Altered States

Altered States (1980)
Director: Ken Russell
Cast: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid
Memorable Line(s): "What's whacko about it, Mason? I'm a man in search of his true self."

Seeing this movie as a wide eyed 18 year old was a phantasmagoric and mind expanding experience. Seeing 20 years later gives me a different perspective. Large parts of the movie do hold up, but some glaring parts do not.

Harvard scientist Eddie Jessup (Hurt) is seeking the essence of consciousness in his experiments which take place in a sensory deprivation tank. Jessup gets more than he bargains for as his experiments lead him to devolve back through the human evolutionary chain. The only groundingJessup gets is his relationship with his wife (Brown).

Filled by pseudo-intellectual speak and over flowing with some far fetched mumbo-jumbo, the ideas behind the film get stretched somewhat. But the characters are earnest and oh so almost believable.

Hurt and Brown work well together as egghead professors and the supporting cast is solid. Russell's visual as psychedelic and sometimes overwhelming. You can't help think that the movie would have been helped by today's superior visual effects.

Still, it's a good ride. If you don't fully engage your thinking cap, then you can sit back an enjoy the this movie.




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