If there is such a thing as genetic memory, than all the phases of human evolution must lie somewhere in our genetic code. What if there was a way we could tap into that stream of information through consciousness? What would we see? What would we learn? Professor Eddie Jessup (William Hurt in his debut role) is intrigued by the data being produced by the use of isolation tanks to induce altered states of consciousness, and decides to undergo the experience himself. What he discovers at first is the ability to relive with total clarity experiences of his childhood. As he continues these experiments, his visions become more acute and filled with religious illusions. Years go by and Jessup has become sedated with the trappings of academia, leaving him unfulfilled and longing for the good old days of experimentation and wonder. He visits a tribe of Mexican Indians that use a hallucinatory drug to evokes a common experience in all users and has the trip of his life! What might he learn inside an isolation tank while being under the influence of this drug? Would he be able to peel away the layers of evolutionary time back to early man and beyond? Perhaps even back to the first thought? His scientific curiosity will not let him resist this challenge. With Ken Russell's visuals and the incredible musical effects of John Corigliano, this film can be absolutely exhilarating.
I watched this last night. It was weird.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this movie had two distinct halves. The half before Ed goes into the chamber on his own and the part after. In the first half, twice he trips/hallucinates where the result is rapid fire imagery that carried fascinating religious imagery. And even as he thought he had devolved, we were left to wonder if he had actually imagined his physical changes. Also, the effects that this movie pulled off, given that it came out in 1980, were fantastic.
The second half lost me. Revealing Eddie in the monkey-like state removed any collective fear of the unknown. It took away the question of whether or not everything was a hallucination. And the make up/costume work was fine, but really it felt to me like michael jackson's thriller at times. Then, instead of pursuing more religious imagery, the conclusion is that we come from a terrifying nothing, which is where we will eventually return, so best enjoy and love your family now. That's fine, but I would have preferred an ending with more God and hell and fire and damnation at its end, as it would have matched the start better and allowed the director to keep pushing the biblical imagery.
Still, I'm glad to have watched it. Nice to see a movie where the academics are attractive and brave; not like real life where we are pudgy and dweebish.