Altered States (1980)

Director:

Ken Russell

Writers:

Paddy Chayefsky (novel)
Paddy Chayefsky (writer)

Release Date:

25 December 1980 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi | Fantasy

Tagline:

When he heard his cry for help it wasn't human

Plot:

A Harvard scientist conducts experiments on himself with a hallucinatory drug and an isolation chamber that may be causing him to regress genetically.

Plot Keywords:

Anthropologist | Drug Trip | Alternative Reality | Quest For Knowledge | 1970s

Awards:

Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

William Hurt	...	Professor Eddie Jessup
Blair Brown	...	Emily Jessup
Bob Balaban	...	Arthur Rosenberg
Charles Haid	...	Mason Parrish, Professor of Endocrinology at Harvard Medical School
Thaao Penghlis	...	Prof. Eduardo Eccheverria at University of Mexico
Miguel Godreau	...	Primal Man
Dori Brenner	...	Sylvia Rosenberg
Peter Brandon	...	Alan Hobart
Charles White-Eagle	...	The Brujo, Hindris Indian
Drew Barrymore	...	Margaret Jessup
Megan Jeffers	...	Grace Jessup
Jack Murdock	...	Hector Orteco
Francis X. McCarthy	...	Obispo (as Frank McCarthy)
Deborah Baltzell	...	Schizophrenic Patient
Evan Richards	...	Young Rosenberg

Runtime:

102 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

70 mm 6-Track (MegaSound encoding) | Dolby

Certification:

Australia:M (DVD rating) | Italy:VM14 | Singapore:M18 | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 | Norway:18 (1982) | Sweden:15 | UK:18 | USA:R | West Germany:16 | Iceland:16

Filming Locations:

Beacon Hill, Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Company:

Warner Bros. Pictures

Trivia:

Film debuts of both William Hurt and 'Drew Barrymore' .

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Brujo tells Eccheverria that he'll allow Eddie to participate in the ceremony he walks off. In only a matter of seconds he's far enough away that they have to run quite a distance to catch up to him to ask him some further questions. There's no way he could have gotten that far in the short span of time between his walking off and their pursuit of him.

Quotes:

[First line]
Arthur Rosenberg: The tank itself was unusual in that it was vertical, and looked like an old boiler.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Making of 'World Trade Center' (2006) (V)

A fascinating and outlandish retelling of Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde

One of the best periods of film-making in the entire history of cinema occurred during the late 1970s and early 1980s. There were more great films released in that short period of time than anytime I can think of, aside from the late 1930s, early 1940s. It was a great time to go at movies because the films were cool, well made, explored challenging ideas, never looked down at their audience and were effing entertaining to boot. More than 20 years later now, looking back at that time, I can honestly say that nothing since then came close to recapturing that magical time of movie-going. And ALTERED STATES is one of those great films released back then. I don't know how many times I saw AS then but I recently bought the ultra-cheap DVD to check it out again for the first time in two decades, just to see if it still holds up. On the whole, it does. There are some parts of AS that were always weak and they still are today but they haven't diminished the impact of the film.

As much as I love ALTERED STATES, there was always something about it that was missing which always bothered me and looking at it again, I now know what it is. The transition between Eddie Jessup before and after he takes the drug was always too brief and/or too sudden. The timeline in the story was already truncated by massive gaps, so when Eddie starts changing physically in a matter of a few scenes, I had a hard time accepting it back then and still today. A more gradual change between those states would have been more effective. But when you combined that problem with the far fetched concept that when using a mind altering drug made by some indigenous people in Mexico while being in a sensory depraved environment like those chambers were reasons enough to explain the changes happening to the main character always smacked me as something silly and could have only been concocted AND accepted in the 1970s. Aside from the fact that the combination of those two strained plot points were always big leaps to take, ones I always begrudgingly accepted because the rest was so good, the story had less to do with a 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY kind of mind-bending sci-fi than with an old fashioned Dr Jekyll & Mr Hyde, or in this case, Dr Jessup & Mr Ape Man. I wish they had come up with something more expansive for the cool concept of how centuries of human memory stored in the mind can subsequently alter the body itself with the proper trigger. But in the 1970s, drugs were the answer to everything and I guess it made sense for that time.

Anyway, as I said, I always overlooked this weakness in ALTERED STATES because everything else is top drawer. That includes the great over-acting cast, the ridiculously wordy dialogue, the underlying wicked humor, the obvious but nonetheless cool visions/dreams, the sharp cinematography, the fantastic soundtrack, all fascinatingly orchestrated with remarkable and unusual clarity by Ken Russell, who's career peaked with this project and he never topped it with any of his subsequent (mostly bad) films.

There are other great things about ALTERED STATES: including the abundant nudity (male and female), that's never gratuitous but breathtakingly beautiful. The lusty, surreal contrasting styles of lucid scientific mumbo-jumbo with esoteric themes. The clever special effects. And to add even more to the cornucopia of good things, this was William Hurt's first starring role and what a debut it was. I've never seen such an impressive debut of an actor as this one. It's even better than Sigourney Weaver's debut in the equally great ALIEN made a year just before this. It's a shame Hurt's career flat-lined after winning an Oscar for KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN.

If it wasn't for that weakest link in the story, I would rate ALTERED STATES as a masterpiece.