Phase IV, 1974

The only feature-length film Saul Bass ever directed happens to be an eco-horror, featuring killer ants, colorful sprays, many sets of bare feet, and a lot of mystery. Starting at the top of the film, the mystery sets in, and the viewer isn't given many details about the intelligent-ant phenomena or how it occurred. The voice-over narration sets the anthropocentric perspective, explaining that "It happened in such a small, insignificant form of life." However, as far as screen time goes, the ants are not insignificant. We get a lot of ant footage: ants eating other bugs and animals, ants meeting up with one another in large groups, and ants building large geometric towers. It's a weird one, y'all. I would estimate that there are at least 30 minutes of screen time in an 84 minute film dedicated to ants crawling around in the Kenyan dessert, where the film was shot. An outside wildlife photographer named Ken Middleham shot the insect sequences. Middleham also shot the insect sequences for the 1971 film The Hellstrom Chronicle, which covers a similar human-insect struggle for planetary dominance.

Interestingly, Phase IV featured the first ever geometric crop circle. This was two years before modern reports of crop circles starting appearing in real life (Pilkington, 2010). Not only did Bass's film inspire agrarian art, it would also be followed by other killer-ant movies such as Empire of the Ants (1977), It Happened at Lakewood Manor (1977), Legion of Fire: Killer Ants! (1998), The Bone Snatcher (2003), and The Hive (2008). Of course, The Naked Jungle and Them! from 1954 likely influenced Bass in the making of his film. Additionally, Mandy (2018) director Panos Cosmatos cited Phase IV for its influence on his earlier film Beyond the Black Rainbow (Miller, 2012).

Although Phase IV is more of a muted and ethereal ecohorror film, which will frustrate some viewers, it does a good job of setting up and playing with ecological ideas. The two main scientists who study the ants in the film--Hubbs, played by Nigel Davenport and Lesko, played by Michael Murphy--represent two opposing ecological philosophies in their approach to the ants. Hubbs is a classic human supremacist who states that "man will not give in," as he seeks to use violence, explosions, and mass death to solve the ant "problem." Lesko, on the other hand, wishes to take an approach of understanding, attempting to learn the ants' language, get to the root of what they want, and come to an agreement to live peacefully together. And of course the argument could be made that the ants are simply a representation of human violence and dominance, mirroring back to the humans the destructive behavior which other creatures have endured for so long.

I think a lot about how to break human supremacist thinking, and what it might look like if we valued all living creatures as we do our own species. What would it look like to truly respect other animals, plants, and insects? To eliminate the hierarchical way of viewing the world (that we invented) would certainly improve the lives of other species and also the lives other human animals. Perhaps if we did so, the ants wouldn't be so angry.

References

Miller, Joshua. “INTERVIEW: Panos Cosmatos (Beyond the Black Rainbow).” CHUDcom INTERVIEW Panos Cosmatos Beyond the BlackRainbow Comments, 2012, chud.com/97657/interview-panos-cosmatos-beyond-the-black-rainbow/.

Pilkington, Mark. “History, the Hive Mind, and Agrarian Art.” The Anomalist, vol. 14, 2010.