The Fury (1978) 20th Century Fox/Suspense-Thriller RT: 120 minutes Rated R (language, violence, some gory images) Director: Brian De Palma Screenplay: John Farris Music: John Williams Cinematography: Richard H. Kline Release date: March 10, 1978 (US) Cast: Kirk Douglas, John Cassavetes, Carrie Snodgress, Amy Irving, Andrew Stevens, Charles Durning, Fiona Lewis, Carol Rossen, Rutanya Alda, Joyce Easton, William Finley, Dennis Franz, Alice Nunn, Melody Thomas Scott, Hilary Thompson, Patrick Billingsley, Gordon Jump, Daryl Hannah, Laura Innes. Box Office: $24M (US)
Rating: *** ½
When it comes to Brian De Palma, people talk about Carrie, Dressed to Kill, Scarface, The Untouchables and even the director’s notorious misfire The Bonfire of the Vanities. Nobody seems to remember The Fury, a neat little thriller about psychic teenagers and a sinister government agency that wants to use their powers for evil.
It all starts in Israel where government agent Peter Sandza (Douglas, Out of the Past) is vacationing with his teenage son Robin (Stevens, The Seduction). He’s been stationed in the Middle East for twenty years and is ready for a change. On the eve of them returning to the States, Peter’s best friend Ben Childress (Cassavetes, Two Minute Warning) betrays him by staging a terrorist attack as a pretext for kidnapping Robin. He works for a secret government agency that wants to use the boy for nefarious purposes. Much to his annoyance, Peter survives and devotes his entire being to finding his son.
Meanwhile, Gillian Bellaver (Irving, Carrie) discovers she possesses psychic powers after an incident with a bully at her school. Naturally, she freaks out. Convinced she’s a danger to everybody around her, she moves into the Paragon Institute, a live-in research facility run by Dr. Jim McKeever (Durning, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas) that specializes in studying paranormal powers in teens. She catches the attention of Hester (Snodgress, Murphy’s Law), a nurse who happens to be Peter’s girlfriend. She tells him the girl might be his best chance to find Robin because there’s a psychic link between the two teens. Time is a factor as Peter must get to the girl before Childress who knows about her through McKeever.
The Fury is a combination horror movie and spy thriller. It’s kind of like Carrie meets The Manchurian Candidate by way of James Bond. It has plenty of exciting scenes as well as some truly frightening moments. The cast is exceptional. Douglas is terrific as the dogged father determined to locate his son. Cassavetes is also great as the two-faced friend who wants to turn Robin into a psychic weapon to be used against any enemy of the US. Detached as he is dangerous, what he doesn’t count on is the mind-control experiments being performed on Robin are turning him into a psychopath as evidenced by the scene at an amusement park where he commits an act of horrific violence with his increasingly dangerous powers.
It’s astonishing Stevens never made it that big as an actor. He’s really good in The Fury. Irving is perfect as the terrified teenager just starting to understand her extraordinary gift. She’s scared of what she might be capable of and wants to learn to control it. Childress would like nothing more than to get his hands on Gillian and make her a subject in his experiments. She knows she’s in danger and spends a good part of the movie dodging his men with Peter as her only protector.
De Palma has a real gift for making the ludicrous seem plausible and the plausible look bizarre. He does it by maintaining tight control over the material while allowing the story to veer off into unexpected directions. The Fury is stylish, fast-paced, taut and rife with suspense. It’s a deft blend of two distinct genres that rarely feels unbalanced. It may be a bit convoluted in explaining its villain’s end game, but there’s so much going on that you probably won’t realize it until after it’s over. The score by John Williams (Star Wars) perfectly augments the movie’s wild style. It has some good bloody violence and thrilling scenes of Douglas trying to stay one step ahead of his former colleague and his goons with guns.
I feel comfortable saying The Fury is one of De Palma’s best movies. I like what he does with the material. His signature touches make it stand out from other horror movies of its time. Sure, it’s pure silliness, but it’s such a run ride you won’t even notice. And even if you do, it’s still fun.
