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Old 10-24-2005, 07:49 AM
diebitter diebitter is offline
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 417
Default FILM REVIEW: The Fly (1986)

The Fly, made in 1986 by the masterful David Cronenberg, is a remake of the 1950's Fly I'm sure many of us know and love.

The plot is changed somewhat from the original - no giant fly head on a man, for example. Here the fusion is at the molecular-genetic level - and here the horror is a growing one, and the man slowly realises something is going very, very wrong...

I love this movie - unashamedly. Why? It's a very effective horror with plenty of thrills and jumps and gross-out moments... but that's not it

It works as an allegory for all sorts of things? - AIDS; death and dying; ageing; general horror at the things one's own body can produce; hell, even of just fear of change... but that's not it.

It works very well as a movie anyway? Speeding through the plot quickly, getting to the punch, even taking time to develop drama and romance in the middle of a speeding melange of gross body-changes and vomiting, relentlessly paced, but pausing enough so each scene packs it punch pretty perfectly...but that's not it.

Great score, acting, directing, absolutely... but that's not it.

Okay, enough teasing, I love this movie most because of its dialogue. It's unrealistic movie dialogue, for sure, but boy, does it pack a punch. To me, it's like the Hamlet or Macbeth of horror films, dialogue that I remember and remember, even if I haven't seen it in a few years.

Examples? Here you go:
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Seth Brundle: You have to leave now, and never come back here. Have you ever heard of insect politics? Neither have I. Insects... don't have politics. They're very... brutal. No compassion, no compromise. We can't trust the insect. I'd like to become the first... insect politician. Y'see, I'd like to, but... I'm afraid, uh...

Ronnie: I don't know what you're trying to say.

Seth Brundle: I'm saying... I'm saying I - I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it. But now the dream is over... and the insect is awake.

Ronnie: No. no, Seth...

Seth Brundle: I'm saying... I'll hurt you if you stay.
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Seth Brundle: What's there to take? The disease has just revealed its purpose. We don't have to worry about contagion anymore... I know what the disease wants.

Ronnie: What does the disease want?

Seth Brundle: It wants to... turn me into something else. That's not too terrible is it? Most people would give anything to be turned into something else.

Ronnie: Turned into what?

Seth Brundle: Whaddaya think, a fly? Am I becoming a hundred-and-eighty-five-pound fly? No, I'm becoming something that never existed before. I'm becoming... Brundlefly. Don't you think that's worth a Nobel Prize or two?

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Seth Brundle: You're afraid to dive into the plasma pool, aren't ya'? You're afraid to be destroyed and recreated,aren't ya? I'll bet you think you woke me up about the flesh, don't you? But you only know society's straight line about the flesh. You can't penetrate beyond society's sick, grave, fear of the flesh. Drink deep, or taste not, the plasma spring. Y'see what I'm sayin? And I'm not just talking about sex and penetration, I'm talking about penetration beyond the veil of the flesh. A deep penetrating dive into the plasma pool.
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Okay, I know, this is more a love letter than a review, but you know what? Tell me I'm wrong, I dare ya! I double-dog dare ya!


OVERALL: 4.5/5
REWATCHABILITY: Would stand 3-monthly, but who's got time?

RATINGS (out of 5):
0 - This is a complete waste of time, and you will regret wasting it (** new addition **)
1 - don't bother unless no other options at all
2 - okay for a single watch, if you've got time
3 - Definite watch if you get a chance
4 - See it very soon, at least once before you die
5 - See it immediately, no excuses


Opinions/comments/arguments please, especially if you think I missed anything worth of discussion/expansion, or violently agree or disagree.
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