From the far reaches of the Milky Way Galaxy, It's Retro Nerd Girl with a film review for you.
Today I'll be reviewing the movie The Fury released in 1978.
Starring:
Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, and Amy Irving
Directed by:
Brian De Palma
Genre:
Drama, Thriller
Rating:
R
Budget:
$5,500,000 (estimated)
IMDb Rating is currently:
6.4
My Rating:
9.2
The Synopsis is:
This film is about the adventures of a man, Peter Sandza and his desperate search for his son who has telekinesis, Robin Sandza, being honed as a weapon for a government agency, the MORG. His only chance of finding his son is a girl with the same powers, Gillian Bellaver.
Enjoyment:
I actually saw this when I was 8 years old and I loved it then, and I still like it it now. It's a bit scary and most of all very creepy. But, I just enjoy the story so much.
Pacing:
At 1h 58min the pacing is a little old fashioned, but it feels very good to me. It begins very very slow in the beginning to set up the situation and characters. By the 48 minute mark the story livens up a lot.
*THE REST OF THE REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. *
Story:
This movie is an adaptation of a novel released in 1976 by John Farris who was also asked to write the screenplay for the film. Since, the author has written a whole series of books.
I love this story. It has a reminiscent flair of many stephen king novels and films about paranormals and an immoral government institution as in stories such as Firestarter, Golden Years, The Lawnmower Man, The Tommyknockers, The Mist, and The Langoliers.
The unique spin on this film is the two telekinesis subjects and how they become relative to one another. Robin and Gillian are like psychic twins uniquely meant to meet. To me it’s a story with a lot of pay off and i like it.
They get into the science of telekinesis. I know jack about this stuff, but I think what they’ve developed for this film’s science, sounds pretty intriguing. It kinda makes you want to explore the field further.
Brian De Palma directed the film and it is either on purpose or a peculiar accident that the names of the two cops that Peter Sandza encounters while trying to escape the Morg, Bob and Marty, were so named because of Brian De Palma's friendship with Robert De Niro and Martin Scorsese.
There is one scene in the film that plays homage to one of Brian’s favorite directors, Alfred Hitchcock, and his film Rear Window (1954). Where the protagonist falls from a roof.
Challenge:
The acronym for the secret government agency is the MORG stands for the Multiphasic Operations Research Group. Take notice that the Morg, sounds like the place where people are taken when they die. And perhaps that is what happens to their subjects.
The head of the organization is Ben Childress, who used to work with Peter Sandza for 20 years at an undisclosed agency until he double crossed him, staged his death and took custardy of his son Robin Sandza.
This guy is particularly evil ready to sacrifice friendship and all else to get a leg up on being on the leading edge of telekinesis warfare. It seems to excite him and that is his main motivation for doing what he does.
When he discovers that there is a girl with the same potential, he becomes interested in acquiring her too.
You can even see that he has his men surrounding Gillian’s school, one even posing as a neighborhood runner.
Dr. Susan Charles heads up the operation to gather data on Robin and brainwashing him to attack specific a group of people who he has been tricked into believing killed his father and of course they are lying to him because his father is still alive and actively searching for Robin.
It’s just awful what this organization is doing… and she is part of it.
There is something about Susan that screams villainy, even though she is only man for hire, if you will, for the morg. She is conniving enough to become Robin’s girlfriend to get the results that the morg wants.
She clearly sympathizes with him and acts as a mediator between Robin and Childress. She’s not outrightly evil or mean, her methods are creepy and under the radar. I get the sense that her personal interest in Robin is to further her professional career.
Of the challenges, the one you wouldn’t really suspect is Robin.
Robin began as a nice kid who looked up to his father. Since the his father’s fake death, he is becoming more and more dangerous, jealous and temperamental as his awareness of his powers are growing.
His father could have tempered his childlike tantrums if he was still in his life, but in the hands of his manipulators he’s spoiled and angry and driven to paranoia.
That sweet kid in the beginning of the film loses his moral compass and coldly uses his deadly powers on anyone he cares to.
He picks his closest confidant, Susan to unleash his hate. He taunts her standing over her, torturing her slowly. It’s a creepy scene with lots of cringe, and one of the most incredible scenes in the film.
Empathy:
I had a lot of empathy for the good guys in this film and that is probably because there was more time devoted to their characters.
Whenever Peter Sandza is on screen, you feel his desperation as he searches for his son and avoids the relentless pursuit of the Morg, complete with funny disguises while meeting interesting characters along the way.
He finally gets a lead when he organizes a meeting with Gillian Bellaver, through his girlfriend Hester who works as Gillian’s school.
Gillian begins the story as a seemingly average young girl who has some psychic abilities that are more like unexplained coincidences, many of which results in the occasional teasing and bullying by her peers.
As the story continues, she gets horrifying glimpses into the past and the future through touch, but when she touches people that makes them bleed and this is partly what makes her dangerous and what makes her unique.
According to the movie science and I am not sure that it is real science, gillian creates a powerful electromagnetic energy field when she uses her powers. Any one around her will bleed, and the way they described it, she thinks it only happens when she touches them, but she doesn’t actually have to touch people to do it.
