Altered States
Arthur helping Edward out of the isolation tank.
Link to a trailer of the movie:
Title of film: Altered States
Year: 1980
Director: Ken Russell
Screen Writer: Paddy Chayefsky
Lead Actors:
- William Hurt as Edward Jessup
- Blair Brown as Emily Jessup
- Bob Balaban as Arthur Rosenberg
- Charles Haid as Mason Parrish
Running Time: 103 minutes
Film Review
In the late 1960’s, early 70’s, Edward Jessup is a Harvard scientist who
studies the altered states of consciousness. He becomes very addicted towards
his work after he visits Mexico where he experiments intensive hallucination
from a ritual with the indigenous
tribe. He returns back home from United States from Mexico, where he becomes
obsess on discovering its “real self” and the different states of consciousness.
In order to achieve his goal, he shuts himself in an isolation tank and uses
the hallucinogenic drugs to test the different states of consciousness.
However, as he increases the time spent on his observations, the outcomes
become worse. Emerging from the tank, he bleeds from his mouth, preventing him
to speak but writing notes. Not to mention, a radiologist has proposed that Edward’s x-rays belongs to a gorilla. It
becomes worse when Edwards evolves into a Primitive Man as he runs through the
streets and kill his prey in the zoo. The experiment becomes chaotic where
Edward’s colleagues were shocked by the energy wave produced from the isolation
tank. Emily enters into the room filled with bubbles and the isolation tank
exploded. She then deeply and travels into an unusual vortex of
proto-consciousness and saves Jessup just in time. After this incident,
his ex-wife, Emily, took Edward home. Unexpectedly, Edward starts to transform
where Emily tries to help him. Unfortunately, Emily also transforms when she
grabs Edward’s hand. The sight of Emily causes Edward to fight off his
transformation as he pounds himself against the walls. As he returns back to
his human form, he saves Emily and they embraced their love as it end happily
ever after.
The isolation tank used when Edward
tests out the hallucination drug.
Film Techniques
The use of the lighting in this movie created multiple effects, which
helped, set the ambiance of certain scenes, as well characterization. For instance, in the scene where
Edward awoke in the middle of the night with another
woman in bed, he went to his washroom as started to notice unusual bumps
appearing throughout his body. The use of the side lighting displayed the
contrast between the darkness of one half of his face and the brightness of the
other half. This contrast shows us, the viewers, that he was trying to hide the
conflict going on his mind as he tries hard to control the two forces that were
trying to control him (transforming to a gorilla or staying human).
While the
side lighting helps show Edward’s transformation in a more significant manner,
it can also use the contrast between light and dark to show the effectiveness
of low and high key lighting. When Dr. Jessup was in the process of transforming
and wanted his colleagues to take notes of his transformation (56:08 – 56:22),
the audience could see the distress in Edward’s facial expression as tries to
conceal the pain. The audience is exposed to this sensation through the use of
low-key lighting and informs us that Edward was in the process of undergoing a
mysterious experience that he wanted to keep hidden from his wife. Furthermore, the movie illustrates the use of
high-key lighting when Emily enters the lab where the experiment was taking place
and the isolation tank was filled with bubbles. The light was purposely focused
onto the center of the room where Edward was lying beneath the bubbles. The
purpose of the light in this scene was to force the audience to focus on the
area where its radiance was being projected.
Props on the other hand are used to manipulate and reveal information
about the character. The director chose to use a snake as props in the scene
where Dr. Jessup is seeing all the memories of he and his wife getting married
and there was a snake above in the ceiling then it was wrapped around his neck
(33:10 – 33:59). A snake is a phallic symbol and this symbol could represent
more than one thing (sex, power, etc.). I think his sex life was a disaster
because of the scene at the beginning of the movie (16:30 – 16:37 and 18:37 –
18:52) and the fact that the snake was wrapped around his neck says that the
situation was squeezing the life out of his relationship with his wife. According
to the Bible, the serpent was the tempter of humans and promises Adam and Eve
“knowledge” if they would yield to the serpent’s temptation.
