by pinback » Sat Jan 25, 2014 10:02 pm
Here is one that I think gets credit, but not the credit it deserves:
THE FLY (1986), David Cronenberg.
-----------------------------------------
This is a remake a la Carpenter's "The Thing" remake, in the sense that it's a far superior re-telling of the original story. But it is better than that. What makes The Fly great is that you still don't want him to turn into the Fly.
We're all nerds, watching this, and we're seeing Jeff Goldblum, who we wished we were in the '80s, just about make it work with Geena Davis, who passed for hot in the '80s, and it was PERFECT. When Goldblum drunks out and gets in the telepod, even almost 30 years later you still wish he'd notice the damn fly and not fuck everything up, because he was just about to invent the greatest thing ever, and things were finally going to work out for the awkward smart guy.
But 30 years later, no matter how much we beg, he still gets in that telepod. The ultimate brilliance of the movie is how things seem to get better before they get worse.
The marvel of Goldblum's performance can not be overstated. From shyness to confidence to overconfidence to vulnerable terror as he starts to change to a disgruntled sort of fascination as he accepts what's happening to him, it is one of the movies' great creations.
The Fly is a masterpiece because it is less about the science and the fiction than the people in it, who are likeable and three-dimensional and make the ensuing tragedy all the more poignant. This is what almost every sci-fi movie gets wrong. It is never about the monster or the space ship or the alien planet. It is only ever good if it is about the people, and if you give a crap.(*)
The Fly makes it impossible not to give a crap, and when Brundle comes out of the telepod, and looks none the worse for wear, but we know the end has begun, it makes us care in all the most painful ways.
The Fly is one of the Great Science Fiction Movies.
(*) The notable exception to this, of course, is 2001, the greatest of all science fiction movies, in which it is impossible to care about anybody except the computer because they are all cardboard fucking cutouts.
Here is one that I think gets credit, but not the credit it deserves:
THE FLY (1986), [i]David Cronenberg[/i].
-----------------------------------------
This is a remake [i]a la[/i] Carpenter's "The Thing" remake, in the sense that it's a far superior re-telling of the original story. But it is better than that. What makes The Fly great is that you still don't want him to turn into the Fly.
We're all nerds, watching this, and we're seeing Jeff Goldblum, who we wished we were in the '80s, just about make it work with Geena Davis, who passed for hot in the '80s, and it was PERFECT. When Goldblum drunks out and gets in the telepod, even almost 30 years later you still wish he'd notice the damn fly and not fuck everything up, because he was just about to invent the greatest thing ever, and things were finally going to work out for the awkward smart guy.
But 30 years later, no matter how much we beg, he still gets in that telepod. The ultimate brilliance of the movie is how things seem to get better before they get worse.
The marvel of Goldblum's performance can not be overstated. From shyness to confidence to overconfidence to vulnerable terror as he starts to change to a disgruntled sort of fascination as he accepts what's happening to him, it is one of the movies' great creations.
The Fly is a masterpiece because it is less about the science and the fiction than the people in it, who are likeable and three-dimensional and make the ensuing tragedy all the more poignant. This is what almost every sci-fi movie gets wrong. It is never about the monster or the space ship or the alien planet. It is only ever good if it is about the people, and if you give a crap.(*)
The Fly makes it impossible not to give a crap, and when Brundle comes out of the telepod, and looks none the worse for wear, but we know the end has begun, it makes us care in all the most painful ways.
The Fly is one of the Great Science Fiction Movies.
(*) The notable exception to this, of course, is 2001, the greatest of all science fiction movies, in which it is impossible to care about anybody except the computer because they are all cardboard fucking cutouts.