Altered States

Visually striking for its time, this film had a profound effect on me as a child. Now, that I have studied more on the themes of this film as an adult, it is all the more fascinating.

One of my favorite horror movies! Great dialogue/actine/special effetcs/soundtrack. I saw it 8 times at the theatre. William Hurt is the perfect/most intelligent/gorgeous Dr. Jeckyll! I fell in love.

My initial criticism of Altered States may have been a little harsh. It's easy to call it out on the plot holes, the campy second act, and the defiant nonsense of the climactic visual effects. It's also easy to accuse director Ken Russell, who has had a long career with Surrealism and a more recent addiction to schlock, of glossing over some of the film's logic, or lack thereof, to keep the story moving. However, upon a third viewing of the film and further analysis, it became easier for me to appreciate what Russell did right. He had a contractual obligation to keep an intelligent, but heavy-handed, script intact, simply because the guy who wrote it had written Network. (Some luck.) So, confronted with a dozen or so plot hurdles he couldn't fix, let alone bury with a sub-Star Wars budget, he still handed us a lovable sci-fi horror flick for the ages. If you don't agree at least a little, here's my case: The four principals, led by an affable William Hurt as Dr. Jessup, deliver Chayefsky's metaphysical gobbledygook with an admirable mix of brevity and comic irony. The visual effects compensate for their stitched-together look with an explosive color palette and a sense of motion. The second hallucination sequence, pointless but for the fact that it is tremendously entertaining, rivals Dumbo's pink elephants in the live-action arena. John Corigliano's score (I can't gush about this enough) is always relevant to the scene -- brutal, ghoulish, elegiac, and even strangely seductive when it needs to be. To temper the storms of visual and intellectual content, Russell frequently gives the audience a chance to catch their breath with a scene of romance, introspection, or grave decision, creating the popcorn-friendly alternative to Stanley Kubrick's abrasive -- and also flawed -- horror classic, The Shining. All of which is to say: Despite being a delirious and often foggy-minded spectacle of a film, Altered States hits all the right aesthetic notes thanks to Russell's wicked coordination. All films, good or bad, are too complex to evaluate by merely looking at or listening to, but there are few films I'd rather look at or listen to than this one. That's ample praise for the direction, but here's one last bit that reflects well on the story after all: Regardless of the implausibility of the resolution (seriously? faith conquers all, including THAT?), Jessup learns something about himself and human nature that even hurtling into the edge of existence couldn't teach him. Now that's a freakin' character arc. If you still don't agree, then you're obviously not the kind who watches Altered States, or else allows it to be a cult classic. The rest of us, stoned or sober, are having the time of our lives.

Awesome movie. Mind-bending, suspenseful, intellectual and thought provoking. Great acting, great script, great directing. Tripped out on monsters and philosophy and sex, Altered States is chock-full of symbolism. It elevates the horror genre - Or is it Science Fiction, or even just a drama? It's quite confusing at times, you don't really know what's going on, but so what? This isn't your typical movie - It's almost like a poem. Just sit back, enjoy the experience and try to figure it out on your own.

Jessup couldn't just love his wife back. Oh, no. Just like it takes some guys a few drinks before they'll dance, this one takes going back to being Cro-Magnon, blowing up a lab, terrorizing countless people and traumatizing his scientific research team, before he decides he'll finally say, "I love you." His dogged insistence that Science Trumps All got kind of tiresome, too. Dude. Love the here and now, enjoy yourself, be fair, learn, and be taught. And get out of your own head sometimes. The movie was OK, with sfx cool for 1980, the original intent comes through, prepare to wince a little at some of the dialog. Meditation and mindfulness practice would have got you there a lot quicker, and a lot less painfully, to yourself and those around you. And keep your mouth shut. Can't hear what the other person is trying to say to you while you're yammering. But, hey, there'd be no movie, so you get to watch this instead.

This is what would happen if Hunter S. Thompson and Timothy Leary's crack baby made a movie... and it is good.

sweet movie