Subject: REVIEW: VIRUS

From: [email-masked] (Mark R. Leeper)
Date: Mon, 5 Jun 1995 18:00:45 GMT

VIRUS
		      A film review by Mark R. Leeper
		       Copyright 1995 Mark R. Leeper

               Capsule: A glitzy, glossy story of an Ebola
          outbreak that sidesteps everything that would make
          the story really interesting and turns it into a
          cliched crime story.  There is a much more
          interesting story about Ebola going on in Zaire as
          I write this.  Rating: -1 (-4 to +4)

     Riding the tide of the current interest in emerging viral diseases
comes an NBC made-for-TV film, VIRUS, broadcast on Monday, May 8.  This
is Roger Young's adaptation of the novel OUTBREAK by Robin Cook with
Armand Mastroianni directing.  People who remember my review of the
recent movie OUTBREAK know I have a very specific interest in fiction
and non-fiction about emerging and extremely virulent diseases,
especially Ebola.  I suppose this is a morbid fascination, but in my
uninformed estimation, and that of a few other people I have read,
viral diseases, mostly being uncovered as Africa develops, constitutea
greater threat to human life than nuclear weapons ever did.  This is in
large part because, for now at least (and contrary to expectation),
humans are smart enough to restrain themselves from loosing the
destruction that a nuclear war would bring.  But a virus does not wait
for human permission to break out.  And the story of the Ebola virus is
far from over.  At the time OUTBREAK was released there had been three
acknowledged outbreaks of Ebola.  Ebola Zaire occurred in an isolated
region and it burned itself out quickly.  In some experts' opinions it
is still not clear why Ebola Sudan did not become a worldwide
catastrophe.  (Ebola Reston, chronicled in Richard Preston's best
seller THE HOT ZONE, apparently had only flu-like symptoms in humans.)
Since OUTBREAK was released there came to light rumors of a fourth
outbreak on the Ivory Coast last November.  And as I write this the
most important news story in the world--though certainly not the best
covered by the news media--is that there is a fifth outbreak of Ebola
in a population center in Zaire.  We are very likely still at the
really early stages of the story of the war between humans and the
Ebola virus.  We still do not know the animal host that serves as its
breeding ground, and it keeps on breeding.  And the forests of the
world may harbor hundreds of such viral diseases with which humans have
yet to make contact.

     Well, on a lighter note we have this film run on NBC, based on the
novel by Robin Cook.  Cook is absolutely the wrong person to write a
good thriller about Ebola.  He writes stories about conspiracies in or
near the medical community.  When you are writing a story about a
disease as dangerous as Ebola is all by itself, you do not need human
bad guys.  That is the same mistake that the film OUTBREAK made.  Here
it is not so much a mistake as a disaster.  While OUTBREAK soured in
the final third, this was a bad film almost from the word "go."  This
is primarily just a reprise of a favorite Hollywood plot of the damsel
fighting the nasty conspiracy or evil people.  Yes, this particular
outbreak of Ebola is brought on as a plot by some nasty villains who
have this reason why they want to see this potential worldwide
cataclysm take place.  The endangered damsel is Dr. Marissa Blumenthal
(played by Nicollette Sheridan), a brilliant new hire at the Center for
Disease Control.  She just happens to be drop-dead beautiful, wears
lots of makeup, and has carefully styled hair.  She looks just exactly
like any intelligent CDC doctor would never look.  And she is very
quickly getting all the plum responsibilities.  Of course there is some
suspicion that is because she is living with the influential Dr. Ralph
Harbuck (William Devane who acted with Sheridan previously on KNOT'S
LANDING).  Her success seems odd because she seems to have to have
explained to her some very obvious safety precautions in the maximum
security lab (like negative air pressure so air blows in rather than
out).  And if you see nothing ridiculous in someone in so important a
position knowing so little, wait until you hear the motive of the
conspirators!  I will not spoil the plot here, but it is a real doozy.

     VIRUS is a poorly conceived thriller that sidesteps everything
that really would be interesting about an Ebola outbreak in favor of an
overused plot.  I would give it a -1 on the -4 to +4 scale.

					Mark R. Leeper
					[email-masked]