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The Fury: (John Williams) The period of the middle to late
1970's ushered in a heightened popularity for religious, paranormal, and
telekinetic horror films. It was perhaps the natural progression away from Irwin
Allen's straight forward natural disaster epics, which were on a steep decline by
the end of the decade. After the immensely popular, sequel-spawning classics of
The Exorcist and
The Omen, director Brian DePalma followed with
another outlandish, head-spinning tale,
The Fury. The plot of John Farris'
self-adapted story continued the fad of these kinds of supernatural tales down
the path of absurdity, as the concepts continued to stretch all reasonable lines
of logic in search of renewed audience acceptance.
The Fury in particular
represented nearly the end of this genre at the time, proving that despite an
impressive cast of young and old stars, audiences had seen enough people explode
by the mental will of another person. That said, few viewers can deny that the
conclusive scene of the film, in which Amy Irving uses her supernatural abilities
to literally blow up John Cassavetes from the inside, isn't at least morbidly
entertaining. At a time when pop culture action flicks made a habit of showing
the same buildings and vehicles explode over and over again from ten different
angles, the idea of using the same technique for a nasty, not-so-spontaneous
human combustion, complete with gallons of fake blood and a head that pops up
like a cork, yielded a fittingly ridiculous conclusion to the film. DePalma
himself had directed the Hitchcock-inspired film
Obsession a few years
earlier and had the pleasure of employing the great Bernard Herrmann for the
project's score. While Herrmann's talents would have been perfect for
The
Fury, he had unfortunately just passed away at the time, leaving a void in
the composing industry for a new master horror composer to fill. In between his
assignments to
Close Encounters of the Third Kind and
Superman and
living in the limelight of
Star Wars from the previous year, John Williams
enjoyed some lucky coincidences which ultimately led to a very emphatic offer
from DePalma for his involvement in the film.
Both men realized that the score would exist in the shadow of
Herrmann's ghostly presence, especially with DePalma's insistence that the former
maestro's style be integrated into Williams' music for the picture. Williams
responded by composing a masterful score with elements from his own thematic
tendencies and motifs that are clearly direct tributes to, if not extensions of,
Herrmann's body of work. Some film music historians argue that the period of 1977
to 1982 represented the best years of Williams' career, a time when the composer
was at his highest level of motivation and talent.
The Fury indeed
reinforces that point of view, proving to be very effective and riveting both in
the film and decades later on album. Nothing was spared in the scope of the score
for
The Fury. Williams' music is guided by a horrifying title theme, heavy
on brass and very weighty in its brutal structural repetitions during the
supernatural acts in the film. The waltz format of this theme, best heard in
"Main Title" and "Gillian's Vision," is driven by both its elegantly swaying
progressions on floating woodwinds and emphasized pounding of the theme's key by
bass elements in a fashion that would gain more recognition in
E.T. The
Extra-Terrestrial. The three of four full, rolling outbursts of this theme in
the score represent some of the composer's most engaging material of the era,
foreshadowing the harrowing tone of
A.I. Artificial Intelligence. The
lighter performances of this idea, as well as secondary themes, highlight tender
moments between main characters, but even this material never entirely escapes
the tense brass undertones. For fans of those moments when Williams unleashes
ungodly noise and ruckus,
The Fury offers over twenty combined minutes of
horror music that will shake your room and cause your neighbors to call the
police. Unlike Herrmann's often shrieking horror cues (when sustained), Williams
refuses to approach the same level of challenging dissonance for long periods in
the work. His emphasis on strong melodrama of character heart and personal
struggle cause even the most horrifying cues in
The Fury to have a
bittersweet beauty to them. In these regards, his tribute to Herrmann's cascading
woodwinds (and even an octave-alternating theremin in the explosive climax)
becomes almost an improvement on Herrmann's touch. Most importantly, Williams
extends this classic sound into a brutal, menacing realm that actually makes it
more accessible for modern listeners.
The "Gillian's Power" cue, with that memorable theremin
employment (which is among the few elements of the ensemble to really stand out
in that noisy scene in the film), is the culmination of all the Herrmann
techniques employed in the score. But after Cassavetes has exploded and DePalma
dwells on the final shot of his head bouncing off the floor, Williams shifts into
accelerating, bass region ensemble strikes that are not only pure Williams in
style, but would eventually inform the climactic moment of
Jurassic Park.
It's arguably the most powerful moment of the entire score, and it's
interestingly one true to Williams' own style. So influential a score had
Williams created that bits of ideas in
The Fury would turn up over the
next twenty years in other supernatural or sci-fi thrillers. The title theme, in
its ominously fluttering and steady eloquence, is a clear predecessor for
Williams' own wondrous Hogwarts castle theme for his three
Harry Potter
scores. The quick, consecutive brass blasts in the bass region, meant to
emphasize the beginning of a measure of music with the most powerful note
possible, would show up again extensively in James Horner's
Brainstorm and
Chirstopher Young's
Hellraiser II. Wavering, tense, and harsh brass tones,
slowly alternating between two octaves of quivering notes, would serve as a
foundation for Don Davis' elusive theme for
The Matrix. Williams'
insertion of carnival music, synthesizers for added mystery, the theremin, and
the abnormally strong use of bassoons are all elements that would be used in
similar ways by other composers for years to come. On album, the music has
existed in several forms. Williams re-recorded the score with the London Symphony
Orchestra for the LP album (eventually copied onto a 1990 CD), and this recording
remains superior in his altered arrangements and sonic depth to the actual, film
version recorded in Los Angeles. The original score (as heard in film) was
released in 2002 as part of the limited Varèse Sarabande Club, with only
3,000 copies available. That limited album, however, also includes an incredible
remastering of the LSO recording as well, making for a fantastic set. The
remastering included with the limited Varèse product indeed sounds
spectacular, with all the vibrant clarity of a current recording. The original
score includes some more precise performances in certain parts, and is an equally
interesting experience. Overall, no Williams or Herrmann collector should be
without this demonic score, and in this case, the price of the limited album is
definitely worth it.
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Score as Heard on the 1990 Varèse album: ***
Score as Heard on the 2003 Varèse Set: *****
Overall: ****
| Bias Check: | For John Williams reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
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and the average viewer rating is 3.7
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Several versions of the cue "Death on the Carousel" exist, with most of
them presented in the 2002 2-CD set. The 1990 Varèse Sarabande album insert
includes a detailed note about the film and score. The expanded limited edition
Varèse Sarabande set features the label's usual standard of excellent,
in-depth analysis of the score and film.