. Hubbs, who is the senior, believes it is a man-insect war in which only one species can win - and survive. Lesko, who specializes in cryptology, wants to try to communicate with the ants after he finds correlations between their movements and the signals they send to each other. Every measure that they take to learn about (or in Hubbs' case- combat) the ants is met with a countermeasure that strongly suggests that the insects' intelligence is growing geometrically.

Being totally unique in how it combines themes such as insect domination and evolution brought about by cosmic phenomena, Phase IV can seen as a cross between 2001 - A Space Odyssey and H.G. Wells' short story "Empire of the Ants" (which has little to do with the 1970s film starring Joan Collins). It has not much in the way of special effects since it insists on letting its ideas speak for it. What really makes the film is the stunning microphotography involving the ants themselves. I got a strange sense of enjoyment watching the scenes in which the little creatures were obviously communicating to each other or to the queen, but it was never made explicity clear what was being "said".

As good as Phase IV is in many regards, it suffers in a couple of others. For instance, Davenport's character degenerates into a typical mad scientist meets Captain Ahab. Also, English actress Lynne Frederick, who plays a teenage American girl, is just plain unbearable. She even slips on her accent in one scene. Great acting may not have been one the goals for the filmmakers here, but a grating "performance" such as hers is inexcusable.

Even if I can't quite call Phase IV a classic, I still found it pleasantly surprising. Some people may be put off by the low budget and the cheesy 1970s-ness of it all, but you could do worse by going to 3 or 4 out of every 5 movies the Hollywood Big Money puts out every Friday.

I have seen this film numerous times, starting when I was ten yrs old and it has always had a peculiar fascination for me. It moves a bit slower than most modern viewers are used to but its pretty compelling stuff.The ant photography is amazing. When I was a small boy and I heard about this I was expecting something along the lines of THEM! and anyone who has seen this knows it is about as far from that as you can imagine. But even as a youngster wanting something more un-subtle and action-oriented, I was not turned off by PHASE IV's slow art-film qualities.It is a shame Saul Bass never directed again because this was a valiant effort to do something a little different. I say bravo! Seen in wide-screen for the first time after years of TV viewings and the panned & scanned VHS the new DVD of Phase IV is a revelation. The compositions and use of color are masterful.

A rare astronomical event brings about a change on earth. In the Arizona desert, ants of various species join forces, wipe out all of their natural enemies, and wait. Man sets up a facility in the midst of the insects, attempting to find out what is happening and how to respond to it. It's collective force and instinct vs. human intelligence, as the ants seem to have an agenda of their own. PHASE 4 is one of the best sci-fi films of the 70s, perhaps ever! If you crave mentally stimulating, yet entertaining fare like 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN, or PLANET OF THE APES, then P4 should give you something to chew on...

I saw this a few times as a kid on local tv. I didnt get it then, just thought it "looked cool" and had awesome microscopic ant footage. It really does put you right there alongside the ants. I get it now and love it. Im glad this dvd finally became available on amazon, it was a bestbuy exclusive that soon became nearly impossible to find anywhere. It is an awesome movie and beautifully executed. Directed by title sequence legend Saul Bass (he did every title sequence for Hitchcock), the entire movie is an exercise in great visual composition and design. Interestingly, its small in scope, just a handful of characters in one location out west. But at times it feels vast (especially with all the ant footage) and it works and it is creepy. An unknown cosmic event has the earths scientists baffled as to how we will be effected. Will the oceans rise, will earth quakes destroy everything? One eccentric scientist discovers the effect of the phenomenon, and it nearly goes unnoticed. All the different species of ants begin uniting, killing their natural predators and constructing mysterious monoliths in the desert. Ive said too much, but if you like sci fi in the vein of 2001, the andromeda strain, and the like (made in the late 60s early 70s) then you will dig this movie.