Sunday 26 September 2010

The Fly 1958 vs The Fly 1986 Reviews

‘The Fly’ 1958
Directed by Kurt Neumann

“…The fly with the white head…” - Helene Delambre

http://cinefantastiqueonline.com/wp-content/uploads/1958_The_Fly.jpg

Andre Delambre plans to change the world with his latest invention, the teleportation machine, but little does he know his invention will change his world for all the wrong reasons…

‘The Fly’ of 1958 is one of the greatest films to go down in history; for both good and bad reasons, whilst I have only seen this film recently, I already see myself as a fan of the film, I was enchanted by this film even with its age of fifty two, it gave me a window into the life of the 1950’s, which made me enjoy it even more.

One of my most favourite elements of the original fly is the anticipation of the story itself, we are given a small selection of information, but we are never quite let in until Helene decides to tell the story of her husbands ‘death’, this kept me caught in a web of interest…

“We’re not quite sure what the story is, but we’re given enough information to make guesses. At the same time, we’re not so in the dark...”
( http://classic-horror.com/reviews/fly_1958 )

“Without resorting to spooky camera angles, shadows, and blatant musical stings, THE FLY reveals its story in a leisurely manner, usually in open, sunny rooms”
(http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1007600-fly/articles/1784979/a_barometer_for_what_some_people_perceive_as_funny_and_what_others_think_is_creepy/ )

There is an interesting revelation for the creation of the teleportation machine in the first place, it shows you that like most inventors, they want to change the world, and for one of the movies focal protagonists, Andre Delambre, this seems to be his main mission…

“"Al" Hedison’s "mad-scientist" isn’t really mad, he’s just obsessed with his work, and it seems perfectly reasonable.”
( http://classic-horror.com/reviews/fly_1958 )

…But his wife’s mission in life is to be just that, and I think this is presented well throughout the movie, from her trusting her husband, and doing simple tasks for him such as gathering milk and rum for him, the reason I find this interesting is due to the dissimilarity to our present times, which is another sign of the age of this movie, but I feel it almost enriches the movie in many principles, to shows us how the ‘normal life’ of certain persons in the 50’s, but of course this is all normal when the movie was originally released.

There is also a close relationship between all the key characters, two brothers, Andre Delambre, François Delambre and Andre’s wife, Helene Delambre.
When Andre is in human form, you can see he has a loving relationship between his wife and son, but once he becomes transformed, we see towards the end that Helene leans towards François, until the end scene of the film we see all of them pretending to be happy family, aside from one of their immediate, it is interesting that Helene and François had a love interest mentioned at the beginning of the film, and it would of also been a interesting consideration for the film to missing this part in particular, because I believe it was of greatly differed the movie plot.
When reporter Veronica Quaife (Green Davis) finds herself at a scientist convention looking for the next big thing to write about for her editor, but she finds herself talking to a Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) who lets her into his world, and the soon the devastation that he will be creating…

David Cronenbery known especially for his gory body horrors, from the movies such as ‘Shivers’ (1975), Rabid (1977), The Brood (1979), Scanners (1981), Videodrome (1983) The Dead Zone (1983) and many, many more, but his adaptation remake of ‘The Fly’ is seen to be one of his most famous movies ever, this could be due to acting, plot, but for a majority of viewers of ‘The Fly’ it can come close to the repulsive scenes that can be seen throughout the movie. Empire magazine states.

“David Cronenberg's triumphant reworking of the 1958 Vincent Price flick remains his most accessible film, meshing his perennial obsessions with disease, decay and metamorphosis into an exuberantly handled, shamelessly melodramatic love story - albeit a love story in which one partner is a pus-packed bluebottle.”
(http://www.empireonline.com/reviews/reviewcomplete.asp?DVDID=117254)
The movie follows close to its predecessor in close format, but differs greatly when it comes to the characters and quintessential Fly creature; this can also be agreed with Brandt Sponseller of classic-horror.com as he quotes:
“..the story in the original, while similar in its broadest features, is very different in the details, and has a very different focus.”
( http://classic-horror.com/reviews/fly_1958 )

‘The Fly’ shows themes that show the the epidem­ic of AIDS in the 80’s, this is translated well within the movie itself, with the sexual content and the concept of the character Veronica Quaife being pregnant with a maggot. There is also the representation of casual sex, when the main character, Seth Brundle, ‘won’ a woman in a bar and brought her back to his place and continued to have sex with no questions asked, but:
“The real-world connections here—disease, mental illness, drug addiction, are obvious. Many saw the film as an allegory for AIDS, which Cronenberg denied while welcoming the interpretation...”
(http://www.cinemaviewfinder.com/2010/09/cronenberg-blogathon-fly-1958-vs-fly.html)
It was also interesting to see the contrast between this movie and many more regarding the “unveiling” of the fly itself, for example, King Kong we have an instant understanding of the creature that we are expecting, but when the fly came to the screen, it was a surprise and a real enjoyment to see the character morph into this haggard mutant hybrid fly, it was certainly an curiosity to see what Seth or ‘Brundlefly’ would ultimately became, and end as within the movie. I believe that Jesse Hassenger from filmcritic.com would agree…
“In a sense, as with many monster movies, you're essentially waiting around for 40 or 50 minutes for the monster to show up, but spending this time with Goldblum and Davis is a pleasure.”
( http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/1986/the-fly/ )

1 comment:

  1. Hey Ben - nice reviews - good use of supporting quotes and a suitably formal writing style! Bodes well for the written assignment. Good stuff!

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