Altered States

Altered States quoted from Imbd.com

Altered States (1980)

R | 1h 42min | Horror, Sci-Fi, Thriller | 25 December 1980 (USA)Director: Ken RussellWriters: Paddy Chayefsky (written for the screen by) (as Sidney Aaron), Paddy Chayefsky (novel)Stars: William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, Charles Haid

Altered States Poster

Altered States Trailer

FILM REVIEW

 The film takes place in the late 1960's and 1970's, set in several locations including New York, Cambridge, and the Mexican wilderness. The story is centered around Harvard university professor Dr. Eddie Jessup. In a prologue to the main events of film we see that while Eddie was a graduate student, he and his colleague Arthur Rosenberg conducted an experiment with an isolation chamber which gave him religious hallucinations. It was during this time that Eddie met his future ex-wife and biological anthropologist, Emily, and she falls in love with him.

Fast forward several years and we find Eddie and Emily are getting divorced. Eddie finds himself discontent with his respectable position at the university and desires to conduct more research on the altered states of consciousness. Emily is heading to Africa with their two children while Eddie plans to continue research he started years ago with the isolation chamber. Eddie learns of a Mexican Tribe's ritual that he believes can intensify his sensory deprivation chamber experience. After joining one of the rituals Eddie returns home with a sample of the hallucinogenic drugs the natives refer to as "first flower".

Returning to the US Eddie begins experimenting using a repaired university isolation chamber to compliment the effects of the first flower. It is from here that Eddie begins to undergo increasingly radical changes. These "regressions" lead to Eddie eventually reverting into an ancestor of the homo-sapiens. Claiming his visions have manifested two of his colleagues, Arthur Rosenberg and Mason Parrish, involve themselves in his research and test his claims with blood-tests and x-rays.

Eddie's colleagues and his returning ex-wife begin to worry about his well-being. They all agree to monitor him in his next experiment so he can prove his claims are true. However this time Eddie regresses further into a non-physical form of pure consciousness. The regression's energy disorients his colleagues until Emily manages to reach the maelstrom of consciousness that has taken the place of the chamber. She reaches Eddie and helps him reconstitute and the group takes him home to assess what has happened. While watching over him Emily finds Eddie regressing again, now without the need for the hallucinogen or isolation chamber. When trying to help him again she gets caught up in the process and begins to radiate with energy. Eddie now fearing for his loved one resists the regression and returns to human form and embraces Emily in the final scene.

Eddies religious hallucination 

The writer of Altered States, Paddy Chayefsky, credited it to his pseudonym Sidney Aaron when he was dissatisfied with the tone of the film. Chayefsky and the director Ken Russel had disagreements throughout the production even though little was changed from the original script. The movie was the debut of William Hurt who played Eddie Jessup. The cast also featured Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, and Charles Haid playing Emily Jessup, Arthur Rosenberg, and Mason Parrish respectively.

There were several unrealistic aspects of the plot. That Eddie wasn't discredited was a big one as he is a professor at Harvard and none of his peers respect his claims of regression. It would be far more likely if someone claimed they were reverting to a primitive human that they would be placed in a mental institution. Another that was brought up is Emily's unconditional love for a man who seems indifferent about their marriage. Even when they first meet Eddie only goes on about his research that would eventually end their marriage. He keeps this arrogant and insensitive attitude towards her throughout the film. Their interactions lack any real human connection. Lastly, during the primitive man's rampage we see him run through the city, kill a goat, and overpower two full grown men. The scene is overall comedic however it still seems unrealistic for a tiny ape man to subdue two larger able-bodied men who are armed with batons, especially as he's jumping around and screaming ridiculously.

Eddie Jessup's character is the only one who gets any development throughout the film. He was obsessed with finding the original self and selfishly went about it without concern of how it affected those around him, until the end when he saw it was literally killing Emily and he put an end to it. However the other actors remain as two-dimensional support characters. This is especially true for Emily, who's only role is to validate Eddie character through unconditional love. We have no explanation as to why her character may behave as such other than the stereotype that the female lead must be obsessed with the male lead. Eddie's two colleagues, Arthur and mainly Mason, are meant to contest Eddie's claims to add a sense of struggle as the movie lacks a primary antagonist. Though they are justified in doubting him, coming of more as the voice of reason given Eddie is experimenting with untested drugs and is studying what his institution and peers would likely consider pseudoscience.

The film used practical effects and primitive CGI in some scenes. There were many hallucination scenes that included foreshadowing such as one that referenced killing the goat near the beginning. Many of Eddie's experiments take place in the basement and the ritual takes place in a dark cave. These dark themes associate his research as being unconventional. Similar two these sets his work is meant to go below the surface. These contrast with many of the dialogue scenes which take place in well lit set. This is a good representation of the waking consciousness and subconscious states Eddie is researching as things seem to get darker every time he continues his research.

