Review of Fly, The (20th Anniversary) Box Set

Introduction

What a great concept! Marking the 20th anniversary of David Cronenberg`s 1986 remake of `The Fly`, Fox have corralled together their entire `Fly` related properties and issued them in this brilliant limited edition box set.

Naturally, at its epicentre sits the jewel in this macabre crown, Cronenberg`s `The Fly`. Though it may be a re-make in principle, in truth it was a complete nightmarish re-invention. It`s included here in impressive two-disc special edition form with a comprehensive list of extras.

Perhaps less predictably, the less impressive follow-up, `The Fly II` also gets the lavish two-disc special edition treatment.

In addition, both `The Fly` (1958) and its sequel, `Return of the Fly` (1959) are included here in all their camp-horror glory, along with the DVD-debut for the less known finale to the trilogy `Curse of the Fly` (1965).

Fox neglected to offer the entire set for review here, leaving both `The Fly` and `Return of the Fly` out, and delivering the discs sans packaging. As a result, I`ll only comment on what was actually received.

Here`s what I got:

CURSE OF THE FLY (1965) - this followed on from the success of the first two movies, arriving some seven years later. Filmed in impressively shot monochrome, it`s a film that looks far older than its years, with a style and sensibility that is more in tune with the fifties than the mid-sixties. However, there are some ingredients here that may well have caused the censors unease in the earlier period, not least the risqué opening which features an attractive young lady running through the woods in nothing more than her underwear. This extended sequence lasts throughout the title sequence and beyond and sets the tone for what becomes an increasingly dark and potentially subversive movie.

As she crosses a country road (as fate would have it) she is caught in the glare of a young Mr. Delambre, grandson of the original `fly`. He seems a decent if mysterious sort and asks few questions of the girl (who is running from a mental institution) and it`s not long until they have fallen madly in love. He decides to marry her and take her back to his country home. And that`s where the trouble starts. His father, son of the original Delambre, is carrying on his experiments with teleportation with the help of his two sons.

What follows is a slightly wooden rendering of a movie that has Delambre junior writhing in need of serum (drug addiction was good box office in the mid-sixties) as well as a grotesque story-line that has more in common with Browning`s magnificent `Freaks` than with the original `Fly` movies. (There are no references to `Fly`s` here).

Previously married, the young Delambre`s ex-wife fell foul of their previous experiments and is now housed in rabbit-hutch style accommodation along with other human cast-offs from experiments that have gone badly wrong! Other than that, Delambre seems a decent sort and it all seems such a shame when he fails to take his serum one day and meets a grotesque and untimely end. That will teach him!

THE FLY (1986) - Still regarded by many as Croenberg`s finest hour, it was certainly his most successful. Interestingly, Cronenberg wasn`t first choice for this movie, though somehow it`s almost unthinkable to imagine what the movie might have been like without him at the helm. His re-adaptation of the screenplay, along with his choice of leading actors (Jeff Goldblum and his then girlfriend Geena Davis) were seen as risky at the time though the studio moguls, who were relying on a success, daren`t meddle with this strong-minded young Auteur. They even let him shoot the movie in his native Canada with pretty much his own crew. It`s a risk that paid off big time.

This beautifully restored version deserves serious reappraisal by anyone who had doubts first time around (I know I did…). Viewing it again twenty years on I realised what a dark and complex movie this was - a whole existentialist leap on from the horror romance it was pegged as at the time.

Jeff Goldblum (who I have never really enjoyed in anything since) was, as it turns out, perfectly cast for the role of Dr. Seth Brundle. He`s physically just right for the `before` sequences, being attractive in an offbeat way, and perfect somehow for the transitional pieces with his buggy eyes and his gangly frame. Oh - and it would be most unfair to neglect to mention his incredible performance, as he gets progressively more `fly-like` as the film progresses.

Brundle is a scientist on the brink of a major discovery - teleportation. After successfully transporting an ape, he decides (in a drunken moment) to try it out on himself. Sadly, as the countdown hits zero and the doors are sealed, he is unaware that he is not alone in the pod. A single fly has flown in too. The transporter, confused by the combination of two life forms, reassembles them at the other end as a single being.

