Altered States (Russell, 1980)

[X.]

Altered States (1980)

"I love you, Emily."

Nestled between the subversive cinema, the trippy, psychedelic mind-bending sci-fi and horror is a gentle story about our evolution as a species through the culmination of our concept of love. The ambition and sheer outrageousness of Ken Russell's visual motifs and special effects compensate for any misgivings with the plot structure.

William Hurt makes an auspcious debut here as a science-obsessed "whacko" in search of the Original Self. When he finds it he realises that "...the beginning of life. It is nothing. Simple, hideous nothing. The final truth of all things is that there is no final Truth. Truth is what's transitory. It's human life that is real." The films drops its nihilism for a sentimental but touching truth - love conquerors all. Even for a slightly contrived script that has oddball scientists screaming at the top of their lungs.

Full marks to the film for Russell's unexpected triumph over this production's challenges (he has alleged in interviews of being the 27th director choice for the film), and for making a seemingly wordy science nerd project his own. Water plays an important motif and Hurt is naked most of the time, even as a human. A forgotten masterpiece. ak

[madali]

This sounds interesting. Have to look into this.

[sally]

ken russell is one of my favourite directors. this a great film, saw it years ago, i think william hurt's first, eh?

nice poster, i really really like how you pointed out the romance in "altered states." my girlfriends think im crazy when i recommend it to them

[madali]

Altered States (Russell, 1980)
IMDB Link

“We're all trying to fulfill ourselves, understand ourselves, get in touch with ourselves, face the reality of ourselves, explore ourselves, expand ourselves. Ever since we dispensed with God we've got nothing but ourselves to explain this meaningless horror of life.”

Dear Ken Russell, the more of your movies I watch, the more I adore you and want to play with your hair, you crazy Christian maniac, and I say that in a nice (and sexy) way. It’s possible he has a lot of awful movies in his career, probably his later years, since some are TV movies without any user comments in IMDB. Those kinds of movies.

But before all that, Russell seems to have been on fire. Creating flawed but visually insane movies, one after another, and while I wouldn’t place any of them in any of my desert island lists, I will certainly cherish the experience while watching them. In “Altered States”, Russell directs a movie about a professor that is experimenting with hallucinatory drugs to…well, fuck himself up a bit and see what happens.

What happens is this. He senses that he just might be able to sense the original man, the FIRST man. He tries more drugs, different drugs, and in a something called an isolation tank, a tank filled with water that the person floats in it, and because there is nothing else, the person feels a complete sensory deprivation, thus helping in this experience. This tank is a real concept, invented in the 50s by a professor for the same reason, and it seems to exist in some spas for relaxation and meditation, but the real one looks gayer than Russell’s one, which  is vertical (such ones don’t exist) and the person is floating while standing and it’s a bit freaky looking.

Speaking of things being freaky, Russell does not disappoint when it comes to freaky hallucinatory visuals. And given that it is Russell we are talking about, it’s full of religious symbols too in his crazy, drug-induced visuals. And the special effects are really good. I don’t mean good as in good for its times, but good for 2009. There are some outdated special effects, but for the most part, they are truly unique and worth to watch for anyone that wants to watch something a bit trippy.

“The purpose of our suffering is only more suffering.”

4/5