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FILM: The Fury (1978)


karelm

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Up till now, I was only aware of Brian De Palma's "The Fury" (1978) through the very fine score composed during JW's goldenage (generally considered 1975 - 1983 give or take) where everything he did was a homerun.  He was on fire and unstoppable at the top of his game. 

 

The movie was directed by Brian De Palma who was part of the New Wave of film directors...a group of new renegade directors coming into their own in the late 60's and 70's such as George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, François Truffaut, Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, etc.  These films explored more psychological territory with new story and film making techniques plus was the birth of the blockbuster.  One thing I recognized in this film was use of multiple angle shots, lots of complex lenses such as amphomorphic wide shots (such as a close shot taken from a distance with a telephoto to make it look close), green/blue screen, etc.  These were experimental film makers utilizing the very latest techniques not to shoot a scene but to show the character's thoughts.  There is a great debt to Hitchcock with this generation of filmmaker (and composer).

 

For some odd reason, I never had much interest in seeing the film but it was on TV this weekend.  I really enjoyed it!  It is a psychological thriller that can be thought of as a precursor to a school of mutant teenagers where they have powerful ESP skills and at first, can only read minds but ultimately can move objects and destroy people as they grow in power.  There are evil powers at play that want to take these teens and mold them into weapons.  But the process of doing so makes them somewhat psychopathic killing machines that the corrupt experimenters have little capabilities of controlling. 

 

The film is full of 1970's style directing such as lots of slow motion deaths, some of which are kind of funny today.  Like an assassin getting shot multiple times in very slow motion.  You also get the impression the footage wasn't actually shot in slow motion but the acting was in slow motion.  The film is very campy but some of us who remember the 70's find that endearing.  If you only see a scene of it, you'll feel it didn't age well.  Acting is over the top...lots of slow motion "noooooooo!!!!" type of stuff.  BUT the cast is great too.  Kirk Douglas is very good as a father who is also an intelligence offer searching for his ESP gifted son who was kidnapped to be developed into a super weapon.  Amy Irving stars as a similarly gifted girl.  She's good in what I think must have been a very limited role but was quite young - definitely hams it up with lots of extremely distressed facial expressions.  This might be Daryl Hannah's film debut as a bully schoolgirl with Amy Irving.

 

You see what I mean from this ending scene when the villain gets his come upance:

 

 

If you watch the film from the start, you don't notice the haminess as much because it becomes part of the story telling.  Overall, the film is quite entertaining and fun.  The score is extremely good and a rare example of JW's use of electronics with the ARP synth for the mind bending themes.  The music is very loud in the mix.  The score is motific and quite Bernard Herrmannesque but is very good and catchy.  Overall, the film was lots of fun and featured a vintage goldenage score well worth hearing since you'll notice lots of parallels with other scores of the time like Star Wars and Superman.  One could argue this is JW's most electronic score since the ARP synth is so prominently featured. 

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On 8/30/2020 at 3:29 AM, karelm said:

One could argue this is JW's most electronic score since the ARP synth is so prominently featured. 

 

I wouldn't go that far. It's true that the ARP is featured prominently, but it's mostly used as a color, and it's always used within the symphonic context.

 

I think the first score where he used an ARP synth was The Eiger Sanction. He used it again in Family Plot, Superman, Empire Strikes Back and Jedi. From the mid-1980s onwards, Yamaha DX-7 took over and became the synth every composer wanted to use.

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11 hours ago, TownerFan said:

 

I wouldn't go that far. It's true that the ARP is featured prominently, but it's mostly used as a color, and it's always used within the symphonic context.

 

I think the first score where he used an ARP synth was The Eiger Sanction. He used it again in Family Plot, Superman, Empire Strikes Back and Jedi. From the mid-1980s onwards, Yamaha DX-7 took over and became the synth every composer wanted to use.

But to me, In Family Plot, Superman, ESB, Jedi, etc, it wasn't overly used. Here it was prominent...in a way I had never heard from him though know those other scores intimately.

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1974 to 84 Karlem

 

You are too kind to the film. It lacks everything that made Carrie great or the shock value that came with Dressed to Kill. The saddest part was the acting. After two Academy Award worth performances in Carrie its clear this ensemble isn't quite on par.

I remember that day I saw it all too well. It wasn't from enjoyment.

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On 8/31/2020 at 7:10 AM, TownerFan said:

 

I wouldn't go that far. It's true that the ARP is featured prominently, but it's mostly used as a color, and it's always used within the symphonic context.

 

I think the first score where he used an ARP synth was The Eiger Sanction. He used it again in Family Plot, Superman, Empire Strikes Back and Jedi. From the mid-1980s onwards, Yamaha DX-7 took over and became the synth every composer wanted to use.

EIGER was probably Moog.

SW used ARP bass for " Cantina Band "

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/1/2020 at 1:45 PM, JoeinAR said:

1974 to 84 Karlem

 

You are too kind to the film. It lacks everything that made Carrie great or the shock value that came with Dressed to Kill. The saddest part was the acting. After two Academy Award worth performances in Carrie its clear this ensemble isn't quite on par.

I remember that day I saw it all too well. It wasn't from enjoyment.

I haven't seen Carrie.  Honestly the only thing that made me watch this movie was the score.  I'm not a fan of that subgenre of teenage girls with mind powers so not sure if I'm interested enough to seek out Carrie.

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On 9/19/2020 at 11:06 AM, karelm said:

I haven't seen Carrie.  Honestly the only thing that made me watch this movie was the score.  I'm not a fan of that subgenre of teenage girls with mind powers so not sure if I'm interested enough to seek out Carrie.

Carrie is about the extremes of bullying.

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  • 5 months later...
23 hours ago, Naïve Old Fart said:

Forgive me for asking, guys, but...where is the synthesizer, in THE EIGER SANCTION?

 

The most notable example is the strident synthesiser heard accompanying the death plunge of enemy agent Kruger from an apartment window in the film version of Up The Drainpipe.  You will not hear this on the album, however.  For the album rerecording, Williams replaced the synthesiser note with an equally strident two-note trumpet stinger, heard at about [2:46] in the album track.

 

Hopefully a future expansion will allow listeners to compare the original film and rerecorded album versions.

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2 hours ago, Jay said:

I've never seen The Eiger Sanction.  Should I watch it?


Yes.  It’s an entertaining film (if a tad too long) and the mountain climbing scenes are genuinely gripping.  Some of the dialogue you could not get away with nowadays, but if anything that makes it more fun.  Great cinematography and score to boot.

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  • 8 months later...

Watched the movie yesterday again, first time since probably 30 years or so and realised,

  1. The only piece of music, that I really miss on the OST is the car chase sequence in the first third of the movie.
  2. I guess that this movie highly inspired Cronenberg's Scanners.
  3. That the hilarious scene in Ghostbusters with the symbol cards is a clear reference to this movie.
  4. Since last week I watched Hitchcock's Spellbound for the first time, that Williams usage of the theremin in the score of The Fury was inspired by Rózsa's score here.

The bad acting is kind of a trademark for this kind of 70s 80s horror movies. Kind of a Lucio Fulci reference. I am completely fine with that. Still like the movie and its score.

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