The Medusa Touch
A great but forgotten film features some of the best pre-911 imagery out there. From Cinema Symbolism 4:
The Medusa Touch by Peter Van Greenaway (1973). The thriller’s first edition book cover features a commercial airliner exploding as it smashes into a skyscraper. The story is about a novelist, John Morlar, who either has psychokinesis or clairvoyance; it was made into a movie in 1978 with Richard Burton (1925-1984) as Morlar and includes the airplane crash depicted on the dust jacket. The surname of the film’s director, Jack Gold (1930-2015), evokes The Yellow Brick Road; the flick was released in the US on April 14th (7 doubled), seven months before the October ’78 release of The Wiz. “For God’s sake, woman, jump!” – John Morlar. Easter egg: the movie has a palpable satanic undercurrent, including a prayer to Lucifer, death by hellfire, demonic possession, dying on the dark side of the moon, and talk of devils and damnation. Augmenting its diabolical vibe are its protagonists: Richard Burton, who was a year removed from Exorcist II: The Heretic (1977), and Lee Remick (1935-1991), who was two years out from The Omen (1976). Not only does The Medusa Touch foreshadow 9/11, but it foretells outer space-related disasters, such as the Challenger explosion and 2003’s Space Shuttle Columbia disintegration. One cannot help but think of 2019’s Notre-Dame’s fire (2019) when the fictitious Minster Cathedral qua Westminster Abbey comes crumbling down, and the targeted Windscale nuclear power station anticipates the Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima atomic incidents.
Robert W. Sullivan IV 