Edward after coming out of the tank and
is unable to speak.
Once the
director decides on the way he will frame the shot, he must also think of the
best possible angle to take the shot. The camera angle chosen in the scene
where Eddie was lying on the bed was used to show the audience a full-body view
of Eddie whilst the transformation was occurring in his stomach (53:35 –
54:07). The reason why the Director chose to film this shot from above while we
look down at the subject was to demonstrate Eddie’s lack of power and weakness
at that point of the transformation to the viewers.
The first
close up is when Emily first meets Edward where the camera zooms on Emily’s
face. It shows Emily’s face close-up as she smiles and stares at him. Due to
this shot, it highlights how she is attracted and is interested to talk to
Edward. Moreover, Emily shows her emotions by gazing at him and smiling at him.
Costumes are a quick signal for characterization and
how the audience feel about characters often comes simply from the way they are
dressed. In the movie, Edward mostly wears his stylish suits as his everyday
clothing since he is a Harvard scientist. At work, he must look professional by
wearing his lab coat. Costume observation was made during the ritual ceremony,
the chief of the tribe was the only one wearing red turbans and a black coat
while the other members wore all in white. Black is a symbol of sin and
darkness since Edward killed a lizard. Not to mention, the costume when Edward
evolved into a Primitive Man is interesting because although he has completely
transformed, his body isn’t completely covered in hair like an actual ape. It
was purposely done to show that Edward hasn’t completely changed into an animal
and that he still has human traits.
Sound played a huge role throughout the movie. Without any sound, the
movie wouldn’t be as interesting to watch. Not to mention, the special effects
were enhanced to make the sound louder and clear for the audience to notice. The scene when Edward is floating in the
isolation tank and the audience can hear a voice narrating at the beginning of
the movie. This scene reveals an internal diegetic sound as a voice-narration.
Another scene is when Edward and Emily were having intercourse; background
music was non-diegetic sound, which becomes intensively louder and louder as he
stares at the heated fan. The scene was mixture of somewhat romantic, but the music
was very loud and sinister where Emily states, “You don't have to tell me how weird you are. I know how weird you are.
I'm the girl in your bed the past two months. Even sex is a mystical experience
for you” (16:06 - 16:15).
Once scene in particular, in Mexico, when Edward was hallucinating,
there was a scene where Edward was staring at his wife. In the scene, the
audience can notice the strong wind pushing the sand towards Edwards and Emily.
Seconds later, they are both covered in sand but, still can hear the strong
intense sound which refers back to diegetic sound. The sound was very loud and
bizarre and was done by instruments. This was befitting of the scene was as it
was a type of ceremony and the music was well put.
Cover Themes, Issues and Questions Raised
One of the major themes of Altered
States is human’s drive to leave our body to experience things on different
state of consciousness. Edward Jessup showcases this drive by wanting to prove
that our other states of consciousness are just as real as our waking states
and this raises the question of whether we can access these different states of
consciousness at all.
Another major theme of Altered
States is nature of truth and reality.
By definition, truth is something that you have proved and its true.
Reality is defined as state or quality of being real and exists. Moreover, what
is discovered in reality becomes the ultimately truth and the truth needs a
form of reality. Similar to when Edward escapes from his reality and into his
state of consciousness. His truth is finding and experiment its “real self” and the different states of consciousness.
As he discovers it in reality, it becomes the ultimate truth to Edwards.
This movie does a good job of bringing up some interesting questions,
like who was the first human being? What is love? What is the ultimate truth?
What is reality? Edward is an intelligent person and he is always asking
himself questions like this and is always trying to find an answer. His
curiosity is one of the many great things about this movie.
Word Count: 1, 357 words
Edward in his primitive form.
