FireBlade DVD Review: Altered States

Review by Jerry Stratton, 3/31/2001

As a rule, do you usually think about Christ and crucifixion under sexual stress?

I did not see this movie when it came out in 1980, but I had definitely heard of it. As I recall, it had quite a reputation. I think that in some ways, “Altered States” was the last gasp of the sixties/seventies drug movies. It is a fascinating movie of extremely questionable science investigating the religion of self.

The storyline of “Altered States” is a bit of a unique form of seventies pop psychology, almost a forerunner of later forms of New Age philosophies. Eddie Jessup, played by William Hurt, is experimenting with altered states of consciousness, using sensory deprivation tanks, and, later, psychedelic drugs. He begins to tap into an early state of consciousness with incredible results. The entire plotline is heavily dated, but it is saved by the writing, which is not overly wordy, and the acting, which is uniformly good. This was William Hurt’s first movie; he had been in one television show before this. He, as well as Blair Brown (most recently in Hamlet 2000), put in solid performances.

I love the sex scene where they start talking about religious experiences, both psychologically, physiologically, and personally, still naked and sweating. This is not your average porn flick, but they both have nice bodies.

Would you trust this man with mind-altering drugs?

The visual imagery is amazing, and amazingly well done. It is not technically great any more, mostly blue screen techniques, probably. But the illusions make sense within the story and they aren’t bad. If you’re willing to immerse yourself into the story, they’re very good. They beat the hell out of the psychedelic imagery in “Hair” only a year earlier, for example, and while they aren’t as technically brilliant as the imagery in “The Cell”, they do make more sense.

A major theme in the movie is the “search for great truths”. Not what those truths are, but do these truths in fact exist? Is the search even worthwhile, or is it just a waste of life? Jessup has a wonderful discussion with his research partner about the trade-offs between personal relationships and doing Real Things such as his own Great Research. His wife, he says, is content with simply living the standard tenure track life with him because she is “in love” with him. “What she means is that she prefers the senseless pain that we inflict on each other over the pain that we would otherwise inflict on ourselves.”

And the scene where all the brilliant people are drunk and discussing their research is priceless. “Ever since we dispensed with god we’ve got nothing but ourselves to explain this meaningless horror of life. That first self is real. And I’m going to find the fucker.”

Needs more salt.

But you do have to get past the science to enjoy this movie.

The DVD has only a few extras. The production notes, or “behind the scenes”, are extremely lame. Just a few text pages about how there is two thirds of the brain that scientists are still unsure of. Cast and Crew information is better, giving a short description of the actors’, writer’s, and director’s careers. Standard stuff. And there are the television and movie trailers.

There are also trailers from four related movies: Blade Runner, Contact, Outbreak, and Outland. None of them are, in my opinion, good trailers, and only of them was a movie I liked (although I never saw Outland). There are also a number of recommendations by director and actors.

I tentatively recommend purchasing this, especially if you can find it for $10 or less as I did at Target. It is a good movie with great acting, and it reflects its era in an interesting manner.

Recommendation: Possible Purchase

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Jerry