Rating: 
Summary: Mad scientists in love
Review: Does it matter that some of the science is inaccurate in this picture? I say no. This is not a documentary: it is a piece of speculative fiction, and so it's not required to be completely accurate. It may tweak a few facts to deliver the speculative story it wants to deliver. The thing that matters is that, in the final analysis, it delivers its story very well.In essence, this is nothing more than an old fashioned Hollywood monster film, but set in academia. The film captures very well a sense of scientific and academic excitement. Here are scholars not toiling through the drudgery of academia but on the cusp of completely unknown scientific ground - of actual science - and their excitement and fear transfer quite well to the viewer. That there's a ghost of actual scientific history about the story adds a dash of credibility. What I like best in the film is captured by Jessup saying that schizophrenics may be physically different from others - as if they are trying to physically externalize their schizophrenic image of themselves. Jessup had rejected religion, probably in favor of evolution (under the theory that it's an either-or proposition). He is also many times described as "at least a little crazy" himself. When he begins to experience imagery, it corresponds to the theory of evolution and of "genetic memory." Thus, at his physical transformation, we are left pondering: is he downloading genetic memory, or is he just externalizing the semi-schizophrenic image of himself? The movie puts the "speculation" in speculative fiction. Add to this a sweet love story, and you get a lot of fun - moreso than in just an ordinary horror movie way. This is a horror movie that gets you to enjoy thinking. There are precious few movies that do this, and I feel sorry for people who have to reject the movie **in its entirety** simply because a few details regarding flotation chambers and plants are inaccurate. I think they miss the point.
Rating:
Summary: Break on through, yeah
Review: Altered States of Consciousness is actually a field of study. And though it is not really considered a science(not yet anyway) there is a body of work on the subject and it is taught at universities. I took the course at UCSB in '83 and it is an impossibly murky subject. First though I saw this film and still love it. Ken Russell is not interested in science obviously and though the phrases used like "ancient memories", and "primitive regression", and "genetic regression" sound good the frontiers of consciousness are impossible to chart. The science of psychology remains a hopelessly subjective one. But this film takes some of its concepts and brings them to life, quite literally by having the body undergo physical changes that coincide with different psychic states. Thus altered states as an empirical science is born, at least for the film it is. Psychic experience can not be filmed, but the effects the minds journey has on the body can be. Great concept, makes for a great visual experience. Using a sensory deprivation tank and some Mexican mushrooms William Hurt takes you on a visual journey to the origins of consciousness. And in so doing every system of belief is deconstructed(myth, religion)until there is nothing left but naked man staring at matter. Hurt is searching for ultimate truth but it seems there is no ultimate truth, no source of consciousness, just regression to more primal forms and even further regression to mere matter or energy and this realization is what brings Hurt back from the perilous extremes of his researches and into full contact for the first time with his own temporal life and love. A wild ride. 79 was apparently the year of the Doors. Apocalypse Now used The End to great effect, and this film uses Light My Fire. The song is playing while the academics harmlessly enjoy a little mother nature at the beginning of the film. By films end the doors of perception have been slammed wide open. Almost expected to see William Hurt wearing leather pants at some point but that may have been too obvious. Great film for speculative thinkers and those who enjoy an occasional wild ride in the scifi / horror genre.
Rating: 
Summary: This is SUCH a stupid movie.
Review: I'm not going to waste a lot of time reviewing this groaner. It's just awful and annoying all around. The moth-eaten story is patently undigestible to anyone with even an iota of knowledge about the laws of nature and science. The performances turned in by Hurt and Brown go way too far into melodrama in the actors' attempts to bring some kind of interest to their otherwise completely unlikeable characters. The dialogue between all the primary players is consistently pretentious and unrealistic. The special effects (even for 1980) look much more like an offering from an unimaginative film student than something approved by a longtime filmmaker like Russell. I would have said that this film deserved zero stars, but one factor does make the film viewable to a select audience even if it isn't digestible by the masses. If you're a fan of William Hurt, turn the sound off and fast-forward to the nude scenes Mr. Hurt provides. His physical beauty was exquisite at this point in his career and is definitely worth seeing. ALTERED STATES is the pinnacle of pseudo-intellectual self-gratifying Ken Russell cheese. With so many other great films out there to watch, why waste your time on this refuse?
