This is the longer of the two documentaries on the Cinema Reserve 2-Disc DVD of The Fly(of 1986, not 1958). It runs either 136 minutes or 162 minutes, depending on if you choose the regular or extended version. This consists of interviews(including with at least one person who wound up not working on this, as well as cast and crew), clips of the film(and deleted scenes), the original and other movies, behind-the-scenes footage and stills(and the last two mentioned are the only places we see David Cronenberg; I understand that he both had scheduling conflicts, shooting A History of Violence, and had little interest in appearing as he had said everything he had to say about this picture in the excellent commentary track he recorded). They go over how this remake came to be and the entire production experience(all three stages, and you can jump straight to one from the menu) on it(and yes, it spoils the ending of it(and of the old one)). With the many good explanations, verbal or in text, you're always certain what you're watching. We hear about the design(of the telepods, for example) from the immensely talented Carol Spier, the puppets and most of the other FX(I'm not kidding, there's little left untouched), literally working with a wild animal(the babooon), the vocalizing(in contrast to the fly-head-on-man's-body in the Vincent Price one; this goes for the metamorphosis in this as well) and the rotating set for the climbing. You can tell that they clearly had fun making it. There's some of the mandatory lovefest going on, but they do give reasons for why it was so fantastic to work with the brilliant Canadian, such as that he's an actor's director. This is all edited well, with classical music used well. There is violent, gory, bloody and disturbing content in this. I recommend this to any fan of the flick itself. 8/10
Fear of the Flesh: The Making of 'The Fly'
(2005 Video)
I'm full. Props to the chef for both quality and quantity
26 November 2010