Altered States
Short description
A Harvard scientist, Eddie Jessup, becomes convinced that altered states of consciousness are as real as everyday experience. Working with sensory deprivation and hallucinogenic substances he obtains in Mexico, he begins testing the limits of the human mind. What starts as controlled research turns into something far more dangerous when he pushes the experiments on himself.
Ken Russell directed the film, the eighth of the fifteen features he made, following Valentino in 1977 and preceding Crimes of Passion in 1984. Paddy Chayefsky wrote the screenplay and Howard Gottfried produced it for Warner Bros. William Hurt plays Professor Eddie Jessup, with Blair Brown as his wife Emily, Bob Balaban as Arthur Rosenberg, and Charles Haid as Mason Parrish. Twenty-seven cast members and seventy crew members are credited.
The film was released in December 1980 and runs 103 minutes. Made for 15 million dollars, it returned about 20 million worldwide at the box office. On IMDb it holds 6.9 out of 10 from roughly 42,000 votes, and on TMDB 6.7 out of 10 from around 797 votes. A critics' score of 6.9 out of 10 from 51 reviews places it close to the audience verdict.
What's left behind the scenes
- John Cunningham Lilly, who invented the sensory deprivation chamber and was the first to think of taking drugs in it, was a professional dolphin researcher.
- The full version of the film has a runtime of 150 minutes.
- According to Ken Russell, 26 other people had been offered the opportunity to direct the film for Warner Bros. before him, but they all declined.
- Screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky (1923-1981) refused to acknowledge this film as being based on his novel of the same name (1978). Although the dialogue in the screenplay was taken from his book almost verbatim, he reportedly disliked the film's overall atmosphere. He constantly clashed with the film's director, Ken Russell, and even refused to watch the film before demanding his name be removed from the credits. Therefore, the screenplay was credited to Sidney Aaron (Chayefsky's first and middle names).
- Objecting to Paddy Chayefsky's constant interference in the filmmaking process, Ken Russell banned him from the set altogether. It is claimed that Chayefsky attempted to oust Russell as director through behind-the-scenes maneuvers, but the film was already too far along in production, and all his attempts failed.
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