Altered States

Ken Russell’s first U.S. film, a souped-up B grade, is a variant on the Jekyll-and-Hyde scenario of scientists who use themselves as guinea pigs in their dangerous dabblings with the unknown. In this case William Hurt plays Eddie Jessup who is relentlessly committed to identifying primordial human consciousness (or something like that). The leads him on a Carlos Casteneda-like journey to Mexico where he picks up some fancy mushrooms which he brings back to his Boston lab and uses on himself in a series of experiments that, of course, go seriously wrong.

Although Russell’s characteristic florid stylizations may have seemed appropriate to the subject matter the film is a relatively straightforward drama, albeit one which, when not indulging in some quite effective special effects, is pretty insipid. Paddy Chayefsky’s screenplay from his own novel is terminally heavy-handed, the regular assertions, for instance that Eddie is “flaky”, “weird”, “mad” etc. being damn wearing, particularly given that it's hard to find a more bland actor than Hurt (Blair Brown is no more convincing as Jessup’s anthropologist wife), and the dialogue regularly slides into long-winded, hardly credible utterances before wrapping up in a watery, feelgood ending that jettisons any attempt to make sense of the metaphysical questing that supposedly was the motive for the story.

What is captured well is the insufferable smugness of the scientific confraternity and their self-deluded conviction that they hold the keys to truth in their grasp. Needless to say, this is hardly a sufficient attraction for most viewers. 

Altered States was a troubled production with Chayefsky keeping tight reins on his script, causing the original director, Arthur Penn, to quit the production and this presumably explains the lack of Russellian exuberance (although Chayefsky too ended up walking out and disowning the film, using his alias Sidney Aaron, in the credits). The film cost US$15m and after an initial flurry of interest, tanked.

FYI: The film provided big screen debuts for Hurt and Drew Barrymore, who plays one of the Jessup children, whilst Brown went onto to a solid career in television. 

 

Want something different?