One Girl in All the World: Brian De Palma's The Fury
Poor Amy Irving. She finally got a chance to play both Sue Snell and Carrie White in the same movie and she got stuck with a role that required her to do stuff that even a young Meryl Streep would have had difficulty with.
Then again it says something about the 1978 movie The Fury that Amy Irving wasn't exactly listed at the top of the cast list even though she was one of the two main characters. That honor went to actor Kirk Douglas who played CIA agent Peter Sandza. The late John Cassavetes played Ben Childress, the villainous former co-worker of Peter who arranged a phony terrorist incident in an effort to both get rid of Peter and to provide cover for the kidnapping of Peter's son Robin (played by Andrew Stevens).
The whole plot pretended to be about psychic powers but actually it was just an excuse for various scenes of bloody mayhem. Granted, the movie seemed a little tame by modern standards. There was one episode of really bloody violence in which an unfortunate woman was turned into a human fire sprinkler but for the most part, most of the violent scenes are surprisingly conventional. Then again, the movie ended with what at the time must have seemed like the bloodiest display of FX that one was likely to see outside of a Romero film.
The one thing that kept the movie watchable for me was Amy Irving. The poor girl fared far better when asked to play an ordinary girl than when she had to play a super-psychic teenager who had an unfortunate gift for making the people she touched bleed. In the beginning of the movie, we saw Ms. Irving in a surprisingly skimpy leopard bikini walking with her gal pal La Rue and discussing homework.Later on, we saw her in ordinary clothes -- though there seemed to be times when Ms. Irving's character (Gillian Bellaver) spent more time in a white nightgown than in anything else.
It was interesting to note that though Gillian was one of the main characters, far more attention was paid to Robin and Peter. Moreover, the movie had a scene in which another girl implied that Gillian and La Rue were lesbians. Interesting enough, though Peter and his son indulge in their share of physical horseplay, the movie never once had anyone imply that either character was anything but heterosexual. Indeed, Robin was even provided with an older female companion who made no bones about the fact that she and Robin were sleeping together.
Yet, despite it all, I could not help wondering what happened to Gillian after the movie was over. Did she go home? Do she go to prison? I'd like to think for her sake that she did okay and went on to lead an uneventful life. But that might just be wishful thinking on my part.
Poor Amy Irving. She finally got a chance to play both Sue Snell and Carrie White in the same movie and she got stuck with a role that required her to do stuff that even a young Meryl Streep would have had difficulty with.
Then again it says something about the 1978 movie The Fury that Amy Irving wasn't exactly listed at the top of the cast list even though she was one of the two main characters. That honor went to actor Kirk Douglas who played CIA agent Peter Sandza. The late John Cassavetes played Ben Childress, the villainous former co-worker of Peter who arranged a phony terrorist incident in an effort to both get rid of Peter and to provide cover for the kidnapping of Peter's son Robin (played by Andrew Stevens).
The whole plot pretended to be about psychic powers but actually it was just an excuse for various scenes of bloody mayhem. Granted, the movie seemed a little tame by modern standards. There was one episode of really bloody violence in which an unfortunate woman was turned into a human fire sprinkler but for the most part, most of the violent scenes are surprisingly conventional. Then again, the movie ended with what at the time must have seemed like the bloodiest display of FX that one was likely to see outside of a Romero film.
The one thing that kept the movie watchable for me was Amy Irving. The poor girl fared far better when asked to play an ordinary girl than when she had to play a super-psychic teenager who had an unfortunate gift for making the people she touched bleed. In the beginning of the movie, we saw Ms. Irving in a surprisingly skimpy leopard bikini walking with her gal pal La Rue and discussing homework.Later on, we saw her in ordinary clothes -- though there seemed to be times when Ms. Irving's character (Gillian Bellaver) spent more time in a white nightgown than in anything else.
It was interesting to note that though Gillian was one of the main characters, far more attention was paid to Robin and Peter. Moreover, the movie had a scene in which another girl implied that Gillian and La Rue were lesbians. Interesting enough, though Peter and his son indulge in their share of physical horseplay, the movie never once had anyone imply that either character was anything but heterosexual. Indeed, Robin was even provided with an older female companion who made no bones about the fact that she and Robin were sleeping together.
Yet, despite it all, I could not help wondering what happened to Gillian after the movie was over. Did she go home? Do she go to prison? I'd like to think for her sake that she did okay and went on to lead an uneventful life. But that might just be wishful thinking on my part.
Labels: Amy Irving, Andrew Stevens, Brian De Palma, John Cassavetes, Kirk Douglas, La Furia, Películas de Halloween IV, Películas Neoclásicas II
posted by Tonio Kruger at 9:03 PM
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