Altered States (By: Arturo, Sarah, James, Gabriel)

ALTERED STATES (1980)

Link to the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyBE_aKg858

BASIC INFORMATION

Title: Altered States
Year Made: 1980
Director: Ken Russell
Screen Writer: Paddy Chayefsky
Lead Actors: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid, Thaao Penghlis, Miguel Godera
Running Time: 107 minutes

GENERAL REVIEW OF FILM

            The setting for the movie in Altered States took place in New York,  Massachusetts and Mexico during the early 1970s.   The main character in this movie is Eddie Jessup, a Harvard University scientist and professor who is obsessed with finding the meaning of his true self.  His mission is to understand the origins of mankind and to find his soul. Eddie goes through a journey using sensory deprivation that can stimulate inactive parts of the brain.  His experiments involve him using mind-changing drugs and sensory deprivation tanks.  Eddie’s energetic and obsessive character often leads him to forget what the true meaning of his life is and takes him away from the things that really matter the most to him. (Maslin, 1)

At the beginning, Eddie is extremely focused on his past, focusing on things relating to his childhood.  Eddie recreates these visions by using a sensory-deprivation chamber. During these experiments, he taps into his subconscious.  Early on, he meets and marries Emily. For a brief period of time early on in their marriage, Eddie stops his experimental research.  It is only until seven years later, after he and Emily separate, does Eddie, along with two of his co-workers, Arthur Rosenberg, and Mason Parrish, does he go back to his experiments he once put on hold.   

During these experiments, Eddie then decides to take this one step further.  He visits a tribe in Mexico where he takes a drug made from sacred hallucinatory mushrooms.  The effects of this drug allow Eddie to see where humanity began.  What takes place after that is the hallucinatory scene full of dark imagery, meteor of lights, fish and serpents, crucifixions, sound and people turning to dust. The music is very loud and the scenes very visual and climatic.

Upon returning home, Eddie and Arthur use the chamber, along with the drug. His experiments have caused Eddie to have visions affecting him physiologically.  As the movie carries on, he transforms into an ape-like creature.  As the ape, he goes wild in the city, attacking a campus security guard and kills and eats a sheep for his dinner.  When Eddie is an ape, he is agressive.  However, when Eddie goes back to his human self, he is back to being Professor Jessup. Against the advice of his co-workers and even his wife, Eddie continues with these experiments.  During the last experiment, Eddie is transformed into a mass and is only brought back to humanity through the love of his wife, Emily.  She is the one who saved him in the end. Only until then does Eddie came to realize that the true meaning of life was right there with him.  He finally says to her at the end, “I love you, Emily.”  This is quite special coming from Eddie because in all their years together, he never really expressed to his wife his true feelings. 

The theme in Altered States refers to how far an individual would go to seek the true meaning of his or her inner self, even if it means playing with the concepts of what is reality and fantasy.  

The film raises many questions; one being once Eddie has reached his own primitive consciousness, what is the next step for Eddie?  Where else can he go?  Moral issues are also dealt with in this movie.  Eddie’s search for the truth that he seeks takes over his own personal life.  His wife, although opposed to Eddie’s obsession with these experiments because they are dangerous, still loves him.  Yet Eddie is willing to give up everything, even the woman he loved and married, to fulfill his dream.  Eddie is convinced that only he can take this experiment to the fullest extent; his obsession is to reach and experience its conclusion. 

            In terms of cinematic techniques and elements, the cast worked very well together, resulting in a convincing performance from all the actors.  The dialogue is very animated.  When a coworker said that Eddie’s experiment was not going anywhere and that no results were proven, heated arguments were going back and forth.  Some of the best dialogue took place when many characters were all speaking at the same time, as this enhanced the effect.  Eddie’s character is very deep and intellectual.  His use of words is quite interesting.  In a conversation he is having with Mason, he says:

“What’s wacko about it, Mason? I’m a man in search of his true self.  How archetypically American can you get?  We’re all trying to fulfill ourselves, understand ourselves, get in touch with ourselves, face the reality of ourselves, explore ourselves, expand ourselves.  Ever since we dispensed with God, we’ve got nothing but ourselves to explain this meaningless horror of life.” (IMDb, 1)

The director’s use of imagery techniques was quite interesting for a film released in the 80s.  The scenes involving Eddie’s physical transformations displayed first his arms and chest morph into the ape-like primate, then his whole body transforms.  We see that Eddie is in pain during this transformation, but he also very curious.  When he sees his face resembling that of a Neanderthal, his body reverts back to a human form. The viewers are left to wonder if this transformation is real or is it a result of Eddie’s hallucinations.   In addition, the use of flashing lights, images of three-eyed goats and religious symbols such as the crucifixions were all part of Ken Russell’s plan; he succeeded in bringing out the ideas about religion, the human’s state of consciousness, and humanity’s past and place or purpose in this universe. (Knipfel, 1)

 Word Count: 962

STRENGTHS AND WEAKNESSES

The movie Altered States featured cinematic techniques that were considered quite impressive for a movie directed in the 1980s. 

 Altered States is a complex, yet a strange movie.  It is pure entertainment and many who have watched it also found it amusing.  Perhaps that is why this film was so engaging and entertaining.  The actors were well cast.  The visual effects, probably very good for a 1980s movie, were a little silly and overdone for today’s viewing audience. 

