"Andromeda Strain", CGI, Guns, and "Justified"

A few days ago Corrie and I watched The Andromeda Strain on our streaming Netflix. I found it a while ago and had it in the instant queue for a hot minute. I liked it, mostly, but pacing was not quite the strong point of the film. The realism I did enjoy. They stuck to a mostly "this is how this could play out" Wire-like scenario, which I appreciate.

I was impressed as well with what I thought were their (albeit crude) rudimentary computer graphics. later on (as in---just now) I learned that while they look like rudimentary graphics, they were in fact not CG, but a pretty cool effect created by Doug Trumball, the effects man from 2001: A Space Odyssey, and the son of Don Trumball, the effects man from The Wizard of Oz. Good job little Douggie.

There were two moments in the movie that made me take a double take. At two separate times officials came to get doctors/scientists and both times they were accompanied by military guys. Both times the messenger reported that there were "men outside, and they have guns." It was mentioned twice that guys with guns were outside, the emphasis on the gun aspect. It struck me that in 1971 it would be big news if men with guns showed up, and I guess that it could be true today. If armed cops came by your house you might get a little peeved, or anxious, or happy, considering the circumstances.

When the second messenger mentioned the guns I chuckled, remembering a scene in "Justified", a Timothy Olyphant vehicle on FX. Olyphant plays basically the same character he played in Deadwood, the HBO show about the territory town of the same name. That character, Seth Bullock, and the character from "Justified", Raylan Givens, are both run of the mill cowboy lawmen who are possibly the angriest humans ever, and prone to bursts of violence. Bullock might have been more dangerous, but Givens is set in contemporary Kentucky, which is one of the main conceits of the show. I'll have more to say about that--how a cowboy-era lawman fares in the modern world (the basis of the show)--later, but one scene was what I referenced right after that chuckle.

The second messenger mentions "they have guns", I laughed, and said, "Wow. Didn't we just see Raylan hiding beneath that window sill and then shoot that guy trying to climb in the bottom of his face, blowing the top of his head square off?"

"Justified" is on cable television, but it's still commercial television. It's got to be the most violent thing ever put on commercial TV, but I never watched "24". The desensitization of the public is complete in only 40 years.

I enjoy "Justified", but...the violence...I mean, the character Chris Partlow in The Wire is violent sum-bitch, but his acts of violence, however numerous, exist in his context maybe better than Raylan, but maybe that's the point, right? The anachronisms at the heart of the show...