Rating:
Summary: To The Ft. Lauderdale Reviewer
Review: Amanita muscaria generally grows in rainy areas under coniferous trees. It has historically been used by North Americans, European, Siberian peoples,(not those of central and south america who have other forms of psychedelic plants, ie ayahuasca, psilocybin mushroom, saliva divinorum, etc). Even if it were plausible that these were amanita mushrooms, do you think that this type of trip would have been likely....losing consciousness...to the point that you dont remember what happened during the trip? I dont think so...only someone utterly ignorant of the effects of psychedelics would posit such a thing. So, that part is not realistic at all. Neither is the sensory deprivation tank (I have also used these types of tanks). The idea is complete sensory deprivation...Not speaking with someone while engaged in the experience!
Rating: 
Summary: The Devils is the Ken Russel's Masterpiece
Review: Its a sci- fi classic, but no like 2001, Clockwork Orange, etc... Its very accesible, and the end is very cheesy(happy end, love can make miracles and crap like that), however the dream secuences are incredibles, and the religious imagery are very Russelian. If you want entertainment, watch Altered States, if you are lookin for art, look for the Devils, the real Ken Russel's Masterpiece
Rating:
Summary: Amanita experiences are the key.
Review: I must write in order to dispel the confusion and poor research done by one of the reviewers who says that this film is poorly researched. I don't think the guy 'Thomas Seay' even watched the film. This is not about Psilocybe mushrooms but about Amanita muscaria experiences. This is clearly stated in the film if you actually watch it. The experiences are astonishinly well depicted in the film and one familiar with these mushrooms, in the first hand sense, will back this up. There are multiple plot lines and stories within the film and these can get quite deep. The way researchers are viewed by their colleagues, the social excitement of the discovery, the importance of cultural and religious programming coming up in the visions. All of the films explorations are well done, well acted, credible within the context of real life and the film is entertaining to boot. Great visuals which are correct in the context of visuals associated with these mushrooms. An excellent work of art and science.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine visual feast marred by interface
Review: It was a delight to see the full-screen version and the transcription is fine with the audio much-improved. Freeze-frame allows you to see the details of the montage work in the psychedelic sequences which is a bonus. No director's second audio soundtrack and a miserably poor user interface for navigation reduces my rating but I still enjoyed the movie.
Rating:
Summary: Passionate and haunting
Review: I never understood why Altered States fell into obscurity. Passionate and, at times, awe-inspiring, Altered States revolves around Dr. Eddie Jessup and his fanatical obsession with unlocking, well, the secret of life. This is the journey of a man, who is both a dangerous egomaniac and a well meaning soul, searching for an unfathomable answer. His mixture of obsession and intellect is so great it's difficult to decide whether or not to cheer him or want him committed to psychiatric care. William Hurt, who play's Dr. Jessup, is simply brilliant in his debut. Though awkwardly paced, Altered States provokes a sense of horror and fascination that is nothing short of haunting. After a trip to Mexico, during which Jessup hallucinates from taking drugs with a native tribe, he brings back this substance to attempt documenting the crazy visions that began in the desert, with the aid of an isolation tank. From there, the film spirals into Dr. Jessup's near fatal attempt at contacting his primordial self. Although dated by today's digital technology, the drug-induced episodes, with their nightmarish images, remain compelling. Altered States, to its credit, was not intended to question an existence of God so much as to visually communicate a tortured mind coming to terms with a certain amount of necessary ignorance about his life's purpose. There are no pedantic metaphors to be found here, only a man and his struggle agianst a truly deep fear. After twenty years, Altered States still packs a punch.
