OUTBREAK. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen; written by Laurence Dworet and Robert Roy Pool; produced by Arnold Kopelson, Walfgang Petersen and Gail Katz for Warner Bros. Starring Dustin Hoffman, Rene Russo, Morgan Freeman and Donald Sutherland. Rated R (language, viral (not human) violence)
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The idea behind Outbreak is enough to make you break out in a cold sweat. When you fully understand it, that is.
One of the problems that much of the audience may have with this movie is that this understanding doesn't come too easily. But if you either know something about obscure viruses, or if you can keep up with the fast-moving script that rattles off some explanations at a double clip, and leaves others out altogether, you will be profoundly frightened by Outbreak.
The premise here is that a virus, no danger to humans while its rainforest habitat was sufficiently remote, can jump with deadly effect into our species when we start to crowd it. The scientific plausibility that saturates Outbreak, from the elaborate biohazard lab sets to the convincing jargon in the dialogue, isn't just for dramatic impact. This sort of thing could actually happen.
And if it should, I suppose we could do worse than to have someone like Daniels, Hoffman's character, on our side. Not always known for his roles in thrillers, Hoffman is nonetheless very good at being intense and single-minded when he knows he's right. Although Daniels is a career military man, the earlier Hoffman character he most reminds me of is the decidedly un-militarist Carl Bernstein in All the President's Men. Which was a pretty fair thriller, now that I think about it.
The rest of the cast of Outbreak is good, too. Russo's civilian doctor easily convinces us that she knows as much as Daniels does. Her character, though, and the rest of the movie, for that matter, would have been much improved if the script hadn't seen fit to make her and Daniels ex-spouses. The main story has plenty of drama and human interest without throwing in a soap-opera sub-plot.
Minor characters such as Cuba Gooding, Jr. as a lab tech who can also fly a mean helicopter, and the always interesting Kevin Spacey as Daniels' veteran sidekick give Outbreak some expert, and much needed, comic relief. The heavyweights in the cast, Freeman and Sutherland, play out an absorbing morality tale as two generals with some history together and with the virus they suddenly are confronting again.
Note to sqeamish moviegoers: the "viral violence" which helped get Outbreak its R rating refers to the way people look when they're sick with this bug. It's pretty gruesome. And before the movie's over, a lot of people succomb—and we see most of them.
March 22, 1995