Prophecy (dir. John Frankenheimer, 1979)
Rachel Carson published Silent Spring, a foundational work of the environmental movement, in 1962. In 1968, the American Indian Movement came into being, advocating for indigenous rights, occupying Alcatraz from 1969 to 1971 and was subject to intense scrutiny and harassment by local, state, and federal law enforcement. In 1970, Richard Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency. The Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade was decided in 1973, providing protections for women seeking abortion. And in 1979, a film touching on all these issues (and also a mutant bear) was released.
Robert Foxworth stars as Dr. Robert Verne, who has been tasked with the EPA to settle a dispute between a logging company and a Native American tribe. His wife, a cellist named Maggie (Talia Shire), who unbeknownst to him is pregnant, accompanies him. In rural Maine, he encounters the representatives of the two opposing sides: company man Bethel Isley (Richard A. Dysart) and the indigenous activists John and Ramona Hawks (Armand Assante [1] and Victoria Racimo). Verne also learns of missing people in the woods and a local legend about ‘Katahdin,’ a sort of nature spirit that takes the form of a bear. His investigation uncovers the use of pesticides that have tainted the groundwater and led to hyper-aggressive animals, odd plant growth, and of course, a huge killer bear with a really bad skin condition.
That’s the issue with Prophecy really. It’s a film that concerns itself with serious matters like the environmental impact of logging and industrial production, tribal sovereignty, and how a married couple makes family planning decisions, while also featuring a vicious raccoon attack and Armand Assante playing a Native American. It just doesn’t work very well. John Frankenheimer could be a talented filmmaker, and was able to incorporate serious themes in genre works like The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds, but Prophecy is closer to the Island of Doctor Moreau/Reindeer Games end of the scale.
[1] Yeesh…
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