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A Few Words About A few words about...™ The Fury -- in Blu-ray (1 Viewer)

Robert Harris

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Brian DePalma's 1978 The Fury, is in some ways a follow-up to his Carrie -- it's a horror film that revels in psychic affairs, telekinesis, and it's a great deal of fun.

Brought to us by Twilight Time, it's a Fox film, and following Fox's general pattern of quality HD masters, it's a beauty.

Color, shadow detail, resolution are all intact in a beautifully stable image. The grain structure is totally film-like. So much so that when we hit a long dupe shot, as part of a function, about 9 minutes in, you can easily see the difference.

A wonderful addition to the libraries of both horror collectors and fans of Kirk Douglas and John Cassavetes, The Fury is a great deal of fun.

Image - 5

Audio - 5 (DTS-HD MA 4.0)

Recommended.

RAH
 

Charles Smith

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Somehow or other, I'd never seen the film, and ate up every frame of it watching the TT Blu-ray last week. Everything about it was excellent, including a surprisingly interesting score from John Williams (with a couple of Herrmann quotes, something I don't think I've heard from him before or since). A perfect blind buy, one of those that makes you shout "More! More!"
 

moovtune

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On my system the audio was essentially mono despite the 4.0 designation. But the isolated music track sounded stereo - in the film everything collapases to the middle, including the score.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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I think this blu looks fantastic and I actually like The Fury more than Carrie. Where Carrie plays out in the awkward and angst ridden world of high school, The Fury spins off into the land of espionage, secret experiments, and government conspiracy...throw in telekinetic powers that would seduce David Cronenberg, the juiciest Kirk Douglas role of the 1970s, and John Cassavetes playing a one armed devil...and of course Brian De Palma tossing everything and the kitchen sink at us from behind the camera...and this is one wild and weird ride that truly has an explosive ending that lives up to how strange everything that leads up to it is.

Blood, guts, and Andrew Stevens being transformed into some freaky version of an evil Greek god...while Kirk leaps, bounds, and has a few laughs, gets drunk and pretty much seems willing to kill anybody and anything that gets in the way of him getting back his son...what's not to like here?
 

Jon Hertzberg

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Reggie W said:
I think this blu looks fantastic and I actually like The Fury more than Carrie. Where Carrie plays out in the awkward and angst ridden world of high school, The Fury spins off into the land of espionage, secret experiments, and government conspiracy...throw in telekinetic powers that would seduce David Cronenberg, the juiciest Kirk Douglas role of the 1970s, and John Cassavetes playing a one armed devil...and of course Brian De Palma tossing everything and the kitchen sink at us from behind the camera...and this is one wild and weird ride that truly has an explosive ending that lives up to how strange everything that leads up to it is.

Blood, guts, and Andrew Stevens being transformed into some freaky version of an evil Greek god...while Kirk leaps, bounds, and has a few laughs, gets drunk and pretty much seems willing to kill anybody and anything that gets in the way of him getting back his son...what's not to like here?
Well said, Reggie.
 

Winston T. Boogie

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Thanks, Jon. I've always loved the paranoid conspiracy films from the 1970s and this film falls into that category with a supernatural twist. I also have always felt that De Palma is at his best doing thrillers where he could work out his love for Hitchcock and building up these big set pieces in a film. This is where The Fury really surpasses Carrie for me. Plus I think with his success with Carrie De Palma really sort of got to pull out all the stops on The Fury.

I sort of feel like The Fury takes his love of Hitchcockian thrillers and combines it with his success in the horror genre. Almost as if The Fury is the child of working on his two previous films Obsession and Carrie.
 

Bob Cashill

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...which anyone who spends time here should! Arrow's Blu-ray supplements for DRESSED TO KILL leave the US Blu in the dust, and we should see some great stuff on their upcoming Blus of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and SISTERS, too. Arrow's FURY will be much cheaper to boot.
 

EddieLarkin

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Arrow have also confirmed this will be a new transfer from a recent scan of the OCN, supervised by UK resto expert James White.
 

dpippel

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Bob Cashill said:
...which anyone who spends time here should! Arrow's Blu-ray supplements for DRESSED TO KILL leave the US Blu in the dust, and we should see some great stuff on their upcoming Blus of PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE and SISTERS, too. Arrow's FURY will be much cheaper to boot.
Look, I am NOT moving to Greenland just to watch Arrow's release of The Fury, OK? ;)

I was simply pointing out that the release was Region B locked. Those of us who don't own region-free players (and we are legion) will just have to be satisfied with Twilight TIme's effort.
 

