Altered States (A) |
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STARS...
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DIRECTOR: Ken Russell BEST BETS:
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SYNOPSIS... At an East Coast university, a young scientist experiments with submerging himself in a sensory deprivation tank. He also meets an attractive young lady, whom he later marries. Several years later, he travels to Mexico, experiencing some powerful hallucinatory mushrooms with the locals. He returns to America, bringing some of the 'shrooms. Later, he eats the mushrooms and submerges in his new isolation tank, temporarily turning into a caveman in the process. Obsessed with somehow journeying back and experiencing the creation of the universe, first hand, he does further experiments in the tank. Eventually, he blows up the lab and transforms periodically into a weird mutant. Finally, only the love he gets from his wife is enough to bring him back from the brink of total destruction. |
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Review: ALTERED STATES is a great mind altering experience. And it's drug free! The Director, Ken Russell, working from a script by the late, great Paddy Chayefsky, (using the pseudonym Sidney Aaron), has created a wonderful audio-visual hallucination. William Hurt ("The Big Chill") plays a young, East Coast scientist, Dr. Eddie Jessep. Hurt, under Russell's Direction, is particularly persuasive as a scientist totally preoccupied with his quest for knowledge, via drugs and an isolation tank. Blair Brown, years before her "Molly Dodd" TV fame, offers a refreshing mix of intelligence and sensuality. She holds her own with Hurt in their rapid-fire dialogue exchanges, which is no mean feat. Charles Haid ("Hill Street Blues") and Bob Balaban (Close Encounters of the Third Kind) offer strong suipport as scientists who disagreed with Hurt's techniques. Both Haid and Balaban have since become directors, with Haid focusing on TV, and Balaban on feature films. Chayefsky's Screenplay is very wordy. But, coming out of the mouth of Hurt, these rants, pontifications, and declarations have a rapid-fire poetry to them that's a delight for the ear. My favorite scene takes place in Mexico. After taking a hallucinatory drug with locals, Hurt experiences incredible hallucinations. The amazing visuals during this sequence provide a memorable eyeball extravaganza. After first seeing this film during its original theatrical release, I was motivated to spend an hour in an isolation tank. I found it very restful, and experienced mild hallucinations. ALTERED STATES will be rather watchable for most Sci-Fi fans. Those interested in isolation tanks, and or magic mushrooms will be particularly entertained. |
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