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Those who remember the 1957 science fiction classic
The Incredible Shrinking Man will get an extra kick out of watching this exquisite 1996
NOVA episode, which uses then state-of-the-art microphotography to explore all the creepy, crawly creatures that coexist with us on a microscopic scale. The shrinking man in Jack Arnold's movie (which is tentatively being remade by Keenan Ivory Wayans) would find himself in the midst of monsters captured here through the fiber-optic lenses of Swedish microphotography expert Lennart Nilsson (whose pioneering work was previously showcased in
The Miracle of Life, one of the most popular episodes of
NOVA ever broadcast). Nilsson's probing cameras take viewers down, down, down…into the realm of dust mites, hair mites, macrophages, and viruses. From the unique perspective of tiny creatures both beneficial and deadly, we travel into seemingly alien landscapes—the furrowed rows of the palm of the hand, the dense forests of the scalp, etc.—where the primary law of full-scale nature also holds in miniature: eat or be eaten, whether it be silverfish devouring the pages of old books, or bacteria swimming in our bloodstreams. The narration (by
M*A*S*H's David Ogden Stiers) is, by turns, playfully humorous ("this dust mite never learned that it's impolite to play with your food") and deadly serious (as when explaining the destructive power of the AIDS virus). While much of the footage is amusing (for instance, a kiss viewed from inside the mouth of its recipient), it's also astonishing, and occasionally a bit sickening to see just how much our bodies, beds, and clothing are utterly teeming with microscopic life. Printable text supplements and website links provide an even more thorough exploration of Nilsson's remarkable photographic methods. Highly recommended.
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