Favorite Movies

Altered States

A Harvard psychology professor (William Hurt) begins to experiment on himself, at first using sleep deprivation tanks and then moving on to the communal drugs of ancient cultures, in his hellbent quest to find the original “first thought” of our collective consciousness. Unfortunately for him, and fortunately for us, what he finds is that “inside” reality and “outside” reality are not separated by a wall as much as a weak psychological barrier, which, in his quest, he has gleefully trampled. So influential and beloved is this film that FRINGE has recently utilized plot points, props (the sleep tank), and even a cast member (the wonderful Blair Brown, who, in ALTERED STATES, utters my all time favorite line in a movie, to William Hurt: “Even sex is a mystical experience for you… I feel like I’m being harpooned by some raging monk in the act of receiving God.”).

Some of the effects have been accused of being cheesy or dated (I’m looking at you, monkey man scene), but in the context of Ken Russell’s artistic palette of films, they’re masterful and chilling psychedelic visuals which (along with the insanely terrifying score) are so effective in unmaking reality, stripping it all the way back to primordial ooze, you’ll swear you’ve spent some quality time in the tank right there along with Hurt.

Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote the novel and the screenplay, had previously written NETWORK, one of the most prescient explorations of the existential crisis of the individual’s place in a corrupted, corporate run society. In ALTERED STATES, he explores the existential crisis of the individual’s place in the mundane, agreed upon reality of everyday existence. Unlike in the more cynical NETWORK, he offers a valid and moving solution in ALTERED STATES… and it’s simpler than you might think.

 

Posted with Blogsy