Quality of the film
Altered States has its fair share
of ups and downs but the movie itself does not disappoint at demonstrating the
abilities of our states of consciousness. What really keeps the viewers wanting
for more is Edward’s curiosity that keeps growing after every scene. His
determination to understand the reality of our states of consciousness makes us
question the same thing and William Hurt does an excellent job portraying this
behavior. Other than Hurt, the other actors do a great job with their
characters as well. For instance, when Mason and Arthur are caught in an
argument, Charles Haid and Bob Balaban put a lot of energy into it to make it
seem as realistic as possible. This makes it seem like they are actually
furious towards each other, with both their lines overlapping one another, it
truly is convincing.
However, certain aspects of the film did not sit right, such as the
special effects, which was easy to write off as fake. The special effects were
poorly handled, but this must be due to the fact that this move is quite dated.
The only advantage of these special effects was that the audience acknowledged
the aggressive and intense special effects of the hallucinations of Edward’s.
It conveys the audience to focus on these hallucinations since it becomes a
huge impact towards Edward’s life. The audience would find the movie very
interesting and a creepy experience due to the hallucinations brought and how
Edward becomes a Primitive Man.
Speaking of the Primitive Man, Edward
evolves into a Primitive Man due to the isolation tank, which was found over
the top. As much it allows the audience to have a creepy experience, it gives
an unusual and strange feeling of how slowly he progresses his transformation. On
one hand, one of members liked the idea of the Primitive Man being created and
how it was an eccentric experience.
According to one of the members, she found it fascinated and exciting as the
Primitive Man flees throughout the town and into the zoo. On other hand, one of
the members disagrees and finds it horrible the way the idea was brought up.
Moreover, she's disgusted by the Primitive Man’s appearance and dislikes the whole
scene of it.
Altered States did a great job with
the movie to give us that sense of realism and since it is handled very well,
it doesn’t disrupt the flow of the movie by distracting us.
Every movie has its weakness and this movie is no different, but that
doesn’t make this movie any less enjoyable than the last.
4.5/5 Stars
Course Connections
1) The state consciousness plays an important role throughout the film.
By definition, it is defined as a quality or state of being able to perceive or
be aware of an external object or something within oneself. Not to mention,
state consciousness is also having different states of consciousness such as
meditating, daydreaming, immersion and etc. During the movie, Edward
experiences the different of consciousness. He mostly daydreams and hallucinates
throughout the movie. For example, when Edward is in the isolation tank, he
floats as he sleeps in the tank and mostly daydreams of what he sees due to the
hallucinogenic drugs. Moreover, the title of the movie is connected towards
this material since Altered States is defined as a state of mind that differs
from the normal state of consciousness, usually used by drugs, hypnosis or
mental disorder. The meaning of the title reinforces back to how the main
character; Dr. Jessup is experiencing these intense hallucinations that allows
him to process through the various states of consciousness.
2) The concept of empiricism claims that our sense experience is the
ultimate source of all our concepts and knowledge. In the film, Edward Jessup
constantly experiments on himself with the use of the isolation tank due to the
experiences he obtains from doing so. During a visit to Mexico, he is
introduced to an indigenous tribe, where he discovers a hallucinogenic drug
created by the tribe during ceremonial ritual. This discovery allowed him to
focus more on his experiments, as he gets closer to uncovering the truth of all
humans. After being transformed into a Primitive Man caused by an excessive use
of the drug, his wife Emily suggested an immediate stop to this experiment as
she worried for Edward’s safety. However, Edward refused to do so and continued
his experiments to gain further knowledge through his observations.
Edwards believes that he is getting closer and closer to unraveling the
answer he’s been seeking by using the isolation tank repeatedly without concern
of his well being. Edward can only know the ultimate truth of existence through
the experiences created from his senses, which is, evidently, the fundamental
aspect of empiricism.