ROclockCK

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EddieLarkin said:
Arrow have also confirmed this will be a new transfer from a recent scan of the OCN, supervised by UK resto expert James White.
Question for RAH more than you Eddie: How could someone get a scan off the "original camera negative" from a film with "opticals"? Wouldn't their source logically have to at least be an "internegative"?

I mean, we're not talking about an A & B rolled vintage Technicolor film here. Or some large format film relying on cuts and held take passes instead of dissolves or wipes (e.g. 2001). The Fury was just a standard 35mm theatrical release circa late 70s, so what good would going to the original camera negative be if that element contains none of the post-production optical work...of which this particular film had a considerable amount (e.g. the 9 minute post-credits sequence mentioned in the OP).

In terms of the information gleaned from this forum, that highlighted statement quoted from Arrow's product specs just seemed...well...odd. Merely a bit of promotional hyperbole? Or would a restoration team actually go back and scan all original camera elements then somehow recombine them digitally to reconstruct the film from the ground up to eliminate any photochemical optical artifacts (much like what Paramount did with Star Trek: The Next Generation series)?

This question has popped up in several other fora, and I'm genuinely curious how such a thing could be possible from a completed 35mm film with opticals already laid in.
 

BIANCO2NERO

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Charles Smith said:
Somehow or other, I'd never seen the film, and ate up every frame of it watching the TT Blu-ray last week. Everything about it was excellent, including a surprisingly interesting score from John Williams (with a couple of Herrmann quotes, something I don't think I've heard from him before or since). A perfect blind buy, one of those that makes you shout "More! More!"
Williams has quoted from Herrmann more than once but always very classily, as you'd expect. In STAR WARS for instance, when the Falcon arrives in the Death Star and Hans Solo and co emerge from the crawlspace, the music is a lift from PSYCHO - see here:
 

Johnny Angell

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That video says Herrmann's score was used as temp music. There's no reference in the video saying it was in the final score.
 

Professor Echo

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THE FURY was the very first film set I was ever invited to visit while working as a film critic and journalist at the ripe old age of 19. I'll never forget how nice Kirk Douglas was to me, a true gentleman who made time for my silly questions and indulged my rambling tangents with manners and grace. DePalma, on the other hand, was arrogant and rude, but to be fair, he probably sensed how little respect I had for him as a filmmaker, though I tried to hide it and be objective. I'm not a fan of the film, but should see it again as it's been a long time. I know it will bring back pleasant memories of Mr. Douglas who it is said does not suffer fools gladly, but certainly suffered me with a warm smile.
 

Vincent_P

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ROclockCK,

While any opticals would be dupes, they'd be intercut with original negative and the final result- even though it has some "dupe" footage i.e. any opticals- is still usually referred to as the "original camera negative" since it's the basis for all subsequent IPs, INs, and finally release prints.

Vincent
ROclockCK said:
Question for RAH more than you Eddie: How could someone get a scan off the "original camera negative" from a film with "opticals"? Wouldn't their source logically have to at least be an "internegative"?

I mean, we're not talking about an A & B rolled vintage Technicolor film here. Or some large format film relying on cuts and held take passes instead of dissolves or wipes (e.g. 2001). The Fury was just a standard 35mm theatrical release circa late 70s, so what good would going to the original camera negative be if that element contains none of the post-production optical work...of which this particular film had a considerable amount (e.g. the 9 minute post-credits sequence mentioned in the OP).

In terms of the information gleaned from this forum, that highlighted statement quoted from Arrow's product specs just seemed...well...odd. Merely a bit of promotional hyperbole? Or would a restoration team actually go back and scan all original camera elements then somehow recombine them digitally to reconstruct the film from the ground up to eliminate any photochemical optical artifacts (much like what Paramount did with Star Trek: The Next Generation series)?

This question has popped up in several other fora, and I'm genuinely curious how such a thing could be possible from a completed 35mm film with opticals already laid in.
 

ROclockCK

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Vincent_P said:
ROclockCK,

While any opticals would be dupes, they'd be intercut with original negative and the final result- even though it has some "dupe" footage i.e. any opticals- is still usually referred to as the "original camera negative" since it's the basis for all subsequent IPs, INs, and finally release prints.

Vincent
Okay Vincent, then that pretty much answers my question. What you seem to be saying is that with any effects-laden film like The Fury, the term "original camera negative" becomes rather elastic...that element could actually be a patchwork of live and dupe footage. So any re-master attempting to stay true to that source will always have variances in image quality...it's simply part of the DNA of the picture itself.

I'm just surprised that anyone would use the term "original camera negative" instead of "original negative" to refer to anything other than 100% 1st gen camera pass stock.

Learn something every day...thanks! ;)
 

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