Film Review: Endangered Species (1982)

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(source: tmdb.org)

New escalation of Cold War in early 1980s brought back concerns that US government, military and various shady intelligence agencies would use national security concerns as an excuse to start various sinister shenanigans, this time at the expense of US citizens on US soil. Some of those concerns inspired the authors of Endangered Species, 1982 thriller directed by Alan Rudolph.

Protagonist, played by Robert Urich, is Lt. Ruben Castle, veteran New York police detective with impressive career and drinking problem who decides to retire and try to starting new life somewhere more quiet. He comes with his rebellious teenage daughter Mackenzie (played by Marin Canter) to small town in Colorado where his old friend, crusading journalist Joe Hiatt (played by Paul Dooley) runs local newspaper. It is a low-crime community and newly elected female sheriff Harriet Perdue (played by JoBeth Williams) has little work to do, apart from series of mysterious cattle mutilations. While most locals blame satanic cults, mythical monsters or aliens, Harriet takes the case seriously, despite authorities being sceptical or influential local rancher Ben Morgan (played by Hoyt Axton) being openly hostile to any investigation. In the meantime Ruben, who is still struggling with drinking problem, feels attracted to Harriet and in the end decides to use his detective skills to help her with the investigation. He notices strange trucks roaming the roads and helicopters flying in the vicinity, and the trail leads to seemingly abandoned former nuclear weapons silos in the vicinity.

Although it looks like a science fiction at first glance, Endangered Species is actually a conspiracy thriller, very much like those that were in vogue in 1970s. Director Alan Rudolph, however, adds some very 1980s stylistic touches, like the cattle abductions and mutilations being portrayed from the perspective of the perpetrators, which are very quickly revealed to be government agents with some high-tech equipment. Another such detail is atmospheric electronic music by Gary Wright which, at times, tend to be a little bit more annoying. Rudolph seemed to be a strange choice for director, because his speciality were romantic dramas featuring eccentric lovers. Endangered Species at times seems to be exactly such kind of film, with Rudolph obviously more interested in quirky romance that features too much drinking, attempted rape and knee in the groin before it allows for the brief but steamy love scene in the shower. Unfortunately for Rudolph (and for the audience), all that government conspiracy and cattle mutilation business gets in the way. Rudolph is hardly at ease in such kind of genre territory and this is most obvious in the action-packed finale which is more confusing than exciting. The future validated some of the scriptwriters concerns later in the decade, because Cold War indeed served as an excuse for government to get conduct various illegal and shady operations, but its prophetic component is hardly the reason for modern viewers to waste time on this, sometimes interesting, but mostly failed film.

RATING: 4/10 (++)