''The Hellstrom Chronicle'' is an American film released in 1971 which combines elements of
documentary,
science fiction
Science fiction (sometimes shortened to Sci-Fi or SF) is a genre of speculative fiction which typically deals with imaginative and futuristic concepts such as advanced science and technology, space exploration, time travel, parallel unive ...
,
horror
Horror may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Genres
*Horror fiction, a genre of fiction
** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction
**Korean horror, Korean horror fiction
* Horror film, a film genre
*Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...
and apocalyptic prophecy to present a gripping satirical depiction of the struggle for survival between humans and insects. It won the 1972 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was conceived and produced by
David L. Wolper
David Lloyd Wolper (January 11, 1928 – August 10, 2010) was an American television and film producer, responsible for shows such as ''Roots'', ''The Thorn Birds'', and ''North and South'', and the theatrically-released films ''L.A. Confident ...
, directed by
Walon Green
Walon Green (born December 15, 1936) is an American documentary film director and screenwriter, for both television and film.
Career
Green produced and directed documentaries for National Geographic and David Wolper, including ''The Hellstrom Chr ...
and written by
David Seltzer
David Seltzer (born February 12, 1940) is an American screenwriter, producer and director, perhaps best known for writing the screenplays for ''The Omen'' (1976) and '' Bird on a Wire'' (1990). As writer-director, Seltzer's credits include the ...
, who earned a
Writers Guild of America
The Writers Guild of America is the joint efforts of two different US labor unions representing TV and film writers:
* The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL–CIO
* The Writers Guil ...
Award nomination for his screenplay.
Plot
Fictitious scientist Dr. Nils Hellstrom (played by
Lawrence Pressman
Lawrence Pressman (born David M. Pressman; July 10, 1939) is an American actor, probably best known for roles on ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'', ''Ladies' Man'', a recurring role on '' Profiler'', the title character on ''Mulligan's Stew'' and as a f ...
) guides viewers throughout the film. He claims, on the basis of scientific-sounding theories, that insects will ultimately win the fight for survival on Earth because of their adaptability and ability to reproduce rapidly and that the human race will lose this fight largely because of excessive individualism. The film combines short clips from
horror
Horror may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
Genres
*Horror fiction, a genre of fiction
** Japanese horror, Japanese horror fiction
**Korean horror, Korean horror fiction
* Horror film, a film genre
*Horror comics, comic books focusing o ...
and science fiction movies with extraordinary camera sequences of butterflies, locusts, wasps, termites, ants, mayflies, other insects rarely seen before on film and insectivorous plants/insects.
Technical advisers
Roy Snelling
Roy R. Snelling (September 30, 1934, Turlock, California
Turlock is a city in Stanislaus County, California, United States. Its estimated 2019 population of 73,631 made it the second-largest city in Stanislaus County after Modesto.
Histor ...
and
Charles Hogue were entomologists at the
Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History
The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County is the largest natural and historical museum in the western United States. Its collections include nearly 35 million specimens and artifacts and cover 4.5 billion years of history. This large coll ...
.
Cast
*
Lawrence Pressman
Lawrence Pressman (born David M. Pressman; July 10, 1939) is an American actor, probably best known for roles on ''Doogie Howser, M.D.'', ''Ladies' Man'', a recurring role on '' Profiler'', the title character on ''Mulligan's Stew'' and as a f ...
- Dr. Nils Hellstrom
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
gave the film a 75% score based on reviews from 8 critics.
Green later called it "almost yellow-journally but good. We were giving the audience an elbow to the ribs every third line."
Awards
* 1972
Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature
An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...
* 1972
BAFTA Award - Best Documentary Feature
Home video
The film was released on DVD and
Blu-ray
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of sto ...
January 10, 2012 from Olive Films.
DVD Savant Review
/ref>
See also
* '' Phase IV''
* ''Hellstrom's Hive
''Hellstrom's Hive'' is a 1973 science fiction novel by Frank Herbert. It is about a secret group of humans who model their lives upon social insects and the unsettling events that unfold after they are discovered by a deep undercover agency of ...
''
* ''Watership Down
''Watership Down'' is an adventure novel by English author Richard Adams, published by Rex Collings Ltd of London in 1972. Set in Berkshire in southern England, the story features a small group of rabbits. Although they live in their natural ...
''
* ''The Plague Dogs
''The Plague Dogs'' is the third novel by Richard Adams, author of ''Watership Down'', about the friendship of two dogs that escape an animal testing facility and are subsequently pursued by both the government and the media. It was first pub ...
''
* '' The Adventures of Chatran''
References
External links
''The Hellstrom Chronicle''
at the David L. Wolper
David Lloyd Wolper (January 11, 1928 – August 10, 2010) was an American television and film producer, responsible for shows such as ''Roots'', ''The Thorn Birds'', and ''North and South'', and the theatrically-released films ''L.A. Confident ...
Co.
*
New York Times review
Review
''Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' by Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
Notes
at Turner Classic Movies
Turner Classic Movies (TCM) is an American movie channel, movie-oriented pay television, pay-TV television network, network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. Launched in 1994, Turner Classic Movies is headquartered at Turner's Techwood broadcasti ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hellstrom Chronicle
1971 films
Best Documentary Feature Academy Award winners
American documentary films
Documentary films about insects
1971 documentary films
Films directed by Walon Green
The Wolper Organization films
Films scored by Lalo Schifrin
1970s English-language films
1970s American films