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Review
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Today's
Date is:
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The
FURY
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Reviewed
by: |
Christopher
J. Jarmick |
| Genre: |
Horror |
| Video: |
Anamorphic
1.85:1 |
| Audio: |
Dolby Digital
4.0, Dolby Digital 2.0 (Mono) |
| Language: |
English,
French |
| Subtitle: |
English (Captioned),
Spanish |
| Length: |
120 minutes
|
| Rating: |
R |
| Release
Date: |
09/04/01 |
| Studio: |
20th
Century Fox |
| Commentary:
|
None |
| Documentaries:
|
None |
| Featurettes:
|
None |
| Filmography/Biography:
|
None |
|
Interviews: |
None |
| Trailers/TV
Spots: |
The original trailer
is presented in 1.85.1 widescreen anamorphic. Five additional
trailers for other Fox films are also included most in wide
screen as well. |
| Alternate/Deleted
Scenes: |
None |
| Music
Video: |
None |
| Other:
|
There is
a still frame archive focusing on lobby cards and posters from
around the world. |
| Cast
and Crew: |
Amy Irving
Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgrass, Charles Durning,
Fiona Lewis, Andrew Stevens, Carol Rossen, Joyce Easton, William
Finley, Dennis Franz, Michael O'Dwyer, Jame Lambert, Gordon
Jump. |
| Screenplay
by: |
Written by
John Farris (based on his novel) |
| Produced
by: |
Ron Preissman, Frank
Yablans |
| Directed
By: |
Brian De
Palma |
| Music: |
John Williams |
| The
Review: |
The Fury
(1978) was Brian De Palma's 5.5 million follow-up to his wildly
successful Carrie (Carrie's budget was about 1.5 million meaning
the Fury was a huge leap for De Palma). It has a lot in common
with David Cronenburg's 1981 Scanners and a little bit with
the early 1960's features Village of the Damned and Children
of the Damned . In both Scanners and The Fury a somewhat omnipotent
government agency is involved with people with psychic powers
who can read minds and cause people to bleed or worse. De Palma
was looking forward to one day filming Alfred Bester's THE DEMOLISHED
MAN -- which concerns a telepathic society. He wanted to in
effect prepare for the project by doing a film with multiple
story lines and one that dealt with telepathic characters. The
Fury was brought to De Palma by well-known hands-on producer
Frank Yablans. * * * * * * The Fury consists of several set
pieces which go in surprising directions (the audience at the
time never anticipated ) to deliver a series of pretty violent
twists and turns along the way-- Suspense Action Thriller, Science
Fiction, Tragic Romance, and Horror.The middle part of the film
sags a bit, the comedy is sloppy, the acting varies widely,
and the special effects are dated and pretty obvious. The film's
story is utterly implausible but is structured and paced in
a manner where we realize fairly early on the film is an exercise
in style. As it progresses it veers more toward a science fiction
and melodramatic horror film. De Palma's weaknesses are in dealing
with actors and meshing various acting styles and approaches.
This is more apparent in this film where you have several generations
and styles of actors converging. * * * * * * The film's set
piece construction, pacing, camera movement and music is somewhat
reminiscent of Hitchcock, but once again DePalma is experimenting
and expanding his visual ideas--not merely paying homage or
mimicking Hitchcock. There is a scene on a rooftop in which
the camera angle is very similar to one Hitchcock uses in several
films including "Saboteur" and "To Catch A Thief". Hitchcock
had found the most effective and best angle to film a rooftop
fight and Hitch used the angle in several of his films. Since
the most effective angle had already been established, De Palma
used it because of how well it worked. And as you'll see from
the film, it still works very well. * * * * * * * * The film
is credited as being written by John Farris and based on his
novel, but the way DePalma jumps from scene to scene it's clear
he's probably only using pieces of the screenplay. In fact De
Palma wanted the film to race 'like a wind up toy' from beginning
to end. It is producer Yablans who insisted on having some quieter
character moments and De Palma who knew how important contrast
was, ultimately agreed. De Palma did not have the luxury of
plotting out his storyboards for several months like he did
with Carrie. The combination of not having as much lead time
to prepare the film and dealing with intertwining story-lines
makes for a very episodic feel to the sequences in the film.