3) When the audience sees Edward evolved into a Primitive Man, you can
observe the huge difference between its primal self and the human form of
Edward. The human form can be example of self-aware self-while the primitive
form becomes an example of core/minimal self. The self-aware self represents
itself and its own consciousness. It is the subject and object of its experience,
which gives a feeling of being a subject inside your head, a locus
consciousness behind your flow of through, to the flow of thoughts and etc. For
instance, Edward experiences these harsh and severe hallucinations as he
documents every image he perceives. Not to mention, he records every research
and examinations he attempts from his study. Besides the self-aware self,
core/minimal self describes at a biological level where the inner model
represents the creature’s own body in its environment. To compare, it is
related to how Edward slowly progressing to evolve into a Primitive Man. During
his whole experience of being a Primitive Man, Edward ends up remembering tiny
details of his journey from the isolation tank to the zoo. It is surprising how
Edward only remembers following a pack of dogs and end up in the zoo whereas he
injured 2 men, beaten the street dogs and devoured a goat from the zoo. At the end, Edward states, “I am a man in
search of his true self how articulate American can you get. Everybody is
looking for their true self. We are all trying to fulfill ourselves, understand
ourselves, get in touch with ourselves, expand ourselves, ever since we
dispense with God we got nothing but ourselves to explain this meaningless
horror of life and I think that that true self, that original self that first
is a real miscible quantifiable thing, tangible and incarnate and I am going to
find the fucker” (24:45 – 25:27).
Questions
1. Humans strive to find a true
meaning of life or a definitive answer to our existence. But is existence and
truth objective or is it subjective to each person?
2. In the last few scenes of the movie, when Emily touched Edward and
started "burning up" like him. Was that all a part of her plan to get
Jessup to finally be able to love, or was it just a coincidence that worked out
in the end?
3. Jessup was successfully able to enter another state of consciousness,
to the point where he even regressed back to a primitive man. If he was able to
do this, could he be able to ascend to a higher being, maybe a god?
Web Links
Edward Jessup has a goal to find other states of consciousness in him.
This article talks about how everyday, regular people actually go through
multiple states of consciousness without noticing. This article might help
readers to understand a bit more on why Jessup was having religious delusions
during intercourse, as one of the states of consciousness, "Rapturous
Consciousness" is usually defined when you're experiencing sexual
satisfaction or converting to a religion, which Jessup may have had a fusion of
in the movie.
In this article, Vice meets with Dr. Berit Brogaard from the University
of Miami, to speak about how memories from our ancestors could be embedded into
us, and these memories help shape us who we are today. This subject of
"being able to relive the memories of your ancestor" has had a big
media boom from installments from the Assassin's Creed video
game series, where you play as multiple protagonists who use a futuristic
machine called an "animus" to "relive" the life of your
ancestors. In the movie, Jessup was able to enter the conscious of a primitive
man. It could be possible that we all could have memories and consciousness of
our ancestors buried deep down in us.
Work Cited
Altered States. Directed by Ken
Russell. Performance by William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, and Charles
Haid. Warner Bros Pictures. 1980. Film.
Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopaedia. Wikimedia
Foundation,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Altered_States Accessed March 13th, 2017
Altered States (1980) Movie Script |
SS." Springfield! Springfield! N.p., n.d. Web. April 18th,
2017
Altered States (1980) IMDb.
IMDb.com, n.d Web. April 19th, 2017
Russell, Directed by Ken. “Spirituality & Practice.” Altered States | Film Reviews | Films | Spirituality & Practice. N.p, n.d. Web April 19th, 2017
Aron. "Home." Difference Between Reality and Truth. N.p., February 5th, 2011. Web. April 22nd, 2017
Gillespie, Katherine. "Can We Access
the Memories of Our Ancestors Through Our DNA?" Vice. N.p., 21 Dec.
2016. Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
"ALTERED STATES OF
CONSCIOUSNESS." Altered States of Consciousness. N.p., n.d.
Web. 23 Apr. 2017.
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