Altered States

Ken Russell, USA 1980, 102 mins

Harvard professor Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) experiments with a peyote-like drug and an isolation tank. Interestingly, everyone who takes the drug experiences the same vision. Jessup theorises that this vision might be part of our collective unconscious, a sort of species memory. Intrigued by this prospect he continues his experiments, but pushes things too far, physically regressing into an ape-man and running amok.

Altered States is the sort of movie that a short plot synopsis cannot really hope to do justice to. No simple description could ever manage to convey the sheer visual assault of the film. It's a movie that has to be seen, experienced.

Ken Russell, long the enfant terrible of British cinema (even if he's now in his 70s) is famous for his visual excesses. It might be questionable whether we really needed to see Ann Margret slithering through masses of baked beans in Tommy, for instance, but in the case of Altered States Russell's unsubtle, over the top, approach was very definitely what was needed. His film comes across as Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde on acid, giving a quasi-hallucinatory experience to rival seminal 60s head films like those of 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Trip.

But Russell's treatment ­ "everything louder than everything else" ­ didn't please writer Paddy Chayefsky. Though he had adapted his own novel for the film he ultimately disowned his contribution and was credited under a pseudonym.

Altered States is also notable as the first screen appearance of William Hurt, an actor who promised so much in the early-mid 80s with the likes of this film, Body Heat, The Big Chill and Kiss of the Spiderwoman, but whose career never really seems to have taken off. Drew Barrymore also debuted, while sterling supporting work comes from Bob Balaban. Legendary make up/effects man Dick Smith (The Exorcist, Taxi Driver etc) did the special effects.

Altered States: "This is your brain on drugs."

Keith H. Brown
EUFS Programme 1998-99