Altered States

I recently got this movie from my brother, who had an extra copy. This was William Hurt's debut, and what a debut it was!

Basic plot:
An American researching different states of consciousness with the aid of mind- altering drugs and an isolation chamber begins to experience disturbing physical changes in his body that point toward an evolutionary regression.

Hurt's character, Dr. Jessup, was searching for the ultimate truth in this movie; he discusses God and philosophy, and begins experiments in a deprivation tank to find some kind of ultimate meaning to it all. Along the way, everyone thinks he's going insane, so you start to question: How much of this is in his head?

He's also taken some powerful mushrooms, which I think people really should be on to fully experience this movie (haha; kidding), and things start happening to him.

I love dream imagery, and this movie had some really great dream/nightmare sequences. He also shows signs of turning into a Prehistoric man. Is this drug-induced? Or is it really happening? And how can he stop it? He becomes afraid when he almost kills a man in this state, but continues with the experiment.

I won't blow the ending, but message board people were miffed about it. Some thought it was a sell-out, but I thought it was very appropriate. Me being Christian, I liked the basic idea behind it. It didn't have to do with God directly, but it had to do with God's greatest commandment to us (if you believe in Jesus, that is. Well, I think all Gods would agree on what's most important in this world).

This was released in 1980, so I worried that the special effects would be terrible and cheesy, but I really liked the effects. They weren't up to our modern standards, but that's what makes them great, in my opinion. No offense, special effects people, but sometimes, we need to turn off the billion-dollar computer and just film a great, trippy dream sequence. I love that stuff.

Grade? solid A

Loved it! It's not for everyone, though. Plenty of nudity, which surprised me at first, but really became the norm by the film's end. It wasn't all 'sex' related nudity, either. If you're a pretty serious sci-fi fan, this is a must. It's a bit of a mind-fuck, too, which I also love.

Have a great day!