In this movie Eddie tries to answer many of the popular questions such as "what's the meaning of life?" and "what is reality?" however it leads him to the realization that his present human self is all that really matters. He abandons his search for meaning after he experiences the pure conscious form and embraces Emily. Thus ending up where he could have been from the start. The movie also suggests the hidden potential in our human consciousness as Eddie achieves all this by digging into his own mind. It almost seems in the end that he decides this pure form was too much for him and is happy to be human again.

(Word Count 1045)

Eddie fighting his regression

Strengths and Weaknesses

By modern special effect standards "Altered States" is definitely lacking. However given that it was released in 1980 its a bit unfair to compare it to the latest CGI summer blockbuster. The special effect scenes are somewhat confusing to follow however it fits the context of hallucinogenic drugs and deprivation chambers  In the scene where Jessup is the proto-human the effects make it feel as if he really has gone primal on his laughable rampage. The weakness of the film would be the under developed secondary characters, who come of as two-dimensional. Emily for example is only present to give validation to Jessup's character with her affections, although she lacks any logical reason to care for Eddie who neglects her for his work. The movie doesn't even develop a plausible reason the character might act that way. On top of the lacking character development the film fails the feminist test, in which two named female character must have a conversation about something other than a man. The film did receive an Oscar nomination for sound, though lost it to "Empire Strikes Back".

Rating:

3/5 stars

Course Connections

State Consciousness:

The main connection between the film “Altered States” and the class or more preferably, a topic covered in class is the state of consciousness. In class, we discussed that consciousness as a whole, is based supremely on reaction and feeling, I mean yeah there is an actual definition which is “the quality or state of being able to perceive or be aware of an external object or something within oneself” (Study guide #1), however we were told it was a problematic one so scratch that, and we’ll focus on the “right one” being something/someone having some kind of mental activity going on, therefore anything we are aware of at a given time. Edward Jessup as mentioned already but will get re-mentioned because its just that important, has this intense obsession with consciousness, and believes "our other states of consciousness are as real as our waking states, hence is experiments and bad trips. "Throughout the movie you see Edward Jessup experimenting with different conscious states through mind altering drugs and isolation tanks. One second he’s in a human state of consciousness and the next second he’s in a non-human animal state, eating away at a poor goat.

Epistemology:
 Epistemology is the study of the nature of knowledge. A lot of questions are asked in this concept. For example, what do we know, what can we know, how do we know, what are the limits of our knowledge? Many of these questions Eddie Jessup, in Altered States, asks himself constantly. By being really curious about the reality about the world and being curious about his inner self, Eddie Jessup did many experiences in an isolation tank. He found many evidence of the knowledge of himself and about the world around him

Core Self:

The core self, one of the material we learned in class, is present in the movie: Altered States. In class, we learned that the core self is reflected on the knowledge of itself: “This inner model represents the creature’s own body in its environment.” Meaning that the creature is aware of its surrounding and of its own existence: “This self-mediates between the organism and the external world.” In Altered States, the main character Eddie Jessup has done many experiences trying to know his inner abilities. Each time he turns into another form of creature, Eddie is not aware of the self. He is not conscious of the self and can’t reflect on it. When he transformed into a primate, he didn’t know anything about the time he was in the state: "Apparently I entered a very primitive consciousness. All I can remember is what was comprehensible to that consciousness. I don't remember, at least not clearly, how I got out of the tank room."

Arthur Rosenberg monitoring Eddie

Questions

1) In your opinion is there an original self? Would you support Eddie  when he was trying to find the original self or would you support him when he settled on his present self being all he should be concerned with?

2) Was Eddie right to go on this mission for the original self or not especially given that he ended up where he could have been all along (but instead practically ruined his marriage and almost killed himself)

3) Do you think that altered states of consciousness, achieved through meditation, drugs, sensory deprivation etc can reveal truths to us that would be otherwise unavailable?

TWO WEBSITES WITH LINKS TO THINGS RELATED TO THEMES TO THE FILM

Eddie was experimenting with hallucinogens to alter his state of mind. Other drugs such as LSD have been used in therapy in the past and have proven to alter our state of mind.

 http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-04/new-science-lsd-therapy

Eddie also involved a sensory deprivation chamber in is research. These instruments have been used in therapy in the past as well as for recreational use.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/crux/2014/04/04/floating-away-the-science-of-sensory-deprivation-therapy/#.WDItX_krLcs

Works Cited

"Altered States - Wikipedia." N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Oct. 2016.

"Altered States". IMDb.com. IMDb.com inc. n.d. Web. 1 Nov. 2016.

          McKinney, Kelly. "Study Guide for Test #1". August 31. 2016. November 16. 2016.