Outbreak [DVD] [1995]

The subject of this film is the emergence of a new virus and the attempts of the authorities to deal with it.Col. Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) is a maverick virus hunter working for the USmilitary His ex-wife Robby (Renee Russo) is his opposite number at the CDC. When a small town on the west coast is struck by a virus "worse than Ebola" they end up working together again.

They find themselves fighting not just the virus but a high level conspiracy in the military that would rather sacrifice the town than expose its own illegal activities.

The film rises above the standard thriller/disaster fare largely because of strong performances by the leading actors. Hoffman especially really does a good job. He does have a great script and a good part to work with but his character really gets the audience onside and you an really believe that this character wants to defeat the virus.

The film is not without faults. A few lapses of science are inevitable but worse are the two generals (Sutherland & Freeman) involved in the cover-up. Donald Sutherland is certainly a better actor than he appears here. He is basically never given the opportunity to portray his character as anything other than a hollow shell as the necessary bad guy. The film would have been a lot more convincing had it been able to portray these two as convincing bad guys.

You have to respect viruses. These things are the killer sharks of the microscopic world, insidious, darn near indestructible little buggers who destroy every cell in their path. They don't clock out after eight hours or nap away afternoon breaks; these things never stop or rest. The subject of Outbreak is a very special virus borne in the wilds of Africa, an unmatched destructive force that can kill a man (in the most horrible of ways) in a matter of hours. It's like nothing ever seen before – well, actually, it was seen in 1967, but the powers that be took their little secret home with them in a vial and firebombed all the evidence of its existence (along with a significant number of innocent human beings). Now, the virus is back; not only is it back, it is in America - brought to these shores in the form of a poor little monkey taken from its home and illegally smuggled into this country. Our government and in particular our military faces an invisible enemy that can destroy the nation and everyone in it in a matter of days. If and when such a virus outbreak does take place here, let us all fervently hope that our government performs much better than they do in this movie.

Dustin Hoffman plays Col. Sam Daniels of the USAMRIID, a noble man who did not forget his Hippocratic Oath when he became an army officer. He and his crew, including Major Schuler (Kevin Spacey) and new team member Major Salt (Cuba Gooding, Jr.), in conjunction with Daniels' ex-wife, former co-worker, and new bigwig at the CDC Robby Keough (Rene Russo) are basically the only people in the government more concerned with saving lives than with protecting military secrets. Daniels' boss is Brigadier General Ford (Morgan Freeman), a frustrating player in these events who knows things about the virus he is forbidden (and does not want to) admit, but the true villain of this tale is Maj. General Donald McClintock (played to a slimy tee by Donald Sutherland). Daniels and his fellow heroes rush to help the dying and to battle this awful virus, constantly stymied and eventually gravely threatened by military superiors who care more about protecting the secret of a biological weapon than about the people they pledged themselves to defend and protect.

The things you see in this film are quite possible, and that is what makes it such a gripping, even frightening film. While the audience is never treated to a true gross-out shot of what this super duper hemorrhagic virus can do to a human body, the horror is nevertheless quite real. The heroism of Daniels and Salt in particular isn't limited to the hospitals and labs; they take on the government and the military itself in an effort to save lives. The one critical information source the medical team needs is the host organism. The original carrier who brought the virus to America's shores represents the only real hope of saving a whole town and very possibly the entire nation. This virus has a 100% kill rate; no one survives it.

Well over two hours of increasingly adrenaline-pumping suspense await the viewer of Outbreak. This movie will hold you completely under its spell and leave a definite impression on you for some time to come. It is a rare joy to see Hollywood take on a very serious issue and deal with it in a realistic fashion, and few movies can boast the caliber of talent that you will find here. One or two of the leading actors in this modern thriller can carry a movie on their own, but here a whole range of Hollywood's best come together to make a movie that succeeds perfectly. As far as I'm concerned, Outbreak is a must-see motion picture.