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This Month's Featured Equipment Reviews |
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Past DVD Hardware / Software News |
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Altered States |
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DVD Sci-Fi-Fantasy
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Written by Abbie Bernstein
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Tuesday, 01 June 2004 |
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title:
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Altered States |
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studio:
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Warner Home Video |
| starring: |
William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid |
| release year: |
1980 |
| film rating: |
Two and a half stars |
| reviewed by: |
Abbie Bernstein |
There’s something kind of endearing about ‘Altered States,’ even though
it looks even more overheated and loopy now than it did in its original
1980 theatrical release. Writer Paddy Chayefsky, who wrote the novel
the film is based on, had his name taken off the screenplay (officially
credited to Sidney Aaron) after clashing with director Ken Russell.
Even without reading Chayefsky’s book and script drafts, it’s not hard
to give him the benefit of the doubt--Russell’s fever-dream narrative
style doesn’t exactly support the intellectual concepts struggling to
surface through the story’s Jekyll-and-Hyde trappings. Still, many of
the special effects, both makeup and optical, hold up remarkably well.
There’s also a kick to be had in seeing the talented cast gamely tackle
enormous mouthfuls of technological, scientific and metaphysical
hyper-speech.
William Hurt, in his film debut, plays Harvard research scientist
Edward Jessup. Eddie is becoming increasingly fascinated with the
notion that a combination of isolation tank use and certain drugs can
put modern man in touch with his primitive roots. To the distress of
his wife (Blair Brown) and the consternation of his colleagues, Eddie
sets out to prove his theories. He succeeds, with results no one
(except maybe the audience) expects.
The main problem with the good doctor is, that like most obsessed movie
scientists (a) he is so intent on the process of discovery that he’s
unable to articulate to anybody’s satisfaction exactly what use this
hard-won knowledge is likely to be and (b) he hasn’t got the sense to
know when to stop. One of the problems with ‘Altered States’ itself is
that it mistakes flash for substance. There’s a lot of discussion of
the cosmic ramifications of it all, but apart from providing some cool
visuals, there’s nothing in the scenario that couldn’t happen if the
hero simply got into a bad batch of mind-altering steroids.
However, Russell keeps his joint jumping, scenically and aurally.
Chapter 1 provides a nice segue from the mingled sounds of water and
respiration to the colder, mechanical click of monitoring devices.
Chapter 4 brings in a clear, playful portion of the Doors’ "Light My
Fire" for background soundtrack. By Chapter 5, the two leads are
engaged in red-lit, frenzied sex, which pave the way for Eddie’s trippy
religious visions that begin in Chapter 6, accompanied by some
deliberately screechy musical scoring. Chapter 11 contains what is
arguably the most subtle of the play-with-your-head images in ‘Altered
States,’ a band of yellow light against dark blue turns out to be a
cave mouth as three men enter it. Chapters 17 and 29 contain the big
metamorphosis sequences that created a huge stir on the film’s release;
the DVD presents them vividly and cleanly, so that they still impress.
‘Altered States’ is, at its core, a movie about an academician whose
mind is blown by the equivalent of a major acid trip. The movie never
becomes anywhere near as profound as it seems to hope, but the
characters and the imagery are all so intense (albeit self-seriously)
that it has a genuine sense of momentum. ‘Altered States’ won’t change
your view of the universe or of human potential, but it’s fun on a
popcorn level.
| more details |
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sound format:
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English Dolby 5.1 Surround; French Dolby Surround Stereo |
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aspect ratio(s):
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Enhanced for Widescreen TVs (exact aspect ratio unavailable); Full Screen Aspect Ratio: 1:3:3 |
| special features: |
Five
Theatrical Trailers; Two TV Trailers; Production Notes; Chapter Search;
Widescreen and Full-Screen Formats; French Language Audio Track;
English Closed Captioning; French Subtitles |
| comments: |
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| reference system |
| DVD player: |
Kenwood DV-403 |
| receiver: |
Kenwood VR-407 |
| main speakers: |
Paradigm Atom |
| center speaker: |
Paradigm CC-170 |
| rear speakers: |
Paradigm ADP-70 |
| subwoofer: |
Paradigm PDR-10 |
| monitor: |
27-inch Toshiba |
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