The Fury (1978)

[slayrrr666]

“The Fury” is a slight disappointment, but certainly isn’t all that bad.

**SPOILERS**

Vacationing in Europe, Government Agent Peter Sandza, (Kirk Douglas) and his son Robin, (Andrew Stevens) are attacked by a swarm of terrorists, and Robin is eventually taken away. His captor, Childress, (John Cassavetes) who knows of Robin’s special powers. After spending a year looking for Robin, he finds Gillian Bellaver, (Amy Irving) has the same sort of powers as Robin, and breaking her out of the Psychic Research Institute run by her mother Hester, (Carrie Snodgrass) they track down Childress and Robin, who has become a murderous psychopath under his control.

The Good News: There’s a surprising amount of decent stuff in here. The thriller elements found in the plot allow the film to continue forward at a fairly nice pace, especially during the numerous action sequences. The chase through the foggy streets is a real highlight, being an action-packed sequence with plenty of atmospheric ideas, creative concepts and a real explosive out-come. The multitude of gunfights don’t hurt matters, as the particularly stunning opening massacre ably demonstrates. It really opens up with a great bang, and sets a nice tone to the rest of the film. There’s some nice gore in here as well, which does mostly come from bullet wounds, but there’s some nice juicy kills as well. One is drained of blood psychically from the fingers, ears, eyes and mouth, another is hit by a car into a windshield of a parked car, several fall over a roof edge and land on the pavement below, and then there’s the classic ending that’s one of the more ingenious and mind-blowing conclusions ever. It has to be seen to be believed, but it’s certainly worth it. All in all, a highly decent film.

The Bad News: There is a couple of really big distractions to this film. One of the biggest is in fact the overly-stylish direction. The slow motion escape from the Paragon Institute is the prime example. It goes on so long that the scene starts to slip into self-parody rather than having only a small portion of it be done in that manner. The fact that there’s lots and lots of scenes that go on for far too long are another big distraction, and the best example of this is the opening walk through the beach. It goes on way longer than was necessary and comes off as a padded scene. There’s tons of scenes spread throughout that are much closer to this, including the various conversations in the hospital and the parts in the old folk’s home. With a confusing storyline that adds together different elements that don’t really add up at all, it becomes a jumbled mess of a movie.

The Final Verdict: A rather decent film hurt mostly by being a little too long for it’s own good, but there’s some other minor problems which keep this below the greatness level. It’s certainly worthy of a look, there’s worse ones out there that cover the same material, but there’s bound to be some frustrating moments in there as well.

Rated R: Graphic Violence and some Language

[Bartwald]

Ha, ha! That's one of De Palma's weirdest films - glad you reviewed it, slayrrr.

The "overly-stylish direction" is - rather obviously - not a problem for me, a die-hard De Palma fan. I agree that some scenes seem terribly long (when I first saw the film I had the impression that it lasts around 4 hours; but hey - it was my first De Palma film!), but it all has its hypnotic rhythm and the finale is a treat.

Like it a lot.

[slayrrr666]

Yeah, I knew you would. It's nice, but it does drag the film out at times (like you said, it doesn't feel two hours long) but it was fine enough.

[LivingDeadGirl]

I think I've seen this one...but it's been so long, when I was a kid. I don't really remember.

[Bartwald]

You should re-watch it then, Livingdeadgirl. When I saw the film for the second time - several years after the first one - I thought I was watching a different film; I remembered only bits and pieces and they were forming a completely different kind of puzzle the second time around. The Fury is very weird - and special - this way, trust me on that.

[slayrrr666]

It's quite good, I'll admit, and a re-watch is indeed necesarry.

[Fenril]

I saw this movie years ago and loved it, I thought it was all but forgotten by now.

If you think the movie is weird you should check out the original novel (by John Farris, author of "When Michael calls"). Compared to it, the movie is actually quite subdued.

Back to the movie, I think it's best described as a mix between "Carrie" and any of De Palma's regular thrillers (Scarface, for instance), very slow-paced and yet so crazy at times.

I totally agree with slayrrr666 that some scenes go on a little too long. Even the last scene I felt went on too long, but I was still amazed by it.

All in all, it's one of those great supernatural thrillers that could only have been made in the crazy 70's.

[slayrrr666]

Yeah, I love the ending myself. One of the better ways to end a film (which I mentioned in the review as wel) and it came out of nowhere.

Glad you liked it.

[Bartwald]

Thanks for recommending the Farris novel, Fenril. Haven't read it yet and if you say it's weirder than the film - I think I need to.

[LivingDeadGirl]

I don't know if this is the same movie I was thinking about. Does it have a scene (maybe at the end) where a guy who looks like a zombie, or at least looks dead, is rising or walking out of a lake or swamp? That's the only thing I really remember about the movie. And if it's not the same movie, does anyone happen to know what movie I'm talking about? ;D I know the description is kinda vague, but I'm pretty sure Fury is in the title somewhere. It'll drive me crazy until I figure out what movie it is.

[slayrrr666]

That doesn't sound right. There's really nothing in the film involved with a lake, other than a car's resting spot after a chase in the beginning. Sounds like something else.

[Fenril]

Definitely not "The Fury". It sounds kinda like "Carnival of souls" (but that was in black and white, think that could be it?).

[LivingDeadGirl]

fenril said:

It sounds kinda like "Carnival of souls" (but that was in black and white, think that could be it?).

Nope, that's not it...dammit, this is driving me nuts...

[slayrrr666]

I'm thinking Zombie Lake maybe, that had zombies and a lake in it, as did Land of the Dead they both had a similar sounding scene.

[LivingDeadGirl]

I think I've got it....Silent Rage. Chuck Norris was in it, I think.
Fury...Rage...you can see how I got confused. ;D