Jeff Goldblum is Pretty Fly For a Fly Guy

This week in class we discussed the 1980’s, the decade where so many beloved franchises bagan.  I love this decade, but after learning the history behind it, I can definitely see how it caused problems in a big way.  These problems still persist today, and all of them are based on money before quality.  This makes little room for art, and even less for a director to have freedom when making a new film.  The idea of “front-loading” comes about in this era, and it is the process by which a movie has all of it’s merchandising and products and toys released before the movie to not only generate maximum hype but to also ensure the movie is an instant success.  The problem would occur however if all that money was spent and then there was a flop made out of the movie all the products are based on.  That’s why studios started to take away creative freedoms from all of their directors and really started to craft the movies themselves.  They would stick with tried and true ideas that really made guarenteed hits but were at the same time all too safe.  George Lucas and Steven Spielberg really paved the way for the types of safe movies for the 80’s.  They figured out that male fantasy was a relatively untapped well but that movies in that genre worked really spectacularily.  This led to the beginning of the end.  Movies started to fit three main genres; horror, sci-fi fantasy, and action.  These were the tried and true money makers, and not much has changed today.  It looks to me like Hollywood is going to continue on that path for as long as it takes in order to milk the cash cows those great pioneers gave us in the late 70’s to early 80’s.

That isn’t to say that there weren’t any good movies in those genres though.  There were plenty, Back to the Future, Indiana Jones, one of the greatest sequels of all time came from one of those dreaded cash cows in the form of The Empire Strikes Back.  This week, we watched one of those “good ones”, The Fly.  I missed class unfortunately due to a stomach bug, but I’ve seen The Fly a few times already, so I know what it’s all about.  As far as casting, almost nobody does mad scientist as well as Jeff Goldblum.  The man knows how to act weird and strange already, it’s part of his everyday life.  The body horror that occurs in the movie is also a really good parallel to the Aids crisis in the 80’s, showing that your body could really betray you.  It didn’t focus on jump scares, but rather a slow, methodical burn that really gets under your skin as Jeff Goldblum loses his.  David Cronenberg does a fantastic job spinning a tale that is equal parts horror and a statement on where society stood when faced with these new challenges.  Overall, I think The Fly is something that everybody should experience at some point in their life, if not for the ride, then at least for the make up effects which are just outstandingly grotesque.