Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

If you're interested in the topic at hand, you should just watch it and judge yourself because the reviews have gone very biased by people that didn't even watch it and just hate (or love) the creator. I liked it, it was well written, narrated, and directed and it was about a topic that interests me.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

A clunky actioner with a handful of cool moments.

"The Hellstrom Chronicle", a well-done science mocumentary, came more than thirty years before Al Gore's "An Inconvenient Truth," but the parallels are uncanny.Both movies received undeserved Oscars in the documentary field.Both were fake.Both fooled a lot of people who might otherwise have been assumed to be intelligent.The frightening differences are that "Hellstrom" did not spawn a religion of hysterical fanatics who want to destroy our quality of life and our economy."Hellstrom" was never used as a bible to brainwash college students and even innocent school children.The producer of "Hellstrom" was not given the Nobel Prize (presumably the Nobel still had some credibility in 1971).And "Hellstrom" was ultimately laughed off as a silly piece of entertainment.Which is exactly what should happen to "An Inconvenient Truth."

In 1971 a film arrived at our campus and our school was privileged to see it. Witness, would be a better word as what we learned was so fantastic. To ignore what was being shown and investigated, would be to doom our existence to the fact, we were warned of the impending doom and did nothing. The star of this film is the incredible and versatile insect as illustrated by a narrator/biologist Dr. Neil Hellstrom (Lawrence Pressman). His research takes the audience around the world in a desperate attempt to awaken our poor understanding of the mightiest creatures on the planet. Despite the fact man has the potential to destroy the world and its populations with his awesome weapons, it is the Insect who will eventually reclaim what's left. The film is informative and insightful as well as incredible with it special cameras going where only the mind can venture. Want to learn who our greatest enemy is? See this film and then guess which species will inherit the Earth. ****

This is one of few movies that actually make you feel changed inside afterwords. Even a famous Hollywood actress (whose name escapes me) said this is her favorite movie of all time.It presents convincing, even overwhelming evidence that the insects among us could easily take over the world if only THEY knew it.The photography, especially for the period, is impressive, even flawless. And the opening scene is the ultimate zoom in, from a balcony high over Central Park in New Youk City all the way down, down, down to ants fighting.In summation, it is truly a MUST see, most definitely. Do it!

For 10 plus years, "The Hellstrom Chronicle" was regularly plugged into the 2am/4am movie slot on a local station in the middle 80's through 90's. Too bad it couldn't get more coverage, because this is how a documentary should be made. The problem with documentaries is if you focus too much on the clinical data, it becomes dry. If yo try to interject drama into it, you run the risk of sending up the piece, into parody or even farce. Hellstrom interjects just the right amount of fiction, in the form of Lawrence Pressman, that links the documentary portions at a pace that keeps it from losing one's interest. It's obvious that "Dr." Hellstrom, a fictitious entomologist, is paranoid that insects will take over the world through their superiority over men. The most interesting thing, though, is he may very well be right! If the insect world footage has any say in how future matters may turn out, it will. Of particular interest is the portion of the footage devoted to the driver ants. As has been quoted in other reviews, this is a prime example of "How DID they film that?!" documentary in motion. It's an inspiration out of "Leinengen Vs. The Ants," only it's real! If you can find this "movie," give it a roll. Expand your mind a bit with some facts, while at the same time, become entertained by Dr. Hellstrom... even if he isn't a real doctor, but, he plays one on TV! (Actually, he did! Pressman went on to play one on Doogie Howser, M.D.)