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Features: DVD
A scientist has a horrific accident when he tries to use his newly invented teleportation device.Seth Brundle, a brilliant but eccentric scientist attempts to woo investigative journalist Veronica Quaife by offering her a scoop on his latest research in the field of matter transportation, which against all the expectations of the scientific establishment have proved successful. Up to a point. Brundle thinks he has ironed out the last problem when he successfully transports a living creature, but when he attempts to teleport himself a fly enters one of the transmission booths, and Brundle finds he is a changed man.
"It's gross, scary and well made..." Brian Webster, Apollo Movie Guide
"Extremely intense, sharply written..." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
"...sensitive, humanistic...thoughtful, shocking horror film..." VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever
Editor's Note
This version of THE FLY is an update of the original horror classic about a brilliant scientist who develops a machine that molecularly transports objects in seconds, but inadvertently combines his DNA with that of a fly. Jeff Goldblum gives an outstanding performance as Seth Brundle, the heart-wrenching victim. David Cronenberg's classic won an Academy Award for Best Makeup.
Plot Summary
David Cronenberg's remake of the 1958 classic transcends its genre to become a moving portrait of a man and his lover attempting to come to terms with his physical disintegration. "The Fly" stars Jeff Goldblum as a spaced-out scientist who invents a genetic teleportation machine and accidentally transforms himself into a fly. In the horrifyingly graphic detail that is his trademark, Cronenberg depicts the scientist's painful mutation from human into insect. What gives the film its tragic dimension is the emotional depth of the relationship between the scientist and his journalist girlfriend (Geena Davis) as she witnesses his slow, painful metamorphosis.
| Features | All-New Documentaries Covering All 3 Stages Of The Fly Production: Larva, Pupa & Metamorphosis With Enhanced Viewing Mode | | Audio: English Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound, DTS 5.1 Surround Sound | | Audio: French Dolby Digital Stereo | | Audio: Spanish Dolby Digital Mono | | Charles Edward Pogue's Original Screenplay | | David Cronenberg's Screenplay Rewrite | | Deleted Scenes With Storyboard & Script Comparisons | | Dubbed: French, Spanish | | Featurette: The Brundle Museum Of Natural History | | Full-Length Audio Commentary By David Cronenberg | | George Langelaan's Original Short Story | | Interactive Articles (Stills With Video Clips) From Cinefex & American Cinematographer | | Interactive Menus | | Never-Before-Seen Alternate Ending | | Original Teasers, Trailers, TV Spots & More! | | Promotional Featurettes | | Rare Test Footage (Makeup & Visual Effects) | | Scene Selection | | Still Photo Galleries (Publicity, Behind-The-Scenes, Concept Art & Visual Effects) | | Subtitles: English, Spanish |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: Foxvideo |
| Release Date: 1/30/2007 |
| Original Release Date: 1986 | | Catalog ID: 2240522 | | UPC: 00024543405221 | | Number of Discs: 2 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew | Geena Davis | | Jeff Goldblum | | John Getz | | Joy Boushel | | Charles Edward Pogue - Screenplay | | David Cronenberg - Screenplay | | David Cronenberg - Director | | George Langelaan - Based On Short Story By | | Howard Shore - Original Music By | | Marc Boyman, et. al. - Producer | | Mark Irwin - Cinematographer | | Nile Rodgers - Original Music By | | Ronald Sanders - Editor |
| Awards |
Nominee (1988) | | | British Academy Awards, Stephan Dupuis, Chris Walas, Best Make Up Artist | | | British Academy Awards, Chris Walas, et. al., Best Special Effects | |
Winner (1987) | | | Oscar, Stephan Dupuis, Chris Walas, Best Makeup |
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| | Professional Reviews | Variety
"...[Cronenberg] is expertly able to create some shocking scenes....Visually intriguing..." 08/13/1986Los Angeles Times
"...THE FLY plunges deeper into the forbidding realm of genetic dysfunction with genuinely unsettling results....It unfolds with such eerie grandeur that it will leave you stoked with a creepy high for hours after you've left the theater..." 08/14/1986 p.C1 Total Film
"[T]ouching and humorous." 01/01/2004 p.134-5 New York Times
"THE FLY explores hidden fears of sex and reproduction, but it also allows a tenderness to blossom between Mr. Goldblum and Ms. Davis that is touching and exceptional in his work." 10/18/2005 p.E3 Empire
"[T]his is a perfectly structured film....Typical of Cronenberg is the combination of graphic sickness and good humour that accompanies Brundle's metamorphosis..." 05/01/2008 p.161 Ultimate DVD
5 stars out of 5 -- "Davis delivers one of her finest performances....It's easy to see how this masterpiece established Cronenberg as a bastion of the body-horror genre." 05/01/2008 p.83 PopMatters 9 of 10
The best horror movies are more than just spook shows. Classics like The Exorcist or Hellraiser incorporate significant social or interpersonal issues alongside their bountiful blood and guts. For many, David Cronenberg's The Fly is an allegory for love in the time of AIDS. The plot may be centered on an experiment in teleportation that goes horribly wrong, but the love triangle subplot -- scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) woos journalist Ronnie (Geena Davis), who once had a thing for her editor, sleazy Stathis (John Getz) -- challenges generic conventions...This is operatic macabre at its most visceral and visionary. The Fly fills the screen with viscous emotions, as brutal as Seth's transformation. - Bill Gibron
Reel.com 10 of 10
Ironically, David Cronenberg, that most iconoclastic of directors, achieved one of his greatest successes with The Fly, a movie he initially turned down. Cronenberg was set to direct Total Recall, while The Fly ended up attached to Robert Bierman. But a personal tragedy forced Bierman's withdrawal from the project just about the time Cronenberg was coming to a parting of the ways with Total Recall producer Dino De Laurentiis...The movie plays on two of Cronenberg's most cherished themes, the tendency of the human body to turn on itself and the shifting of identity, both processes unleashed by the experiment gone awry. But what made the film such a popular success was the romance at the heart of it. Goldblum and Davis were lovers in real life when they were cast, so their on-screen chemistry is no cinematic trick, but the real thing. - Pam Grady
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