Aldous Huxley: The Gravity of Light (1996) User Reviews

Kookier than Aldous Huxley

[mroconnell · 4/10 · 3 August 2007]

New Age/Techno soundtracking and pretentious panning across a table covered in melted ice cream scoops do not a documentary make. While Oliver Hockenhull is quick to warn the viewer that this is not going to succeed as a "proper documentary" I'm gonna go ahead and say it's a pretty lousy attempt at demonstrating Huxley's writings.

The entire documentary essentially consists of running Huxley quotes over ominous, canned music and effects tracks with an occasional reenactment that cable TV would be ashamed of.

Maybe that's an accurate representation of Huxley's work, but I think there might've been a better less artificial/pretentious way to present these ideas.

Awful

[mmepalkowski · 1/10 · 13 November 2005]

This 'documentary' really is awful. It's comprised of terrible mind numbing drivel forged from the inane and nonsensical ramblings of an obviously tortured art-school dropout's LSD-abused mind. You'd have better luck actually _reading_ any of Huxley's works. I honestly cringed at every single interpretation after each Huxley quote, video clip or sound bite was stitched into this sad work of a head case. I really don't care what the filmmaker's ridiculous interpretations might entail; there's no excuse for this piece of garbage. Nothing makes sense other than what comes from Huxley. Don't waste your time. This is a shameful interpretive-dance attempt to exploit Huxley's works.

Intriguing Analysis - a bit dated but still highly relevant

[marthalovelycat · 8/10 · 1 June 2006]

This film is an intriguing abstraction and discovery of Huxley's work.

Counter to the highly antagonistic review of someone else on IMDb this work is not at all made to exploit the Huxley name...it was actually made with the permission of Laura Huxley - Huxley's last wife and with the approval of Dr. Jean Houston, (who also features prominently in the work) - an important pal of Aldous Huxley and one who supplied him with test material (if you get my drift).

How do I know? It says so in the film and I read an interview with the filmmaker.

It is a radical work and not for everyone. if you want to see the biography channel version - you might have to wait awhile. Huxley was a radical and only a radical could do justice to his work so radical in fact that this work will probably never get shown on US channels.

I completely agree that the computer image work in the film is cheapo looking, I guess what was cool years ago seems pathetic to us. Luckily that stuff is not a major part of the film.

The DVD version that is out also includes a half hour interview section with Alexander "Sasha" Shulgin, Ph.D. (Biochemistry from U.C. Berkeley, 1954). Shulgin is pretty famous in the circles of psychopharmacology research.

Essential subversive stuff and you're not going to find that at Walmarts.

a rebirth of something we should have all realized long ago

[mzee · 10/10 · 2 September 1999]

Aldous Huxley: The Gravity of Light is a mind expanding documentary not only introspectively, but its persuasiveness urges you to go out and read all of Huxley's works. What the man says is true and whether our peers or superiors agree it doesn't matter. There are two parts of life to discover external and internal and it the second that he describes how to reach so well.

Hockenhull medleys real time interviews and speeches of Huxley and his peers/colleagues, also with dramatizations reciting exurps from the various writings by Huxley into a touching sensory experience we should all read into. One would also think that it was made earlier than 96 because of it's 70's graphics style looking very primitive to what we are used to now...adding to the psychological age of the discovery of LSD and its immense power.

Experimental Documentary

[epsply · 8/10 · 2 March 2016]

The couple of people who pan this film are completely off the mark and seem to have some sort of violent antagonism against the filmmaker. They seem to be really bitter that the film got made for some weird reason.

Anyway I did some research about the film and there are some very good reviews out there by serious critics in case you want to bother looking into it who praise the unique reflective qualities and depth of the film.

A very important point that I read about said that the filmmaker was vetted by Laura Huxley, the wife of Aldous Huxley. In no way could the film be considered some sort of exploitation of the subject matter. It is an honest and intellectual attempt at looking at the full scope of Huxley's writings and what Huxley's quest for transcendence meant for him and for our society. True it is not a conventional documentary and it is done inexpensively yet it is pretty darn smart. visually engaging. It's a playful art film that appreciates the intricacies of Aldous Huxley's contribution to society. Some people don't like playful and prefer corporate type presentation. That isn't this film.

It is a thoughtful work that requires viewers to think.I really liked it. It honor's the subject by keeping him alive in the mind of the viewer. I'd give it more stars but the effects are pretty dated at this point!