moonspinner55 For anyone still doubting the cruelty of show business, consider this tacky thriller was directed by John Frankenheimer, once an A-list filmmaker of merit reduced in 1979 to making a monster movie. Tenement doctor accepts a government job easing tensions in the forests of Maine, where lumber czars are taking land away from the Indian tribe; meanwhile, toxic waste attributed to the business has created its own rampaging monster, which looks like a melting grizzly bear and walks upright like a man. Depressing, distress-laden nonsense. One figures screenwriter David Seltzer had to be kidding; he's so heavy-handed with his messages, he even gives the doctor a pregnant wife afraid to tell her husband of her condition (he thinks there's enough people in the world already!). Good actors Robert Foxworth (looking a bit like Grizzly Adams himself), Talia Shire and Armand Assante are wasted. Assante, the stern, solemn mouthpiece for the Native-Americans, fights everybody in his path and gets kicked in the crotch for his trouble. Seltzer seems to be asking, "Who's worse, the lumber lunkheads or the beast in the forest?" Save a kick for Seltzer, who must have penned this for the paycheck. * from ****

jamdifo I love the look of films from this time period. This is another take on poisoning the environment that leads to nature fighting back (ex. Empire of the Ants, Squirm, Ants, Kingdom of the Spiders, Day of the Animals, etc.).The movie starts off good enough, but unlike Jaws when it was horrifying when you first saw the shark, this movie has the opposite effect when the grizzly bear is revealed. The bear is too fakish to scare. It looks like it has no skin and should have died of an infection a long time ago. But since the bear looks terrible, it makes the end of the movie disappointing and not terrifying like Jaws was.Other problems: For an Indian tribe ingesting mercury all this time, not one Indian showed any deformity of any kind in the village (effects dept. ran out of money?).Why did Foxworth need the 2 cubs to prove the poisoning? Couldn't he used the giant tadpole or catch one of the giant salmon to prove it? It sure would have been more safe than dealing with Mama bear.The movie showed other animals became aggressive like the raccoon (how did Foxworth know it wasn't rabid?) Why weren't there other attacks by other animals on people? Would've made the movie better.How was Talia Shire happy in the end when her cello got destroyed? And when she played the cello, why didn't one of the insane animals attack her? The paper mill owner never reached the tower to radio for help, so how did the plane know to come the next day to pick up the survivors? What talent agent believed Armand Assante would pass for an Indian? With mercury in the ground at the mill, how did none of the workers get sick or have deformed kids? If I saw a salmon the size of Jaws out in the lake, I would quickly get back to shore and report right away! Not keep fishing like the Dr.How did the bear know to destroy the car so no one could drive away? All those guns at the camp in the end and not one able to shoot the bear? But yet the Dr, the most unskilled shooter gets 2 shots off into the bear. Also, the bear dies from being stabbed numerous times in the face by an arrow? Really? That bear would've of crushed him in a second.With that bear mutilating its victims, how do the authorities believe its the Indians r doing the killing? Wasn't it plain, even back then, when someone gets killed by an animal? Funniest part: Dr going on and on and on and on and on about the effects of mercury to a fetus. Classic! In conclusion, with today's advancement in effects and with an R rating, this could easily be remade into a much better, scarier, and effective movie.

Claudio Carvalho The idealistic Dr. Robert Verner (Robert Foxworth) is invited by his friend Vic to travel to the Maine with his wife Maggie (Talia Shire) working for the Environmental Protection Agency to prepare a report about the dispute between Indians "Opies" (meaning the original people) and the lumberjacks. Maggie is pregnant but she has not told to Robert since he does not want to have children. Robert and Maggie are welcomed by the director of the paper mill Bethel Isely (Richard Dysart) that drives them to their cabin in the woods. However they find an Indian blockage of the road and witness a conflict between the leader of the Opies John Hawks (Armand Assante) and Isely and his men.On the next morning, Robert goes fishing and he sees a huge salmon in the river. Then they meet with John Hawk and his wife Ramona (Victoria Racimo) and they tell that their people are ill and most of their babies are born with deformation. They also hear about the legendary Katahdin and visit the Garden of Eden of the Opies, where Robert finds weird plants with roots on the surface and a huge tadpole. Robert continues to investigate and discovers that the industry is using methyl mercury in the process that is causing the mutagen in the environment. "Prophecy" is a movie directed by John Frankenheimer with a lame ecological journey to the Garden of Eden of the original people. The politically correct idea of showing the pollution of a paper industry is one of the worst movies of this director. There is one specific scene that is ridiculous, when the boy that is camping is thrown to a tree. The conclusion is also terrible. My vote is four.Title (Brazil): Not Available

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Not feeling any fulfillment in life as a doctor working for the city in the rat infested slums of Washington D.C. Dr. Robert Verne,Robert Foxworth,gets a dream job working for the EPA, Environmental Protection Agency, and sent with his wife Maggie,Talia Shire, to the clean air healthy living surroundings in far off picturesque Maine. It's there that a number of loggers were killed by some mysterious creature who ended up almost decapitating them.Right away Dr. Verne sees that things aren't going right there between the local native American population and the owner of a paper mill that's defoliating their ancient homeland and hunting grounds.The paper mill owner Bethel Isley, Richard A. Dysrat,is determined to get the unruly Maine Indians lead by collage educated John Hawk, Armard Assante, arrested by the local sheriff for interfering with his operation. As for Hawk he's just as determined to stop Isley from destroying his forest to the point of putting his life on the line to stop him. What no one realizes is that the paper mill is using high and dangerous amounts of mercury that's polluting the nearby Androscoggin River and turning everything in it,or that drinks from it, as well as its water supply of the region into mutant monsters!It's one of these mutants a 12 foot tall brown bear who's been tearing people apart whenever he runs into them in the forest. In fact there's also other creatures in the area that have been effected by the river who not only go crazy but become totally unafraid of the people in the area and attack them almost at will! The film goes on to show how by polluting our environment we in fact are polluting as well as destroying ourselves. And the killer bears deadly rampage is only a small fraction of the damage that's to be caused in the film from mercury poisoning. As we see at the end of the movie the by far worst is yet to come!***SPOILERS*** It's non other then the at first villain Bethel Isley who comes across as the most heroic as well as sympathetic character in the movie. Knowing that he and his paper mill screwed things up royally he volunteers to get help on his own and ends up becoming one of the killer bears victims. There's also Indian mystic Hector M'Rai, George Clutesi, who's suffering from severe brain damage because of ingested mercury in his system who thinks he can talk the bear out of doing any more damage only to get riped apart and torn to pieces by him! The final insult in the movie is that which is done to Maggie Verne who by eating some fried fish, that her husband fished out of the polluted Androscoggin River, that infected her body with the deadly and fetus deforming mercury. In her keeping the fact that she was pregnant from Robert and not willing to have an abortion the upcoming blessed event that's soon to follow will turn out to be a curse for the Verne's instead!