Strong and Moving!

A different way of telling a story

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

While it is a pity that the story wasn't told with more visual finesse, this is trivial compared to our real-world problems. It takes a good movie to put that into perspective.

Many people seem to have an aversion to the films of De Palma and nothing I am going to say will change their minds. I feel he may be a little too European for some Americans, a bit too aware. There again some just mention Hitchcock and role their eyes. So, for what it is worth, let me assure anyone interested that this is a very good watch. I am not suggesting that the storyline would bear too much detailed analysis but for those with a basic understanding of the theories of mind transference, telepathy, telekinesis and the like will get much from this. I found it exciting and involving, becoming scary and then very scary as an extremely emotional tale is told. Kirk Douglas, who I am not a great fan is faultless, John Cassavetes at his Rosemary's Baby's best and if Andrew Stevens is a little flat, it works within the tale and is well covered by the fantastic performance from Amy Irvine.

In 'Carrie', Amy Irving played a well-meaning friend of the iconic title character and the only survivor of the famous prom-night massacre that closed that film. Here in The Fury, she gets to play The Girl With the Power herself, as a another teenager coming to grips with frightening telekinetic and psychic powers that she never wanted. I might have rated this movie higher if I'd seen it closer to its original date, but a few decades later it certainly looks dated. And it can't quite seem to decide what it wants to be: either (a) a suspense/action tale (in which case the plot ought to be tighter and flow better) or (b) a supernatural/horror thriller (in which case the special effects fall short, at least by modern standards). So overall it ends up being a bit of an incomplete mix. But the odd thing is that even for the time (late 70's) it has a dated feel to the style and pace of the scenes and dialog. As other reviewers have indicated, the only way this film worked for me was to imagine that I was watching a Hitchcock production from the 1960's or even 50's.The actors too all seem to be a bit out of sorts, even the star veteran Kirk Douglas. None of them seem to mesh well together. The main interest for me was to see Amy Irving at an early career stage. Though she was billed 5th in the cast after the more well known veterans, she's actually on screen more than any of the others and in some sense it's her character's journey that can be seen as the central part of the plot. Rather than the claustrophobic high-school setting of Carrie, however, here the girl with psychic powers is plunged unprotected into a bewildering outside world of political intrigue and secret institutes where she does not know who to trust. Irving does all right here with the rather uneven script, but in 'The Fury' she is clearly still learning the acting business. Even in her very next movies after this one ('Voices', 'The Competition'), she is visibly more mature and has distinctly more command of her acting skill. Frankly I think it took a while for her just to grow into her voice: her smooth, low-pitched alto seems a bit out of place for the 17-year-old that she's supposed to be playing here. But she's got great screen presence and is a treat to look at.Overall, this movie felt like a good effort for the time, but harder to watch now.

I was never a particular fan of Kirk Douglas, but I would sometimes enjoy his films; just took them one by one. This one, which I remember seeing when I was 19, always stood out in my mind as being impressive. Now, over 30 years later, I still find it a riveting film.At the time of filming, Douglas was 62. While I know he didn't do all his own stunts, what he did do was quite remarkable at that age. And, Douglas has all the intensity here that we grew used to in his career. He rarely let us down, and certainly didn't here.John Cassavetes as the bad guy who is trying to harness the psychic powers of the young man and young woman is sufficiently evil here...you'll love what happens to his character at the close of the film. Carrie Snodgress is a sort-of girlfriend of Douglas', and although I'm not a particular fan, she does nicely here. Charles Durning, always one of my favorite supporting actors, does very nicely as the head of the institute that is studying the psychic powers of the young people; and he treads a fine line here as a professional with a sense of morals who has, unfortunately, gotten into bed with Cassavetes; he does it nicely! Amy Irving is terrific as the psychic young lady. Fiona Lewis is the "friend" and later victim of the whole plot, and one of the professionals studying the psychic phenomenon. Andrew Stevens is excellent as the young male with psychic powers; it reminded me to look up where he disappeared to...and that's behind the cameras in recent years.I must give Brian DePalma (director) credit here. He used the story and its drama to heighten suspense, not over-relying on special effects. However, the special effects are done very well here...used as needed, but not overwhelming. Some people have compared a couple of scenes to scenes in "Carrie", but since DePalma directed that film, also, I guess we can't criticize him for a few similarities.This film is just as good in 2013 as it was in 1978. Yes, a few things look dated (like typing), but the story is great and handled well by DePalma and the actors. Highly recommended.

The Fury isn't a bad film but it isn't great either. It's a bit muddled in the beginning and hard to really understand what the hell is going on. The book is rather focused and precise and much easier to understand and follow. This feels like the writer and director got a bit sidetracked somehow.The film definitely has flavors of the 70's with it's melodramatic, somber acting and overdone set design. We see character actors indicative of that era and some of it feels very dated. There aren't a lot of characters to like here. The boy Robin and the girl played by Amy Irving are interesting and we really want to know more about them and what their abilities are. They aren't given much of a chance to reflect and say how they feel about their telekinetic talents. We see what they can do, why didn't they use their rage to change things earlier on?Some of the scenes get lost and become a bit silly in comparison to the melodrama in other scenes. I was shaking my head when Kirk Douglas was in the car with the policemen. As I say, it isn't a bad film but there are certain elements that can become frustrating. What worked back then just doesn't work that well today for this type of film.