When Brundle emerges from the transporter pod, he feels energised and full of zest for life. Not even the coarse hairs that start to break through his skin can dampen his spirits. His girlfriend (Davis) remains unimpressed and realises that something`s gone awry. But Brundle is irrepressible, a ball of sexual energy with no outlet fairly buzzing with life, talking too fast and behaving erratically too.

The remainder of the movie tracks Brundle`s transformation from human to fly, with some amazing performances form Goldblum along the way.

Naturally there is an unhealthy dose of gratuitous gore (this is Cronenberg after all) and special effects and make-up Director Chris Walas does a sterling job without the aid of CGI.

Toward the end of the movie, when `Brundlefly` is more fly than human, such is the strength of Goldblum`s portrayal that I swear I recognised his face in the entirely mechanical fly at the film`s bloody conclusion.

To truly engage in the movie`s far-fetched narrative it`s essential to let go of the `I can see the strings` mentality. It`s an incredibly powerful and thought-provoking film that seems as fresh as the day it was released. Strangely, it seemed the perfect antidote to the silky perfection of CGI enhanced movies of this type. There`s something charming about the `make-do` invention of some of the special effects here.

The fact that this is such a thought-provoking film is probably to Cronenberg`s credit as he moved the movie gently away from the potentially pure schlock of the original screenplay into the Kafka-like realms of insect existentialism. In short - you get it all.



THE FLY II - This was recently listed in a `20 worst sequels ever` survey but I think, on this re-viewing, most unfairly so. I guess that, following the success of `The Fly` this was bound to disappoint. After all, Goldblum was destroyed in the first movie, Geena Davis had found that first movie `too emotionally draining` to consider a second outing, and Director Cronenberg, flushed with success and pots of cash, had gone on to make `Dead Ringers` as well as turning his attention to the near impossible task of rendering William Burrough`s `The Naked Lunch` to celluloid which took some five years to get into production. But desperate to repeat the financial success of `The Fly`, Fox asked special effects Director Chris Walas (`Gremlins` `The Fly`) to direct the entire movie - another risky strategy. Walas naturally accepted.

The worst that could have been expected would have been a special effects gore-fest. After all, that was Walas`s thing. In truth, what was delivered was actually rather better than that, if not quite as spectacularly good as Cronenberg`s movie.

Rather than a pale re-treading of the same ground this was a whole new tale in its own right. It kicks off with a Geena Davis look-alike giving birth to a giant insect pod, and dying in the attempt. Out of the pod hatches Martin, a spookily serious youngster who grows at an amazingly accelerated rate. By the age of five he is supremely intelligent and the physical stature of a young adult. Cruelly raised under the clinically watchful eye of Bartok industry scientists, his every move is monitored. It transpires that the manipulative and greedy Mr. Bartok (played brilliantly by the perfectly cast Lee Richards) is hoping that Martin may be able to pick up where his father left off and finish his work on the tele-transporter pods, allowing Bartok to gain untold power and wealth.

Martin falls in love with a nighttime co-worker (Daphne Zunige) as he never sleeps and finds himself wondering into her department one lonely night. Soon after their relationship starts, Martin starts manifesting some signs of `fly-ness`.

With time running out, and the transformation in motion, he starts to use his knowledge to avenge the evil Mr. Bartok and seek a cure for his inevitable decline.

What`s particularly notable about the movie is its anti-corporate theme, very reminiscent of the first (and only watchable) Robocop movie, produced two years earlier.

Video

Very nice transfers on all three of the movies I was able to review. `Curse of the Fly` was as near to a flawless print as you could expect from a movie of that vintage, and `The Fly` (1986) and `The Fly II` (1989) are both superb transfers. All are presented in anamorphic widescreen; `Curse` in original 2.35:1 (1.85:1). Both the later movies have high contrast colour and moody `dark` lighting. Great attention has been paid to preserving the integrity of the blacks here and it`s a very satisfying picture throughout.

