cinema history class: the fly saga

Keith treated us to all three installments of The Fly franchise, as well as the remake of the original movie.

Reaction and Other Folderol:

Writing in the book, Giant Bug Cinema, Joe said: "Sequels, by nature, are derivative but they must walk a fine line between 'being comfortably familiar' and 'being a superfluous duplicate of what has come before.'" He got it exacrtly right, and so did the sequels to 1958's The Fly. I would argue that, what Joe said about sequels can also be said about remakes. And the 1986 remake of The Fly also succeeded.*

The premise behind the original movie is simple: a scientist, experimenting with teleportation, gets merged with a fly. The two sequels stay true to that basic premise, but they each chart new territory while still staying faithful to the original idea. The first movie is pretty much a straight up 1950's-style sci-fi/horror film. The second is all that, but also manages to be a caper film with strong elements of film noir. And the third is in some ways a complete reinvention, extending the story out in unexpected ways -- unexpected but completely logical. And, importantly, the second and third films are set in the same universe -- extending the original story rather than reinventing it. The fact is, the first movie is definitely the best of the three -- featuring the haunting image of a fly with a human head plaintively crying "help me!" In the second, the producers tried to come up with an image to top  that. And their attempt -- a rat with human hands -- is disturbing. But it doesn't measure up.

The 1986 remake manages to reboot the original film, staying true to the premise while updating it with a 1980's science fiction feel and 1980's movie aesthetics. I think that's why I liked it more -- the 1980's movie feel appeals to me more than does the 1950's. The film is grittier, and the depiction of the technology is more modern, high-tech and (to my eyes) believable. Of course, the human interactions are updated from the Hays Code era to the 1980s. There's also a rom-com element to the plot. Take all of that for what it's worth. If you like that stuff, great! If not, well, be advised. But most significant is the change in the depiction of the fly itself. In the original movie, Andre is the man-fly hybrid as soon as he leaves the teleportation booth. In the remake, Brundle comes out of the machine seemingly fine -- and a good bit of the movie is devoted to portraying his gradual transformation -- including the slow realization that something is wrong. And that illustrates an important point: it's more a modern adaptation** of the premise than a "remake" the original movie, and the story is definitely more complicated. One can argue, in the original's favor, that some of the human element of the plot has been replaced by computer/tech geekistry, though I still prefer the remake.

One thing that's important to note in comparing the two movies is that the remake never managed to come up with an iconic visual to rival the aforementioned human head on a fly body. That said, it did a good job, near the end, of coming up with a great sequence of unparallelled pathos. Brundle (fused with a fly and a machine) has been reduced to a bloody, revolting blob with eyes and arms. And he manages the most pitiful expression as he begs with his eyes for Ronnie to shoot him and end his misery. It's remarkable how good a job was done to get such a vile blob to look so sympathetic. It's a sequence rather than a momentary image, but it's worth noting.

This was among the best sessions we've had -- for two reasons. Most obvious is that these were four great movies that I had never seen. It's not really important to me to see great movies -- I can easily go to Google to find lists of great movies to watch. So, in a sense it's better to see movies that I otherwise wouldn't. However, if they are great, so much the better. The second reason that this was a great session is that it had more coherence than most. Most sessions are four movies with something in common -- something thematic, or stylistic. But this set of four movies held together more than most do.

The Trailers:

The Fly (1958)

Return of the Fly (1959)

Curse of the Fly (1965)

The Fly (1986)

*In fairness, I never saw The Fly II, which is the sequel to the remake. So I can't fairly comment on whether that succeeds. I think not, but that's based on hearsay.
**Though it may be important to note that the remake is now older than the original was when the remake was made.