Elsewhere in the world this evening, Endeavor launched into Earth’s orbit. I guess it is somewhat fitting, then, that my wife & I are watching the Robert E. Wise film The Andromeda Strain.
I’ve never seen this movie before, but it is slightly notable for a few reasons:
- This may be the first movie for which I ever voluntarily read the book first.
- Robert E. Wise attended the same high school as I did: Connersville High School
- Michael Crichton, author of The Andromeda Strain passed away recently, after a struggle with cancer.
We’re still in the middle of the movie, but I’m enjoying it. In some ways, it reminds me of 2001: A Space Odyssey, with the glaring difference that The Andromeda Strain actually makes sense.
Everything I remember from the book — which I read eleven or so years ago — is in the movie, except for one notable element — notable because it was a question I had to answer to show that I had actually read the book.
In the book, the underground installation that most of the story takes place at was guarded externally by several attack dogs — dogs which have had their vocal chords removed, making them literally silent by deadly. Unless I missed it, there were no such dogs in the film.
And the book was definitely better.
Just sayin’.