Beginning
of the End is a seminal movie in the Bert I. Gordon filmography. It was the first time he took something that’s
usually small and turned them into giant monsters. He’d later go on to make spiders, ants,
chickens, and Beau Bridges into giants using cut-rate special effects, but he
perfected the formula in this film using locusts.
It’s
a typical effort from Mr. B.I.G. It
lacks the pathos of The Amazing Colossal Man, the out-and-out fun of Earth vs.
the Spider, and some of the dopey charm of Village of the Giants. However, you can tell Gordon took what does
work here and put it to better use in his later movies.
Peter
Graves stars as an entomologist using radiation to grow enormous vegetables. Some grasshoppers find their way into the
greenhouse, eat the food, and turn into giant killers. It’s then up to Peter to figure out a way to
stop them before they level Chicago.
Of
course, Gordon tries to convince us that they’re “locusts” to make it sound
biblical and shit, but let’s face it. They’re
grasshoppers. It’s a goofy monster to pin an entire movie around, that’s
for sure. Still, that’s kind of what
makes it watchable. Unfortunately, things
start off awful slow and Gordon resorts to a lot of stalling tactics to keep
the giant grasshoppers off screen for as long as possible. (There are a lot of long shots of people
driving.) Once Graves shows up, it
improves greatly.
The
effects of forced perspective grasshoppers interacting with stock footage and
army men are often hilarious. I
especially love the ending where they walk on postcards of buildings and Gordon
tries to pass it off as giant grasshoppers swarming Chicago landmarks. You won’t take a moment of it seriously, but
you’ll probably find yourself enjoying it more often than not.
