The (re)value: Phase IV

Title: Phase IV

Director: Saul Bass

Year: 1974

IMDB

When one hears of a sci-fi film about the massing of hyper-intelligent ants one immediately constructs a mental imagine of something akin to Them! (1954) with its ridiculous, though iconic, monster ants barely functioning well enough to move.  However, Phase IV is an entirely different movie…and ant for that matter. Phase IV is nothing short of a sci-fi film for the “thinking man”.  While being fully aware of the genre’s motifs its cinematic approach is that of the art-house – a 70s psychedelic sci-fi trip shrouded in hordes of ants directed by the famous Academy Award winning graphic designer, Saul Bass.  For all this, its status in film history is nothing but a tragedy.  It’s the only feature film directed by Bass and it’s almost completely forgotten and certainly isn’t readily available for viewing.

The story is fairly simple: some undefined cosmic event occurs and augments ant evolution.  This particular desert colony ascends to an intelligent collective consciousness making the ants capable of communication and great terror.  The colony, per its aggressive expansion, drives out the local human population.  A scientific lab is established with our main scientist protagonists.  The proceedings eventually lead to a division between the two scientists and some inevitable chaos.

The brilliance of this film is the visual component.  The cinematography by Dick Bush (not kidding) is in line with the best of the 70s.  Furthermore, there are also a lot of interestingly beautiful shots of the colony and ant behavior.  Straight away at the start of the film we are presented some truly striking images of the ant intelligence movement for several minutes – no dialog, no humans, just cinematic language.

In short one could say, If you’re the type of person annoyed by a Space Odyssey or even Blade Runner, then you’re the type of person that shouldn't watch Phase IV.  However, if you’re a total cinephile and/or sci-fi nerd I highly recommend you seek out this hard to find, underrated, masterpiece – you will not regret it.