* * * * * * The film introduces us to three characters that
are in the Middle East. Peter Sandza is a government spook of
some sort and is very competitive and close to his son Robin
(Andrew Stevens) who has some kind of special talent. Peter
has worked closely for 20 years with Childress (Cassavetes)
. Peter is retiring from the agency, his son Robin is going
to a special school in Chicago. The humor and on- location aspects
of the scene may remind you of Hitchcock's North by Northwest.
As the scene shifts tone in an extremely sudden matter you might
think of a film like The French Connection and that's what De
Palma was aiming for. Childress and Peter have a drink together
to toast their years at the agency . As Childress leaves the
table, a group of Arab assassin's suddenly appear and start
firing on Peter who manages to narrowly escape but it appears
the boat he tries to escape in is blown up. Robin thinks his
dad is dead. In the assassination attempt the audience, but
not Robin, realizes that Childress is part of the hit. In fact,
Peter manages to shoot several bullets into Childress' left
arm. He'll later growl that he 'killed the arm'.* * * * * The
scene abruptly shifts forward. We aren't quite sure why we are
watching the backsides of two girls having a conversation in
Chicago, and then see they are being followed by a very strange
looking street bum looking fellow (played by Phantom of Paradise's
William Finley). Eventually we catch up to what is going on.
Our street bum is a detective and psychic who has been hired
by Peter (Kirk Douglas) to help him find his son Robin. To do
so Peter needs to find another teenager with psychic ability
to help him (although this is not explained very well). There's
a double cross going on, however. Childress sends his agents
to get Peter who in swashbuckler style escapes his hotel room
in his underwear. He then holds up a middle aged couple to get
some clothes and put on a disguise (the husband is played by
the Maytag repairman WKRP actor- Gordon Jump). Peter's disguise
doesn't work as Childress' operatives quickly spot him. So Peter
hijacks a ride with two of Chicago's finest (one of whom is
a very young Dennis Franz who over-acts in wide-eyed buffoon
style). During the ride he tries to explain the situation to
him and as he does he sound more and more like some conspiracy
theory wacko. The scene should have played a little better than
it does, but one can't help but notice Franz' ridiculously exaggerated
facial expressions. Then we get a fairly exciting and semi-comic
chase sequence. Peter barely gets away. * * * * * * * Meanwhile
one of the girls we were following turns out to be Gillian (Amy
Irving) a teenager from a wealthy family who is a bit of an
outcast because she can read people's minds. This creates a
problem in school (look fast for a very young Daryl Hannah)
which leads to Gillian enrolling in the Paragon Institute which
specializes in people with psychic ability. * * * * * There
are more wild coincidences, which put Peter and Gillian together
and send them on a chase to find Peter's son Robin and of course
the ultimate show-down with Childress. It's not particularly
believable -- threads that are inadequately explained connect
the stories and so we are left with unlikely coincidences to
piece it together. If you can overlook this and are in the right
frame of mind, the film is exciting, fast paced and very entertaining.
Although it has dated in several ways it's also fun to see who
shows up in the film (you might spot James Belushi). * * * *
* * * Charles Durning who seemed to turn up in every other movie
in the late 70's and throughout most of the 1980's has a supporting
role playing Dr. Jim Mckeever. There's also Carrie Snodgrass
who plays a nurse/secretary at the Paragon Institute and happens
to be an old girlfriend of Peter's. * * * * * * The way the
story connects people and leapfrogs toward the inevitable showdown
between Peter, Gillian, Robin and Childress is creative and
requires the viewer to have a very liberal sense of disbelief.