   

Another strength of the movie is the choice of actors.  They compliment each other well and when watching the movie, it seemed as though the characters were easy to relate to and understood what they were going through.  Brown's portrayal of Eddie's wife is endearing.  We feel and understand her love for her husband, even though no other person would probably have put up with someone so obsessive and selfish.  The movie was a testament to the fact that the power of love makes it possible to heal and start over, regardless of the circumstances. The imagery and visual effects were well created, given the technology available at the time.  The idea behind Russell's film is ambitious.  

On another note, Eddie's search for the ultimate truth and his physical regression into an ape-like creature is difficult to imagine.  However, from an entertainment perspective, the movie certainly met that criteria.  To the viewing audience of today, we certainly feel that this is too much to believe and at times, found it to be either quite silly or amusing.  It was also strange that Eddie, who is with the same woman for years, never really told her how he feels about her until the very end.  Humans thrive on love and intimacy.  It is an essential need for our existence.  Yet only until the end when she saves him does he realise what he should have known all along; that she has been there for him from the moment they met.  

RATING

CONNECTONS TO IN CLASS DISCUSSIONS

A .The film connects to our course, “Knowing the Inner Self” by touching upon several different aspects in which we have learned about over the course of the semester. The viewer is able to see Edward in his prime, as we can get a glimpse of of his drunken scientific jargon of what he is trying to solve, in order to discover the true response of his continuous studies on altered states.  He is trying to find what he calls “the one true self”, or  “that original self”.   Eddie’s work is primarily revolved  around building an understanding  towards the whole concept of self discovery; in reference to the inner self.  As he is in the midst of exploring multiple different states of consciousness, he is able to go forward with his experiments with the use of his isolation tank and sensory deprivation chamber. We are able to see Eddie as he experiments with a patient who has schizophrenia. In regards to this experiment,  he states “I’m not even sure it’s a disease.” It , referring to schizophrenia. This sentence demonstrates that he believes that it is simply another state of consciousness. (Knowledge.)

B. The second class connection that we have been able to pull out from the film, was that of the concept of the Inner Self in its entirety. To begin, the pure self, is one in which the mind’s eye is cleansed of sin. The pure self is where God becomes intelligible, and can be “seen”. The inward self is one that is close with God. This form of the self, is one that is believed to be influenced by the reaches of religion. These insights of the inner self come from the teachings of St. Augustine, whom we have talked about in class. The idea of the religious version of the self, as mentioned in class, is that these ideas may have been created by St. Augustine. A definition of the self that comes from the movie is “It is the self, the individual mind, that contains immortality and ultimate truth. . . . You've simply replaced God with the original self. But we've localized it. We know where the self is, in our minds. It's a form of human energy.”.

C. Empiricism is very briefly mentioned in the movie,  yet this topic was still greatly impactful in relation to the connections in our class. The idea that all knowledge can be derived from experience, as both Hume and Locke found through radical skepticism, was a featured element within the film. “Only through sense experience will there be concrete knowledge, that there is no innate knowledge”. Eddie mentions this statement to Emily. He says “Monkeys can’t tell you what is going on inside their consciousness”, which is also related to the topic of sentience. But we won't be getting into that topic.

QUESTIONS

1. Does religion still hold a deep unconscious connection in Eddie Jessup’s life?

2.Would you ever want to go into a sensory deprivation tank? Why or why not?

3. In the movie, are there any signs of anti-feminism being displayed? If yes, when? Explain further.

WEB LINKS

1.    The movie "The Trip", directed by Roger Corman.  Released in 1967 and starring Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper, is about a director, who is diss with his life, embarks on a LSD trip to ease him out of his boring life.  His LSD induced state allows him to experience visions that are beautiful yet terrifying at the same time.  The hallucinations take him on a journey which include dwarfs, strange sexual encounters, and taking things to the extreme, his own death.  In both movies, drugs can produce an altered sense of reality.

Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062395/

2.    The novel by Paddy Chayefsky was based on Dr. John Lilly's life.  John Lilly was an American physician, inventor and neuroscientist.  He invented the isolation tank and experimented with the drug Ketamine with the hopes it would cure him of his chronic migraines.  His research also involved communicating with dolphins.  In the late sixties, Dr. Lilly was an early pioneer in detailing the inner brain waves with LSD inside his isolation tank. 

Link: http://www.conspiracyarchive.com/UFOs/Gorightly.htm

WORKS CITED

Brussat, Frederic and Mary Ann, "Spirituality and Practice" http://www.spiritualityandpractice.com Accessed on November 4th, 2016

Descartes, "Knowledge and Skepticism" n.d. http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-objectification/ Accessed on October 23rd, 2016

IMDb, "Altered States Quotes" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0080360/quotes Accessed on November 4th, 2016

Knipfel, Jim, "Altered States (1980) Review"http://www.denofgeek.com/us/movies/altered-states/58047/altered-states-1980-review Accessed on November 5th, 2016

Maslin, Janet "Screen: Ken Russell's Altered States" http://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=9B07E6DB1339F936A15751C1A966948260 Accessed on November 20th, 2016