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The Fury begins with a situation where, after 20 years of living in the Middle East following the death of his wife, Peter Sandza (Kirk Douglas) and his son Robin (Andrew Stevens) are about to return to the US. What’s stopping them is a number of trigger-happy terrorists who turn up out of the blue.
Without giving anyway any more than you need to know, there’s a big kerfuffle, Sandza goes on the run and comes back to Chicago, although he’s believed by many to be dead. Well, except for long-term colleague Ben Childress (John Cassavetes) and Sandza’s squeeze Hester (Carrie Snodgress).
At the same time, there’s some weird psychic stuff going on with high school girl Gillian (Amy Irving), who tells one of the girls at her school that she’s pregnant, causing blood to flow from her nose… Hence, it’s no surprise that she ends up at the Paragon Institute being studied by Dr. Jim McKeever (Charles Durning), a place where Hester also works. And where does Robin fit into all this? The plot thickens, as does the amount of blood once the film gets into its final act.
Overall, The Fury feels like it takes its time to get going. It improves around the mid-point, but overall, it really does feel too weird for its own good and doesn’t quite work. It’s still worth a watch, though, if at least for the high points of entertainment it provides as well as the trademark visuals from De Palma.
Despite Brian De Palma normally filming in 2.35:1, he chose 1.85:1 for this film, for reasons I don’t know. While I prefer his trademark use of the wide frame, there are still some of those touches seen here, such as a split-screen moment in Gillian’s room where both the foreground and background are in focus simultaneously. While the disc is presented in 1080p high defintion, the print looks grainy and hazy far too often. I’m not sure whether this is as a result of how it was filmed at the time, but it hasn’t aged well and doesn’t come across as a great viewing experience. Arrow will have done the best that they can with the source material available to them, but any viewer can’t be expect a flawless film ahead of them.
The sound has a DTS HD 4.0 option, so you get the front and back speakers filled… supposedly, but overall there’s absolutely nothing going on in the rears and it just feels like a standard stereo film.
The extras on this disc are as follows – most of which are in HD, too. Sadly, none are chaptered, nor have subtitles:
- Blood on the Lens (27:00): The director of photography, Richard H Kline, gives his thoughts on the film, such as commenting on how much he liked the cast and how Kirk Douglas should’ve been up for an Oscar, filming in Chicago, and also on the split-screen effect, aka split diopters.
- Spinning Tales (13:38): Actress Fiona Lewis (Dr. Susan Charles) talks about her part in The Fury as well as summarising her career prior to appearing in it. As for the title of this supplemental, I won’t reveal the reason for it if you haven’t seen the film.
- The Fury: A Location Journal (49:49): As production assistant Sam Irvin goes into great detail about his work onscreen, Arrow unlock the spare chapters out of the usually-locked closet and give this near-50-minute piece three, yes, THREE CHAPTERS!
As can be expected with these extras, the person on show talks about their experiences with De Palma, here with Sam Irvin having set up a short festival in South Carolina in the director’s honour, who agrees to attend if Irvin pays the air fare. Naturally he does, and the rest, as they say, is history.
- Archive Interviews: Recorded during the original promotional tour in 1978, and conducted by Carolyn Jackson, with Brian De Palma (6:03), producer Frank Yalbans (6:53), Carrie Snodgress (5:05) and Amy Irving (4:45)
Naturally, as befitting a piece from 1978, these are in 4:3 and are definitely not shot in HD. It’s a shame no extras are subtitled as the sound quality on these interviews is far from great.
- Double Negative (17:58): A short film made as a tribute to Brian De Palma, written and directed by Sam Irvin and starring Bill Randolph, Wayne Knight and William Finley. This film was also an official selection in the 1985 Sundance Film Festival.
- Gallery (0:53): A handful of behind-the-scenes images put to the theme music.
- Trailer (3:02): For a three-minute trailer, it’s surprising that it doesn’t give away anything major within, due to clever editing.
- Isolated score: This is in Dolby Surround-only.
While I just received a check disc of Blu-ray disc on its own, I understand the finished product also contains a reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Jay Shaw, as well as a booklet featuring new writing on the film by Chris Dumas, author of Un-American Psycho: Brian De Palma and the Political Invisible, as well as a re-print of a contemporary interview with De Palma, illustrated with original stills and posters.
As you put the disc in, the menu bursts into life with clips from the film and a piece of the theme. There are subtitles in English, but for this Special Edition the chaptering is anything BUT special with the usual 12 that so many films get these days. Very lazy.
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FILM CONTENT PICTURE QUALITY SOUND QUALITY EXTRAS |
6 6 6 8 |
| OVERALL | 6 |
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 118 minutes
Year: 1978
Released: October 28th 2013
Chapters: 12
Cat.no: FCD871
Picture: 1080p High Definition
Sound: DTS-HD MA 4.0, 2.0 PCM Mono
Languages: English
Subtitles: English
Widescreen: 1.85:1
Disc Format: BD50
Director: Brian De Palma
Producer: Frank Yablans
Screenplay: John Farris (based on his novel)
Music: John Williams
Cast:
Peter Sandza: Kirk Douglas
Ben Childress: John Cassavetes
Gillian Bellaver: Amy Irving
Hester: Carrie Snodgress
Dr. Jim McKeever: Charles Durning
Dr. Susan Charles: Fiona Lewis
Robin Sandza: Andrew Stevens
Dr. Ellen Lindstrom: Carol Rossen
Kristen: Rutanya Alda
Katharine Bellaver: Joyce Easton
Raymond Dunwoodie: William Finley
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.