She is taken to a school for paranormal youngsters called Paragon and this is when she begins to develop a strong telepathic link to Robin. She can see things about his life and what he is going through under the twisted care of the Morg.
She develops a friendship with Peter and then vows to help him find his son. I think Gillian also wants to meet Robin because he’s the only other person with her abilities. She hopes she can learn from him, how to control her powers. She feels so lonely and isolated and he is her only hope.
I really like Gillian because she seems really fragile and weak, but she has a strong will and sense of morals until she is pushed too far. Wow, you don’t want to get on her bad side.
Technical:
Let's talk about the music. Sometimes when the film lacks music or even atmospheric sound, it is missing an immersive effect.
John Williams did the score and really called upon the suspense and thrills of the scenes and was composed in the style of a famous Bernard Herrmann score from an Alfred Hitchcock movie, Vertigo 1958.
Some of the makeup effects and visual effects are dated. There is no doubt about that, but seeing this back in 1978, it blew my mind. It looked real then because it was the best at the time.
With a little digital color correction and blending, it would look great again.
The in camera effects were great like the bleeding hand, the trains spinning out of control, and some of the more terrifying scenes with Dr. Susan charles, and the very last scene at the end with Ben Childress.
Many of the scenes where gillian makes people bleed are done well and very imaginative. But I find that the best use of the special effects in this film is when it is used as a doorway into the mind.
The film is quite gory, but I must say that the gory moments were meaningful in the story. It wasn’t just there for nonsense… or to have a cool scene in a film.
They worked within the telling of the story.
There are lots of scary moments in the film… so many, because there is so much suspense also built in without jump scares. The chills come from a deeper place. And that is why, to me they are more exciting
One of the scariest scenes is the film is an amusement park scene filmed inside Old Chicago, the world's first indoor theme park.
I thought the pulsating vein on Robin’s forehead was a nice touch, really giving us a sense that there was a physical reaction to his abilities like flexing a muscle.
I really enjoyed the direction for the actors in synergy with the editing because when people are hurt or die in this film, there is some time given for the characters to react and care.
There is a scene where Peter, stops the story to sob for the loss of his girlfriend and not many films are willing to take that emotional break in the middle of action.
Performances:
Kirk Douglas was brought into the story as a box office draw, but he helped to really tell this story and let us sense the emotional toll of what his character was going through.
There is just this incredible level of likability in Kirk Douglas’ performance that really sells his character. Within a few lines of dialogue, he’s able to build this incredible trust.
It was a great performance. Being as physically demanding as it was, Kirk was about 61 years old at the time and in excellent condition. You can see he is clearly doing a lot of running and jumping around. This performance proves what’s possible for actors of any age. It’s very inspiring.
For her role as a psychic with telepathic powers, Amy Irving attended a biofeedback clinic to learn about psychic correspondences. And she does a fantastic job portraying a person receiving visions and terrified by her powers and how they could hurt others.
We’ve also got fantastic performances from John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Charles Durning, Fiona Lewis, and Andrew Stevens as Robin Stanza.
This was the film debut for both Daryl Hannah and Jim Belushi in small parts and extras.
Best:
There are so many memorable scenes in the film. But the one scene I like the most is the scene where Peter and Gillian connect, trusting each other for a brief moment in time, both having gone through so much loss and in an uncertain web of fate.
I pretty much cry on cue every time I see that scene.
Wish List:
I wish we understood why Ben Childress betrayed Peter. They worked together at the agency for 20 years and it seemed as if Peter gave his blessing to leave Robin being in his care. Why the elaborate scheme?
We get a nice little monologue from him at the end, but we don’t really get to the juice, the root of his character. He just feels a little mysteriously over motivated.
And I wish there were more elaborate testing in this film and devise a delicious plot to use the telekinesis… have the good guys foil it… something like that.
The ending:
The bad guys are so slimy and unlikable in this film, when they become victims of their own manipulations, you kinda feel relieved.
But the film is a tragedy, not a happy ending for Peter and Robin. So many people might find it a bit underwhelming and even a bit short even though it runs for nearly two hours.
I loved it… And it’s an ending that leaves you with questions about Gillian’s future…
We witness that her powers are far more dangerous than Robin’s ever were and seem amped up.
Did Robin transfer his powers to Gillian in their scene together?
I assumed that.
Summary:
I just love this old school 70’s thriller flick. Some of the effects and style are dated but the story is solid in my opinion.
Telekinesis is a fascinating subject matter and seemed to be popular at around this time in the late 1970’s and early eighties. There is something something about it that taps into our deepest fantasies and fears.
This one is really interesting and unique. Setting up Robin and Gillian as telekinetic soul mates with all of the forces of nature working to put them together for just one moment.
It’s a weird film to be quite honest. It really has a hybrid feel to it, as if it were a blend of later films like Firestarter, Scanners and The Dead zone. And perhaps they were all influenced by The Fury… a very unrated and nearly forgotten film I really admire.
That sums up my review. I hope you liked it. This is Retro Nerd Girl signing off.
Take care movie lovers! I'm off to the next review!
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