The Fan (1981)

The Fan (1981)


I am definitely not a fan of 1981’s The Fan. The movie has a nice premise and some interesting characterization. The film received lots of media attention because it came out only mere weeks after John Lennon was shot to death by a crazed former fan. Talk about wrong timing! The movie started out well as the movie explores the actions and the ideas of fandom and how intense it can be, as well as a middle-aged actress stuck in her own thoughts about divorce and middle-age. But halfway through, the film becomes your standard, cliched thriller that relies upon unnecessary violence. The producers were impressed with the Friday the 13th box office, so they unwisely changed the ending to make the film appeal to those who went to see that movie. Well…..they failed as this movie ended up being one of the biggest box office bombs of the year.



According to reports, the movie set was not a fun one. Everyone apparently disliked each other and no one was happy with the end result. Considering the central theme that seemed like a good idea at the time (and still prevalent today in the world of toxic fandom), it’s certainly disappointing. The main star of the film-Lauren Bacall refused to promote and acknowledge the film because she was shocked at the level of gore and violence added to the film. Michael Biehn, who played the stalker Douglas, did not act for another two years because this film drained so much out of him. The director, Ed Bianchi was essentially shunted into directing television episodes-which may have been good because he directed great episodes of many TV series.



Douglas Breen (Michael Biehn) is a lonesome record store employee. He considers himself a true fan of middle-aged actress Sally Ross (Lauren Bacall). He sends her letters of love that are downright creepy. But they are intercepted by Sally’s publicist, Belle Goldman (Maureen Stapleton) and she sends formal letters in return. That angers Douglas and his love turns into hate. Douglas now has to act on his hatred with one target in mind.



The performances are may have what saved this film from a complete trainwreck. Lauren Bacall was fantastic (except for the ending) and she really explores the idea of what it’s like to be an aging actress in the film industry. Michael Biehn does give us a sense of worst-case scenario of what a toxic fan could be like. He does allude an atmosphere of menace. Maureen Stapleton may have given the best performance of the film. She does well as the no-nonsense publicist. I liked James Garner, but I thought he was wasted here.



Overall, The Fan was a big disappointment for me. It had an interesting premise, but the film was not executed properly. The producers had the wrong idea of turning this movie into an overly-violent slasher film in the second half. The film is really not memorable which is a shame given the cast. The cast tried what was given to them, but in the end all we get is a disappointing movie. I knew this film would be a disappointment when I first saw the film’s poster. A terrible ripoff of The Godfather movies. Sigh….



My Grade: C-

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