The Fly Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.5
Overall		3.5

The Fly Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov March 30, 2017

Winner of Oscar Award for Best Makeup, David Cronenberg's "The Fly" (1986) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Australian label Via Vision Entertainment. The supplemental features on the disc include original promotional materials for the film; deleted and extended scenes; audio commentary with David Conenberg; a lengthy featurette about the production history of the film; and more. In English, with optional English SDH, French, Spanish, Cantonese, and Korean subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

The future begins here

There is an important common element in David Cronenberg’s films that is primarily responsible for their success amongst horror aficionados. (The only exception is the racing drama Fast Company in which the emphasis is on conventional action and emotions). It is the ‘what-if’ element that allows Cronenberg to channel unorthodox ideas and theories that he finds fascinating and at the same time carefully alter the credibility of the graphic visuals that make his films scary. So basically there is a fusion of rational thoughts and special effects that has the potency to bend the horror genre in some pretty interesting ways.

The Fly works because in it Cronenberg does precisely that kind of careful ‘bending’. In the first half the film focuses on the idea that under some very strict conditions teleportation is in fact possible. At a party, the handsome but very shy scientist Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum) meets the curious reporter Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis) and invites her to his secluded home where he reveals how he teleports objects between two giant pots. Brundle then explains in great detail why he is still having trouble teleporting live organisms, though it is pretty obvious that the bulk of the speculations actually come from Cronenberg. The film is most effective here because it brings up some interesting possibilities that clearly no longer sound as wild as they probably did more than thirty years ago. (For example, genetic cloning is now a fact of life and a lot more advanced than once thought possible, and as a result there is at least one warning in the film that cloning engineers should seriously consider).

Brundle and Veronica then begin a passionate love affair that is put to the test after it becomes clear that a recent experiment has gone terribly wrong. Cronenberg shows exactly why so the rest of the film really is about a process that the experiment has initiated that no one seems capable of reversing. A lot of the graphic visuals are introduced here and virtually all of the advanced ideas about teleportation are gradually abandoned. In other words, this is where The Fly becomes more of a traditional horror film.

The Fly was a fairly big commercial success for the studio that produced it and comes from the most mainstream period in Cronenberg’s career. As mentioned earlier, it channels some quite interesting ideas, but it is generally very easy to digest. Whether this is a good thing, however, is open to debate. Some of Cronenberg’s most effective films are actually the ones where at the core of their narrative is an intense desire to theorize about controversial concepts and in the process relentlessly defend or question their logic, rather than shock with elaborate effects and carefully scripted twists. (Naked Lunch, Spider, and Cosmopolis, for instance, leave lasting impressions precisely for this very reason). While looking into the future with a good deal of authority, The Fly is unquestionably amongst Cronenberg’s safest films.

Cronenberg shot The Fly with frequent collaborator Mark Irwin (Videodrome, Scanners). The intense orchestral score was composed by multiple Oscar winner Howard Shore (The Silence of the Lambs, The Lord of the Rings).

The Fly Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, David Cronenberg's The Fly arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Via Vision Entertainment.

The release is sourced from a dated master with some quite obvious limitations. I assume that it is the same master that Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment used back in 2007 for the first release of the film in the United States.

Plenty of the the darker interior footage looks rather soft and depth is not optimal. Shadow definition is also unimpressive and it is quite easy to tell that a lot of nuances are in fact lost (see screencaptures #1 and 18). When lighting is better the visuals can have a more pleasing appearance (see screencaptures #3 and 4), but the softness largely remains the same (see screencapture #5 and 6). The nighttime outdoor footage is the most problematic area of the presentation and this is where you will clearly see that the master that was used has plenty of basic limitations (see screencapture #7). Grain is visible, but it appears that some type of corrections were applied in the past. However, there is also room for encoding optimizations and this also adds to the general softness. Colors are stable, but there is no doubt in my mind that a new master will expand primaries, nuances, and saturation levels. The good news here is that there are no traces of problematic sharpening adjustments or any basic stability issues. So while the presentation has retained a few fairly decent organic qualities, the film does not really look as healthy and vibrant as it should. My score is 3.25/5.00. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location).

The Fly Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are four standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit), English: Dolby Digital 5.1, French: Dolby Digital 2.0, and Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0. Optional English SDH, French, Spanish, Cantonese, and Korean subtitles are provided for the main feature.

If the original audio is remastered at some point in the future, my guess is that there would be fairly small improvements in terms of balance and fluidity. The basic qualities of the current lossless tack that the release uses are already very good -- depth and clarity are very pleasing and there is a lovely range of nuanced dynamics. I don't hear any serious issues with separation either, though I assume that some rebalancing optimizations could be made. Nevertheless, the current lossless track serves the film well.

The Fly Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Commentary - this is the legacy commentary with David Cronenberg that has already appeared on multiple DVD and Blu-ray releases of The Fly. It is a very technical commentary with an abundance of information about the specific work that went into the entire project, as well as its eventual distribution.

• The Brundle Museum of Natural History - this archival featurette focuses on the special effects/masks that were used in The Fly. Included in it are various demonstrations and clips from interviews with make-up designer Chris Walas. In English, not subtitled. (12 min).

• Trivia Pop-Ups - this option allows you to view The Fly with trivia pop-ups in English.

• Fear of the Flesh: Making of The Fly - this massive documentary basically covers the entire production history of The Fly, from its conception to the funding and ultimately its distribution. Included in it are archival interviews with co-screenwriter Charles Edward Pogue, producer Stuart Cornfeld, production designer Carol Spier, and cinematographer Mark Irwin, amongst others. In English, not subtitled. (103 min).

• Deleted Scenes - a collection of deleted scenes. In English, not subtitled. (12 min).

• Extended Scenes - a collection of extended scenes. In English, not subtitled. (6 min).

• Film Tests - a collection of production film tests with text descriptions. In English, not subtitled. (8 min).

• EPK - archival EPK material for The Fly. In English, not subtitled. (7 min).

The Fly Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Australian label Via Vision Entertainment has produced a very ambitious five-disc collection that has all five Fly films, including The Fly II which has not yet been released on Blu-ray anywhere else in the world. David Cronenberg's The Fly is sourced from the older master that Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment used in in 2007 for the North American release of the film. This master has a fair share of limitations, and the larger your screen is, the easier it will be for you to tell that The Fly should look a lot better in high-definition. On the other hand, the release has a very impressive selection of archival supplemental features. RECOMMENDED (but only for the special features).