Locusts

Well that's the main question here. It hesitates all the way between the two. But it's not so a problem for me, just a question. But I guess it is more a drama after all than a swarm film, if you consider the other swarm features involving bees for instance. Here it is mainly a sort of analysis of a Midwest farm family. For TV audiences, home audiences. Not bad.

Set during World War II, a young soldier returns to his mid-western home after being discharged from the Navy for cowardice. For this disgrace, he is deeply frowned upon by his father and most of the others in the small community. Meanwhile a huge locust swarm approaches…

This TV movie stars future Happy Days star and Hollywood director Ron Howard in the role of the young protagonist. His father is played by veteran actor Ben Johnson. Despite what the title might suggest, it's mainly a family drama. The locusts themselves do offer up an 'animals attack' horror film aspect that sadly isn't emphasised quite enough. They never seem to pose that much of a threat really and are ultimately defeated quite easily. It's a pity as the mid-western setting is good and its isolation would have been ripe for a nature-strikes-back type of horror movie. The main focus is instead on the relationship between the father and son, while the ongoing war provides additional drama for the farming community to deal with, such as news of a son who is killed in the conflict. It's not a particularly successful film in all honesty and doesn't really mix the locust part in with the drama all that well. Having said all that, I have something of a general fondness for cosy American TV movies from the 70's so consequently I did quite like this despite its shortcomings.

Despite the title, the film is much more about the concept of what it is to be a man as well as the importance of this father-son relationship. In essence, the locusts are just a plot device in order to facilitate growth and change between these two.

Donny Fletcher (Ron Howard) is coming home from WWII in disgrace. Something happened to him and he was discharged from the Navy...though exactly what that was is something you'll need to learn through the course of the film. What is obvious is that his father, Amos (Ben Johnson) is a hard and unforgiving man...and Donny is a disgrace in his eyes. Amos' idea of manliness is just sucking it up and doing what a man has to do and the WHY Donny was discharged is unimportant to him...the boy is simply a coward and a failure. But, by the end of the film and with the coming menace of the locusts, the two get a chance to work out their issues together.

Whenever the film brings in the locusts, the story sags and is clearly at its best with the men. Johnson, in particular, is marvelous as the hard-as-nails father. Howard is also nice and it's a decent made for TV film. My only real gripe is that the finale seemed very obvious and predictable...though not enough to make the film one to skip.

Was I wrong to expect something entirely difficult than this lame, sappy and dreadfully boring drama? Is it my fault to assume that this was another "creature-feature/nature revolts" story from the 70s in which the titular locusts had developed a taste for human flesh and go after the inhabitants of a little Montana farming community? I guess so, because "Locusts" simply unfolds like an utmost ordinary episode in any random melodramatic soap-opera TV series! A boy (future director prodigy Ron Howard) returns home to his family after he got kicked out of the Navy before even completing his training, and now he has the face to wrath of his old-fashioned and tyrannical father (Ben Johnson). As to be expected, the father is embarrassed and treats his son worse than a lazy dog. How can poor Donny ever capture the love of his dad again? Hmm, perhaps by protecting the farm's crops against the devastating plague of locusts that is heading towards Montana could work? What a pitiable and tedious excuse for a TV-effort! The first couple of minutes are still somewhat promising, as Donny's bus ends up in the middle of a locusts' swarm, but immediately after that it's purely dull and uninteresting talking. If I wanted to waste my time on lousy father/son relationship issues, I'd visit my own dad a bit more often!

Upon returning home from the Navy during WWII, Donny Fletcher (Ron Howard) faces the cold stares and whispers of his friends and neighbors. Donny was discharged, putting him at odds with not only the townsfolk, but his own father (Ben Johnson) as well. Now, working on the family farm is much tougher than it was before he volunteered for the service.

Meanwhile, a mega-swarm of crop-devouring grasshoppers are heading toward the farm. This could test Donny and everyone else beyond what they could imagine.

In spite of the title, LOCUSTS is more about family, community, redemption, and heroism overcoming impossible odds, than it is about anything else. It's a wonderful slice of rural Americana. Johnson, Howard, Katherine Helmond, and Lisa Gerritsen really capture the Fletcher clan well.

Yes, the grasshoppers are a major threat. However, there's a lot more than "bug horror" going on in this made-for-TV movie...