The Apple (1980 film)

The Apple is a 1980 science-fiction disco musical written and directed by Menahem Golan, produced by Golan and Yoram Globus for the Cannon Group, and set in a dystopian 1994 where a record producer uses pop music to control the world^{1 • 2}. A box office failure that was panned by critics on release, it later acquired a cult following as a camp classic^{3 • 4}.

Origin and development

The project began as a stage musical. According to Turner Classic Movies, it was conceived in 1977 by the Israeli creators Coby Recht and Iris Yotvat as a Hebrew musical⁵. The American Film Institute's catalog records that the creative team of Coby and Iris Recht approached Golan with the project; Iris had written the book for a stage musical and her husband composed the music to accompany her lyrics. Golan went to London, where he worked on the screenplay and cast the film¹. DVD Talk's account states the stage version was judged too expensive to produce, and Golan shepherded it as a film project he would direct⁸.

Golan introduced Coby to the American composer George S. Clinton, and the two collaborated on the music¹.

Production

A 1 August 1979 Variety article reported that Golan received subsidies from the German government to film the picture in Berlin. The film was budgeted at $5 million according to that report, while AMPAS library production notes put the budget at $8 million¹. Principal photography was scheduled to begin on 17 September 1979, but a 2 January 1980 Hollywood Reporter item announced completion after eleven weeks of shooting at studios in Berlin and various European locations, indicating production actually began in mid-October 1979¹. The end credits state the film was shot in West Berlin at CCC Film Studio and at the ICC, the International Congress Center¹.

Design and casting. Hundreds of dancers were auditioned until fifty were selected, and they spent seven weeks in rehearsals before filming began. For the film's futuristic 1994 look, Colin Arthur developed "Apple Jelly" hair dye, a product that washed out with water and which he patented, as well as all the original masks; special triangular drinking glasses, customized motor scooters, and "electric disco shoes" were designed for the film, and Clinton patented designs for futuristic musical instruments¹. Catherine Mary Stewart, who played Bibi, made her theatrically released feature film debut in the picture, and the Peruvian singer Yma Sumac made an uncredited cameo¹.

Release and reception

The film was scheduled for an April 1980 release, but an Academy Awards application noted that it opened on 21 November 1980 in various Los Angeles theaters¹. According to IMDb, when the picture was booed midway through at the 1980 Montreal Film Festival, Golan said he left the theater and was preparing to jump from his hotel balcony when his business partner stopped him¹⁰.

Contemporary reviews were negative. The AFI catalog records that the film was generally panned in the few reviews that appeared, for lack of originality, weak script, uninspired music, and poor execution¹. The Washington Post's Richard Harrington called it "possibly . . . no, probably . . . no, definitely . . . the worst rock film of all time" in a 24 November 1980 review¹¹. Aggregated scores remain low: 27% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 11 reviews, and a Metascore of 39 from 5 critics, though audience ratings are higher, at 45% on the Popcornmeter from more than 1,000 ratings^{2 • 11}.

Cult status

The film was a box office dud and, shown only sporadically in the early days of cable television, quickly lapsed into obscurity, decried as a bomb by more people than had ever seen it, according to Turner Classic Movies³. It has since amassed a minor cult following. Slant Magazine's Eric Henderson described it in 2004 as a "lovably incoherent vision" that cribs from the synthetic guilty pleasures of the preceding decade, and Nathan Rabin of The A.V. Club proposed it as "the ultimate midnight movie"^{4 • 11}. Later critics have placed it alongside the other disco-musical misfires of 1980, Can't Stop the Music and Xanadu, and praised its camp qualities, including Busby Berkeley-style dance numbers and 1970s science-fiction fashion^{4 • 2}.

A Blu-ray edition released by Kino in June 2017 restored deleted material, including the "Child of Love" and wedding scenes present on the soundtrack album, differently edited musical numbers, and unfinished visual effects in the finale^{8 • 10}.

References

1. The Apple (1980), AFI Catalog of Feature Films
2. The Apple, Rotten Tomatoes
3. The Gist (The Apple), Turner Classic Movies
4. Review: The Apple, Slant Magazine (Eric Henderson, 2004)
5. Insider Info (The Apple) - Behind the Scenes, Turner Classic Movies
6. The Apple, Apple TV
7. The Apple Reviews - Metacritic
8. Apple, The - Blu-ray review, DVD Talk (Francis Rizzo III, 2017)
9. Apple, The - Dennis Schwartz Reviews
10. The Apple (1980), IMDb
11. The Apple critic reviews, Metacritic

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026

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