Rating:
Summary: Lon Chaney Meets Reefer Madness
Review: The synopsis on the jacket was promising: "Research Scientist Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) believes other states of consciousness are as real as everyday reality. Using sensory deprivation, then adding powerful, hallucinogenic drugs, he explores these altered states" This is a subject that intrigues me, so I really looked forward to viewing this film. I was disappointed. It is evident that the writer did no or little research on the topic. Professor Jessup takes a mushroom used by a mexican tribe (presumably based on the tribes that Robert Wasson investigated in the late 50s whose ceremony centers around eating a psilocybin mushroom). None of this is realistic...he goes on a fantastic trip and completely loses consciousness of everday reality (which is not how it happens)...he drinks the mushroom from a brew (looks like they got mushroom use mixed up with ayahuasca...there were the cosmic serpents to boot!), he kills a lizard and does not remember it. He also experiments with sensory deprivation using the John Lily floatation tanks...However, he can speak to the lab assistants outside the tank...which does not make it "sensory deprivation" does it? During one of the hallucinatory experiences, he discovers that he can exteriorize the "trip" and he starts to have some kind of morpho-genetic changes....namely he becomes some kind of early hominid, escapes from the lab and finally ends up in a zoo, where he kills and eats one of the zoo's sheep. He eventually changes back to his normal state. On another trip, he regresses to the cellular level and then goes on further to become the Big Bang. I dont know if the director Ken Russel intended it that way, but this movie is as full of misinformation about the psychedelic experience as "Reefer Madness" was about marijuana. It is equally misinformed about Floatation Tanks. While I found this film to be ridiculous, poorly researched and a candidate for Drug War Film of the Year, it could be fine comical relief for a group in a college dormitory looking for a good laugh. Thomas Seay
Rating:
Summary: Nice DVD Remaster of Award-Winning Sci-Fi w/ Great Cast!
Review: A sci-fi favorite of mine, this Academy Award winning film had fallen into obscurity on the video shelves, but is now back with all its original impact in a sharp, well-colored remaster with a brilliant digital 5.1 rendering of the Oscar-winning soundtrack. Ken Russell directs one of his more accessible films (compared to, say, THE DEVILS) based on the novel by Paddy Chayefsky, who, in a move remeniscent of Stephen King on THE SHINING, had his name taken off this movie because he didn't like the director's interpretation of his subject matter. The film boasts a high-quality cast of young actors from William Hurt in his major film debut to John LaRocquette in the small role of an X-ray technician. Whoever cast this knew whom to select from the period's roster of young talent. Charles Haid, frankly, has never been more impressive as the fast-talking and brilliant skeptic and Bob Balaban is outstanding and self-assured in the role of the supportive friend who forgives Hurt his eccentricities but worries that he may be going crazy. Blair Brown is sexy and appealing and frequently nude as Hurt's just-as-brainy wife anthropologist, and one of the most interesting aspects of this movie is the dialog between these two intellects from the moment they first begin their sizzling sexual liason through their matter-of-fact decision to marry, then divorce, then finally redeem their relationship -- while nearly losing Hurt's character to his high-risk experiments. Among other interesting subplots is Hurt's spiritual ambiguity since his father's fearful death, Hurt's notion that schizophrenia and related conditions may be "altered states" rather than diseases, Blair Brown's pragmatic decision to love Hurt's character, and marry him, despite the fact that he appears not to be wired to love her in return. For the sci-fi fan there is the once-removed-from-reality premise that man may be able to physically alter his reality through changes in consciousness, whether via the isolation tanks Hurt utlizes in his experiments, or through complex hallucinogenic drugs he researches after an experience with an obscure indian tribe in Mexico. The special effects and the special make-up for Hurt's "throwback" missing link are first rate for their time and still look fairly stunning today. One of the things that impresses me about this movie is that the hallucinatory sequences, while wowing us in a post-psychedelic kind of way, also make sense in terms of the protagonist's life and experience; far more than just kaleidoscopes, the content of the montages are grounded in the story, rather than detouring us from it with eye candy. Ken Russell's religious viewpoint plays a part in the choice of imagery here, but the symbols of crucifixion, the beast and the Bible do not seem intrusive or sensational because they fit seamlessly with the Hurt character's internal struggle. For the student of sociology, this movie offers a peek into the "turned on" 60s idea that drug experiences actually led somewhere -- a notion we now know to be tragically false. But at one time there was speculation that some drugs "expanded the mind" and deepened the life experience, either in terms of increasing one's understanding of the meaning of life or in some fashion maturing one's personality. The only reason this movie still works today is because the movie makes clear that in some tribes, there are substances that are traditionally and successfully used in spiritual rituals, and it is one of these that Hurt uses, in combination with sensory deprivation techniques, to try to get in touch with his own "genetic memory", for lack of a better term. Again, this movie has much to recommend it, and the DVD release makes possible an experience in the home viewing much like we enjoyed in the theater on first run. Popularly priced, I snapped it up without hesitation for my collection and was rewarded with a very nice presentation of an old favorite. Not much in the way of extras here, just trailers and some text screens for cast, crew and background, but it's still a value, and you get to see the whole 1:1.85 image.
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