1980’s Cinema, and “The Fly”

Cinema in the 1980s took a very interesting turn. I feel like I have always been able to tell if a film was made in the 80’s without prior knowledge of that fact, as they all, or a great majority of them at least, seem to have a similar look and feeling to them. 80’s films usually seem to have a bit of sci-fi/ fantasy in them. Some examples of these films are “Back to the Future”, “Ghostbusters”, “Gremlins”(one of my favorites), “The Labyrinth” (even more of a favorite) and the movie that we were lucky enough to screen in class this week, “The Fly”. something that I love about films from the 80’s is the hopeless romance in them. This romance was heavily contrasted by horror and fear. These themes were not only played out on screen, but with the AIDS epidemic coming to play in the 80’s, this was also what was happening in real life.
Back to our screening, this week we watched “The Fly”. “The Fly” is a film from 1986 directed by David Cronenberg, who is a director known for making films having to do with sci-fi body transformations and infection, caused by futuristic technology gone wrong. The Fly was produced by  Brooksfilms and distributed by 20th Century Fox. This film is a perfect example of the science fiction/ horror/ romance that I mentioned before. The film stars Jeff Goldblum, Geena Davis and John Getz. This plays out the almost unrealistic fast moving romance of the 80’s, while also holding the extremely unrealistic and dramatic sci fi horror themes. I feel as though the pairing of the two themes is a tactic used to grab and hold the attention of several different audiences. I myself am more drawn to the romantic aspects of film, for the most part, which is why I enjoyed this film. But others who may hate romantic movies, but who love sci fi, would also find great enjoyment in this film. The love story between the two main characters, A scientist who has discovered but not perfected teleportation, and a journalist reporter  trying to out his discovery until she quickly finds herself to have fallen in love with the scientist, was one that had me hooked quickly. This, also paired with the reporters own personal drama with her ex boyfriend/ boss was a great addition of drama to keep me interested throughout the entirety of the film. This film did an amazing job at holding a good amount of action from beginning to end, never trailing off or slowing down much. The special effects that became more and more apparent throughout the film as the scientist was morphed into a human sized fly after accidently teleporting himself with a fly in his teleportation machine, were just how special effects of the 80’s always looked. Very costume like, almost too much to take seriously, which gives a cheesy horror vibe which is a characteristic of old horror films that I love. Overall, I had a great time watching this film, the love story continued through to the very end where the audience gets to really feel the heartbreak of the ending of the relationship between the two main characters when the reporter is forced to shoot the scientist, as his body had completely changed into that of a fly’s, and he was deteriorating in front of her, grabbed the gun himself and held it to his own head, asking her to shoot him. A truly heartbreaking ending to this rollercoaster of a film.