The Fury (1978 film)
| The Fury | |
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.jpg) Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Brian De Palma |
| Produced by | Frank Yablans |
| Screenplay by | John Farris |
| Based on | The Fury by John Farris |
| Starring | Kirk Douglas John Cassavetes Carrie Snodgress Charles Durning Amy Irving Andrew Stevens Rutanya Alda |
| Music by | John Williams |
| Cinematography | Richard H. Kline |
| Editing by | Paul Hirsch |
| Studio | Frank Yablans Presentations |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) |
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| Running time | 118 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $7.5 million[1] |
| Box office | $24,000,000[2] |
The Fury is a 1978 supernatural thriller film directed by Brian De Palma. The film was written by John Farris, based on his novel of the same name. It starred Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Amy Irving, Charles Durning and Andrew Stevens. The music was composed by Academy Award-winner John Williams and performed by the London Symphony Orchestra. It was highly praised by critic Pauline Kael, who called it "as elegant and delicately varied a score as any horror film has ever had".
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Plot[edit]
The plot combines elements of horror and the spy thriller. A teenage girl, Gillian Bellaver (Amy Irving), discovers that she possesses psychic powers, including telekinesis and extra-sensory perception, but that other people suffer bleeding if they touch her. She volunteers to attend the Paragon Clinic, whose director, Dr. James McKeever (Charles Durning), works for a shady intelligence operative named Ben Childress (John Cassavetes). Childress has betrayed his friend Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) and is using Sandza's psychic son Robin (Andrew Stevens) in research into the weapons potential of psychics.
Meanwhile Peter, who survived Childress' set-up, is searching for his son; with Gillian's help and that of his girlfriend Hester (Carrie Snodgress) he tracks Robin down, but Childress' ruthless experiments have damaged the young man's mind and rendered him a soulless psychopath, and he and Peter both die within minutes of their reunion. As he dies, Robin has some form of psychic contact with Gillian. When Childress tries to persuade Gillian to accept his "help", she finally accepts her talent and kills him to avenge Peter's and Robin's deaths, by exploding him from the inside out.
Cast[edit]
- Kirk Douglas as Peter Sandza
- John Cassavetes as Ben Childress
- Carrie Snodgress as Hester
- Charles Durning as Dr. Jim McKeever
- Amy Irving as Gillian Bellaver
- Fiona Lewis as Dr. Susan Charles
- Andrew Stevens as Robin Sandza
- Carol Rossen as Dr. Ellen Lindstrom
- Rutanya Alda as Kristen
- Joyce Easton as Katharine Bellaver
- William Finley as Raymond Dunwoodie
- Jane Lambert as Vivian Nuckells
- Sam Laws as Blackfish
- J. Patrick McNamara as Robertson
- Alice Nunn as Mrs. Callahan
- Melody Thomas Scott as La Rue
- Hilary Thompson as Cheryl
- Patrick Billingsley as Lander
- J. P. Bumstead as Greene
Production[edit]
Parts of this feature were filmed at Old Chicago of Bolingbrook, Illinois, a now defunct amusement park. The scene in which Kirk Douglas escapes the agents at the hotel were filmed at the now defunct Plymouth Hotel, the same hotel and room used in the 1980 film The Blues Brothers.
In order to realistically show Cassavetes exploding at the climax, Cassavetes stood on the set convulsing and bleeding until a lamp fell down creating a split-second white flash on the screen. Then a quick edit is done replacing Cassavetes with a lifesized rigged dummy exploding shot at several different angles.[citation needed] In an interview with The Talks, De Palma said that he had 8 or 9 high-speed cameras to film Cassavetes exploding. "The first time we did it, it didn’t work. The body parts didn’t go towards the right cameras and this whole set was covered with blood. And it took us almost a week to get back to do take 2."[3]
Future stars[edit]
- The film features early performances by Dennis Franz (in his debut), Daryl Hannah and Laura Innes. Franz plays a cop driving a car hijacked by Douglas' character and gets about ten minutes of screen time and numerous lines. Hannah plays a student at a school attended by Irving's character and gets about five minutes of screen time and almost no lines.[citation needed]
- James Belushi appears as an extra, his appearance becoming a topic many years later on David Letterman's show when he was a guest.[citation needed]
References[edit]
- ^ Aubrey Solomon, Twentieth Century Fox: A Corporate and Financial History, Scarecrow Press, 1989 p258
- ^ "The Fury, Worldwide Box Office". Worldwide Box Office. Retrieved January 27, 2012.
- ^ "Interview with Brian De Palma". The Talks.
External links[edit]
- The Fury at the Internet Movie Database
- The Fury at AllRovi
- The Fury at the TCM Movie Database
- The Fury at Rotten Tomatoes
- The Carolyn Jackson Collection, no. 30 - Interview with Brian De Palma
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