Altered States (1980)

User Rating:

6.6/10   

Director:

Ken Russell

Writers:

Paddy Chayefsky (novel)
Paddy Chayefsky (writer)

Release Date:

25 December 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Fantasy

Tagline:

When he heard his cry for help it wasn't human

Plot:

A Harvard scientist conducts experiments on himself with a hallucinatory drug and an isolation chamber that may be causing him to regress genetically.

Plot Keywords:

Drugs | Scientist | Sensory Deprivation | University | Evolution

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

William Hurt	...	Eddie Jessup
Blair Brown	...	Emily Jessup
Bob Balaban	...	Arthur Rosenberg
Charles Haid	...	Mason Parrish
Thaao Penghlis	...	Echeverria
Miguel Godreau	...	Primal Man
Dori Brenner	...	Sylvia Rosenberg
Peter Brandon	...	Hobart
Charles White-Eagle	...	The Brujo
Drew Barrymore	...	Margaret Jessup
Megan Jeffers	...	Grace Jessup
Jack Murdock	...	Hector Orteco
Francis X. McCarthy	...	Obispo (as Frank McCarthy)
Deborah Baltzell	...	Schizophrenic Patient
Evan Richards	...	Young Rosenberg

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby | 70 mm 6-Track (MegaSound encoding)

Certification:

Singapore:M18 | Italy:VM14 | Australia:M | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Norway:18 (1982) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

At about 56 minutes into the film, when Emily returns from Nairobi, there is an airport announcement paging Mr. Daniel Craig.

Goofs:

Revealing mistakes: During the hallucination sequence in the cave, the pyrotechnic charges underneath the mushroom-shaped rock are visible as it elevates, as is the wire lifting it up.

Quotes:

[First line]
Arthur Rosenberg: The tank itself was unusual in that it was vertical, and looked like an old boiler.

Movie Connections:

Spoofed in "South Park: Tsst (#10.7)" (2006)

Soundtrack:

Light My Fire

A flawed but sentimental favorite

Altered States is not everything that it could be, and that's because director Ken Russell was more interested in assaulting the viewer with a series of startling (by 1980 standards) images than he was in exploring the stories subtext. Eddie Jessup is a scientist so introverted and afraid of human connections that it's not enough to abandon his family, he also has to further deprive himself of any and all stimulation, performing sensory depravation experiments on himself to attain better understanding of "ultimate truth." Jessup proclaims himself to be an atheist, but the visual content of his hallucinations reveals him to be a man who's more at war with God than a man who disbelieves. His descent into a more primal state of being is an obvious metaphor for how easy it is for a man with commitment issues and fear of intimacy to turn completely inward, leaving the real world behind. Some of what the character says early on about family and love make his motivations clear... Jessup is a man shattered by his father's death and unable to accept the vulnerability of the human condition. A viewer has to really work to absorb and enjoy these metaphors, though, as Russell never slows his onslaught of special effects. The movie also suffers from smart but unrealistic dialogue and ham-fisted performances from some of the principle characters (watch Blair Brown's over-the-top breakdowns in the last act). Altered States isn't the total package, it doesn't combine the visceral and the philosophical as well as movies like Jacob's Ladder or Natural Born Killers. But it's better than most of today's equivalent movies (Donnie Darko, etc) that want to stimulate and provoke the viewer and don't quite pull it off.