Altered States (1980)

Scientist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) is doing experiments on himself--taking hallucinatory drugs and using an isolation tank. However it starts affecting his molecular structure and he may be regressing. His wife Emily (Blair Brown) loves him but can't get him to stop.A REAL weird film full of trippy hallucinations and questionable science. It moves quickly and characters speak VERY fast so you're given little time to think how impossible this all is. I saw this originally in Megasound back in 1980. It was so intense I saw it three times :) This was justly nominated for Best Music and Best Sound. Brown and Hurt are great in their roles and Charles Haid is hysterical as Mason Parrish. My only complaint is the ridiculous ending. I just saw it again last night at a theatre and the audience was in hysterics laughing at the end. Still this is highly recommended.

Directed by the excessive and flamboyant film-maker, Ken Russell - Altered States is a perfect example of a heavy-handed psychedelic experience from the early-1980s. At times the viewer can't help but be swept away and almost overwhelmed by this film's impressive state-of-the-art visual effects.William Hurt (in his film debut) plays Eddie Jessup, a brilliant, young, "mad" scientist, delving into the unfathomable field of primal research. With the use of a Sensory-Depravation Chamber and lots of hallucinogenic drugs, Eddie physically and mentally devolves into an ape-like creature with a serious attitude problem and an immediate instinct to kill.Believe me, Altered States' visuals are, at times, an extraordinary feast for the eyes. But, hey, don't expect too much when it comes to a plausible storyline.

The main idea here is powerful and dear to me; a search for the original self before any thought, call it soul or constituting mind. I know this in the Buddhist context but there's a rich history spanning different practices that circles the same; that which gives rise to mind.Many of the most erudite makers have tried to see into this, from Tarkovsky to Weeresethakul recently. It always comes back to formative emptiness. The idea - observed in centuries of meditation - is to create stillness so the machinery of self outrun you and appear ahead. Here we get a few devices that probably had some leftover traction from Tim Leary's day, isolation tanks and hallucinogens the protagonist submits himself to; but these are devices that force what Buddhists and others have been achieving by direct meditation, stillness makes consciousness rise up in front of you. (drugs simply show the elasticity of mind; there's no deeper meaning in hallucination, that is the shape mind takes when frayed in this way, amazing of itself)But it's in the wrong hands here. We get lots of rational pecking at the shell, all this energy wasted in discussions about the scientific possibility of the endeavor, yelling about the ethics. Visions are boxed separately, never truly hallucinated. We get simply dumb science as hard metaphor; mind actually transforms matter, ego as actual monster. By the end a lot has been reduced to a hairy ape running around.And the maker must have pushed all his life against repressive religion, building all this negative energy against the mere shell of spirituality; so his search for a visual god is dynamic but ugly, a hysteric pushing back.The only way to get something out of it is to groove on it as a modern Frankenstein; with the search for the original self as an excuse for malformed visions, hoary spectacle. The parting notion is wonderful: love as bringing each other back.

This film basically plays out like one extended science experiment. As such, it looks pretty dry and "boring" at first glance, but the actual subject of the experiment is something of fascination that prompts further study. Altered States presents the idea that powerful drugs can create a conduit for a person to touch the inner self (and possibly touching God at the same time), allowing one access to six billion years of genetic memories stored in the human body. As the main character continuously dabbles with the forbidden fruit of mind-altering substances, he comes closer and closer to inhabiting the body of the world's first primordial human being, complete with raw primal instincts and unbridled physical power.The concept is really high-level stuff, provoking lots of introspect into the human spirit, human evolution, and humanity's relationship with spirituality and religion. Above all, the film is most memorable for being visually insane. There are several sequences where the film bombards you with rapid-fire freak-out imagery. I've yet to see any other film where the screen flashes weird goat heads, bloody knives, hellish scenes of crucifixions and boiling hot magma, giant snakes, sex, the universe, and lord knows what else all at once. Scenes like this make the film very pungent, and it stands out as one of the trippiest experiences on film.In between the occasional freak-outs, the film slows down quite a bit. The film goes on to follow these scientist characters, who form some profound relationships and rivalries, but most of these scenes come off as rather plain and dry, especially when compared to the film's most vivid imagery. I couldn't tell you if such contrast is intentional or not. Regardless, it is an intriguing story with a cast of halfway decent characters.The film has its share of extremely hard-hitting imagery and extremely plain photography. Editing can be pretty erratic during the freak-out scenes, but for intentional effect; the film is very successful at beating its trippiness over your head. Acting is decent: William Hurt is especially noteworthy. Writing is quite sophisticated, but could potentially go over some viewers' heads. This production has okay-looking sets, props, and costumes, and the special effects are impressive for its time. Music is alright.Overall, this is a movie for the left side of the brain. If that interests you, then the film is certainly recommended. Otherwise, you might still want to see it for some of the trippiest (and possibly scariest) images ever committed to celluloid.4/5 (Entertainment: Average | Story: Very Good | Film: Good)