Operatic!

Rating: 10/10 (26 March 2003)

This is the only movie I have ever seen that is truly like an opera - a Puccini-weeping, tormented drama. It could have been a play. I really, really like this movie, and the fact that it is an opera without song is very high praise.
Great opera pulls you in, fascinates you and challenges you to throw away your disbelief (not just suspend it). And so does The Fly.
The Fly has a tightly-written dramatic pull, along the lines of the classic 5-act Shakespearean model, where tension builds and builds, then relaxes, then comes in for the big end. It has, likewise, a Shakespearean sense of undeserved tragedy, where one is grossly over-penalized for an initial error.
Geena Davis here is like Liu' from Turandot and Cio-Cio San from Madama Butterfly. She plays the tragedy and suffering and shock so well! But she is not insubstantial. She is wise and sharp and energetic - and so we feel her pain and fear so much more!
It is very rare to see agony and weeping over a lifeless body in a movie. Can anyone name me a scene from a movie in the past 20 years that has it? It happens in every one of Puccini's big operas, however. And it works in The Fly! I am completely caught up in her agony and in the tragedy of the scientist's hideous end.
Finally, another device in Puccini (and Shakespeare) is a sense of eventuality. We know from about the 8th minute of this movie that it ain't gonna work out. The movie does not play with us and tease us and surprise us - it is worthy as a story in itself, and plays it straight all the way through. Just like La Boheme and Madama Butterfly and Tosca - we know that these Puccini operas are gonna end bad - we know it and we keep watching - we get sucked in because we are enthralled in the story and in the art. Same with The Fly. The story is so compelling and the characters so interesting. (And, yes, the special effects only deepen the experience. These special effects service the plot - they do not just exist for their own sake.)
I just thought this side of this great movie has been overlooked. And I have only scratched the surface of the parallels. If you like The Fly, see a video of Madama Butterfly! (I am dead serious.)