Audio

`Curse of the Fly` is presented in Dolby stereo 2.0, and `The Fly` and `The Fly II` are presented with DD5.1 and DTS 5.1 Surround options. The mix is good and subtle - with most the action to the front, with Howard Score`s wonderful orchestral score inching its way in on the rears during `The Fly`. Dialogue is crisp across all three movies.

Features

Though there are none on `Curse of the Fly`, both `The Fly` and `The Fly II` come packed with extra features.

THE FLY - Disc one contains a really informative and engaging commentary from Cronenberg. It`s a slow and serious overview, broken only occasionally with brief moments of dry wit. It`s thoroughly engaging though in its frankness and is both informative and revealing; a real treat for Cronenberg fans.

Disc 2 is feature-packed. First up is a comprehensive documentary, `Fear of the Flesh: The Making of the Fly` which is divided into three parts. It also contains some `branches` (additional options) like notes in a book. You can select to watch it all in one gulp (2 hours and 15 minutes) or watch the whole thing including the branches, which comes in at a staggering 2 hours and 42 minutes. Using a mix of on-set footage and interviews with cast and crew (no Cronenberg though - he felt he`d said it all in the commentary which is fair enough), it`s a really informative an entertaining look at how the film was brought to the screen.

There`s also a featurette called `The Brundle Museum of Natural History` which is an 11 minute visit to the home of props collector and film archivist Bob Burns who has kept many of the original design concepts and props from the two eighties movies.

There are some deleted and extended scenes and a host of written works including the original short story by George Langelaan, the original pre-Cronenberg screenplay by Charles Edward Pogue, Cronenberg`s re-write, an interactive Cinefax article, `The Fly Papers`, an interactive American Cinematographer articles `New Buzz on an Old Theme` and `More about the Fly`.



Another fascinating inclusion are some of the original film tests (running at just under 8 minutes), as well as trailers, TV spots, and Electronic Press Kits on the movie and on Cronenberg. Picture wise there are some stills galleries and some one-sheet and lobby-card reproductions.

In short, a treasure trove of related materials.


THE FLY II - for a less notable movie it is surprising that this gets the lavish extras treatment too. Disc 1 comes complete with an audio commentary by director Walas and film historian Bob Burns (the collector featured in the `Brundle Museum` piece on `The Fly`s second disc. Director Chris Walas proves to be a likable enough guy, though has none of Cronenberg`s enigmatic charisma. There`s also a brief deleted scene with some gross-out vomiting, as well as an alternative ending that follows the same narrative conceit as the one that made the cut, though is a little more obvious. The decision to drop it was definitely the right one. There are also a couple of trailers here for the other movies in this set.

The second disc is feature packed too. The production of the movie was comprehensively recorded on video and much of that is presented here. `The Fly Papers: The Buzz on Hollywood`s Scariest Insect` is a wonderful one hour feature on the whole series, narrated by the distinctive Leonard Nimoy. It starts with the original Vincent Price pieces and goes right through to `The Fly II`. Despite the awful title pun, it`s a really entertaining piece.

`Transformations: Looking back on The Fly II`: is a featurette that focuses on the special effects of the movie/ Running at a little under an hour, it`s a fairly comprehensive piece/

`Composer`s Master Class - Christopher Young`: This 13-minute interview with composer Young brings some insight into the process and thinking behind creating the score for `The Fly II`.

There`s also a nice little EPK documentary dating from 1989 that lasts for about 5 minutes.

Then there are storyboard to film comparisons for three scenes with optional commentary from Chris Walas.

The set is rounded off with Still Galleries and Trailers.

Conclusion

For anyone with an interest in any of the movies offered here this really is a fun set.

From the high camp of Vincent Price in the original fifties pieces, through to Cronenberg`s existential masterpiece and beyond, this comprehensive and lovingly compiled set is a real-treat.

The picture quality is fantastic throughout and the extras on `The Fly` (1986) and `The Fly II` (1989) are amongst the most entertaining and comprehensive that I`ve ever encountered.

For horror fans this will be surely be an essential purchase, with all the manifestations of this thought-provoking concept gathered in one place, including the little seen `Curse of the Fly` (1965). Fantastic!