* * * * * * * John Cassavettes was almost always fun to watch
as an actor and he makes a wonderful heavy here. Kirk Douglas
is energetic and radiates some star charisma in a role you wouldn't
have been surprised to find Charlton Heston playing. Andrew
Stevens as Robin does what is required of him. * * * * * * It
is Amy Irving who carries the film. She's got the most screen-time
and she gives a very good, believable performance. It's a difficult
role for anyone to play but Irving keeps her character believable
no matter how silly things tend to get with where the film winds
up going. It's probably the best acting she has ever done. *
* * * * The film has a memorable over-the-top ending but it
is disappointing there isn't an epilogue to better explain what
happens to the character of Gillian. Irving's performance makes
us care enough about the character we want to know more than
what the film offers.* * * * * Throughout the film, De Palma
uses the camera at times as if it is a character. It doesn't
just give us broad sweeps but actually seems to be breathing
within certain scenes, moving slightly to give and then take
away different characters' spaces. You'll notice what I mean
most in the first half of the film. * * * * * * * De Palma is
doing more than what an audience expects of him, particularly
an audience that knew De Palma from Carrie. He wanted to give
the audience a wild film that offered some gory shocks, but
he also wanted to create a visually graceful and inventive film.
The John Williams score is very evocative of Bernard Herrman
and once again some might believe De Palma is paying homage
to or even mimicking Hitchcock rather than doing something very
different. Since the film failed both critically and at the
box-office one can assume that those expecting another Carrie
did not get what they were expecting and those wanting something
vastly different than Carrie did not believe De Palma delivered.
The film is extremely far-fetched and implausible and pretty
gory. The film's failure meant De Palma did not have an easy
time of it financing his next film, Dressed to Kill. It is with
Dressed to Kill that De Palma smoothed out many of the ideas
he shows us in this film to finally create the near perfect
blend of Hitchcock influenced style and a modern mixture of
sex, gore and thrills that shocked, titillated and even angered
audiences and critics. * * * * * * |
| Image
and Sound |
The
Fury is presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. The DVD represents
a vast improvement over previously released videotape versions.
The print that has been used is in very good shape, but it does
not appear that any extensive digital re-mastering has been
performed as there are many noticeable glitches, drop outs,
color variations, and grain present. None of this looks terrible,
but it is not the kind of pristine presentation you might expect
a DVD release of a major name director's work to receive. *
* * * The over-all image is a little soft, probably because
of the lenses used when the film was originally shot. Some of
the blue-screen work however looks extremely obvious.* * * *
The Fury's sound is presented in it's original mono and a newly
re-mixed 4.0 surround track. It is the only track that is in
surround in spite of what the packaging claims. John William's
score sound bright and powerful at the beginning of the film.
However as the film begins there is a lot of audible noise to
be heard and the manner in which sound levels have been artificially
boosted and bounced from the channels overemphasis any flaws
the original mono source had. This means loud noises are over-modulated
or muted and there is a great deal of noise. |
| The
Extras |
There
is very little in the way of extra features on this DVD release.
The trailer is presented in anamorphic widescreen. There are
several bonus trailers from other Fox films The bonus trailers
are for five other Fox films: Alien, The Fly original, The Fly
re-make, Lake Placid and the Omen. The Omen trailer is presented
in anamorphic widescreen.* * * * * The still frame archive is
larger than you would expect on a no-frills type disk. There
are several sections that include different sets of posters,
and lobby cards from Japan, France, the U.K. and the United
States. The Behind the Scenes section has just one photo. What
happened? |
| Commentary |
None |
| Final
Words: |
The Fury is an interesting over-the-top
horror film that has many worthwhile visuals and interesting
De Palma/ Hitchcock influenced touches. There are excellent
performances from Amy Irving, John Cassavetes, Kirk Douglas
and others, although some performances are cartoonish and
poor. The story is wildly implausible. The film is pretty
gory and is not for the squeamish or children. Visually the
film is a treat and the DVD is a vast improvement on past
presentations of the film--although the sound elements are
very inconsistent. There are few extras on the disc. If you
are a past fan of the film, it has held up pretty well and
you'll probably want to purchase the DVD. If you aren't a
fan of the film, I suggest you rent the film to make sure
it is your cup of tea before buying it. * * * * * * * *
Christopher J. Jarmick, is the author
of The Glass Cocoon with Serena F. Holder a critically acclaimed,
steamy suspense thriller. For information on Author readings/signings
or availability of special autographed editions of the novel
email: glasscocoon@hotmail for details.* * * * * * * Original
portions of this review Copyright© Christopher J. Jarmick
2001. The above work is protected by international copyright
law.
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