ALTERED STATES
Trippy!
Man, if you like weird symbolism, this Bud's for you. I've never cared one way or another for Ken Russell's movies, but this one was so fucked, I couldn't help but smile. I think my favorite was the goat with seven eyes. Think he's related to the Goat With A Thousand Young?
William Hurt stars as a researcher in 1967 who really takes altered states of consciousness seriously; maybe even believing that they're as valid a view of reality as our regular, day-to-day state of consciousness. (not yours, Jason, that's called "drunk") Simple drugs ain't enough for him - he starts getting into sensory deprivation. Then he gets into weird Mexican hallucinogens. Then he gets into combining the two. Then, as you've probably heard, he turns into a big gorilla, seriously vying for the "hairiest back ever" title which is currently held by myself.
Hurt is great; like an early version of Jeff Goldblum's Seth Brundle from The Fly, he displays equal amounts of childlike curiosity and mad-scientist monomania. And the movie's thought-provoking and exciting for most of its running length, finally bogging down about 2/3 of the way through when it starts looking like George Of The Jungle Goes To The Big City.
Things slide even further downhill when the ending kicks things way farther than they're needed to go, with this guy's experiments affecting things on a macrocosmic level, instead of just affecting him. And honestly, I really fucking hate it when love conquers all. At least, by itself.
Writer Paddy Chayefsky - who based the screenplay on his own novel - disowned the film.
Still, overall it's quite an impressive piece of work. It can probably be read as an allegory of the transformation of the relatively harmless drug culture of the 60's into the more dangerous drug culture of the 70's, not like I care. Watch for a tiny Drew Barrymore in a tiny role.
I have to express some amusement at the last two sentences on the back of the box. It says "If you think they don't make movies like they used to, watch this one. You'll have your mind changed for you." Now, double meaning of that last sentence aside, does this movie really resemble anything that came out before it? (well, with the possible, remote exception of 2001)