I’ll rephrase this because it’s relevant, not because I’m sometimes lazy: this month’s dismal selection of wide releases doesn’t look a lot better when you realize that exactly 30 years ago — August 15, 2016, the date my New York-addled mind is led to presume you’re in — audiences could stroll into a multiplex and do an opening-day double-feature of Michael Mann’s Manhunter and David Cronenberg‘s The Fly. If there were any justice in this world, studio executives would have to release a statement apologizing for how things have turned out.
Both works mark very fine points in either director’s career. In the latter case, it’s been hard for the creator to completely break free, at least in commercial terms. (Remember the still-unproduced sequel he wrote a handful of years back at Fox’s insistence?) But when you make the finest sci-fi-horror film of its age, you carry it forever – most recently evidenced by a vigorous 50-minute talk Cronenberg conducted at last year’s Reykjavík International Film Festival. We’ve included it as a way of remembering The Fly, and have complemented that with material from the film’s release (including a David Letterman appearance!) as well as, in the case of his feature-length commentary and a behind-the-scenes documentary, its original DVD. Top those off with an infamous deleted scene — that should really bump your appreciation for how the picture’s final shape came to.
See them all below: