Altered States is a 1980 American experimental surrealist science fiction horror film directed by Ken Russell, and adapted by playwright and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky from his 1978 novel of the same name. The novel and the film are based in part on John C. Lilly's sensory deprivation research conducted in isolation tanks under the influence of psychoactive drugs like mescaline, ketamine, and LSD. The film features the elements of body and psychological horror.
Chayefsky withdrew from the project after disputes with Russell and took his name off the credits, substituting "Sidney Aaron", his actual first and middle names. The film stars William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban, and Charles Haid. It marked the film debut of Hurt and Drew Barrymore (in a small role). The film score was composed by John Corigliano and conducted by Christopher Keene.
Warner Bros. gave the film a limited theatrical release in the United States on December 25, 1980, followed by a wide release in February 1981. The film garnered generally positive reviews from critics, and was nominated for Best Original Score and Best Sound at the 53rd Academy Awards.
Plot In 1967, Edward Jessup is a Columbia University psychopathologist studying schizophrenia. He thinks that "our other states of consciousness are as real as our waking states." He begins experimenting with sensory deprivation using a flotation tank, aided by like-minded researchers, Arthur Rosenberg and Mason Parrish. At a faculty party, he meets fellow "whiz kid" and his future wife, Emily.
Over a decade later, Edward is a tenured professor at Harvard Medical School. He and Emily have two daughters and are on the brink of divorce when they reunitefor the first time in seven yearswith the couple who had first introduced them. When Edward hears about the Hinchi tribe, whose members experience shared hallucinatory states, he decides to travel to Mexico in order to participate in their ceremony.
During the climb up into the Hinchi hill country (a plateau covered in spectacular mushroom-shaped ventifacts), Edward is told by his guide, Eduardo Echeverria, that the Hinchi use in their ceremonies a potion containing the sacred mushroom Amanita muscaria and the shrub sinicuiche, which they are collecting for next year's ceremonies. The tribe calls sinicuiche by a Hinchi name meaning "first/primordial flower" in recognition of the deep memory states which it can evoke. An indigenous elder ("the brujo") is seen with a root in his hand, which he asks Edward to hold, before cutting Edward's hand in order to add drops of blood to the mixture he is preparing. Immediately after consuming the mixture, Edward experiences bizarre, intense hallucinations, including one of the petrifaction and subsequent erosion by blown sand of Emily and himself.
The following morning, Edward leaves the Hinchi plateau under a cloud, having killed, while in his intoxicated state, a large specimen of the Hinchi's sacred monitor lizard. He returns to the U.S. with a sample of the Hinchi potion for analysis by his colleagues and further self-experimentation and continues taking it in order to take his exploration of altered states of consciousness to a higher level.
When toxic concentrations of the substance make increased dosage dangerous, Edward returns to sensory deprivation, believing it will enhance the effects of the substance at his current dose. Repairing a disused tank, he uses it to experience a series of increasingly drastic visions, including one of early Hominidae. Monitored by his colleagues, Edward insists that his visions have "externalized". Emerging from the tank, his mouth bloody, frantically writing notes because he is unable to speak, he insists on being X-rayed before he "reconstitutes." A radiologist inspecting the X-rays says they belong to a gorilla.
In later experiments, Edward experiences actual, physical biological devolution. At one stage, he emerges from the isolation tank as a feral and curiously small-statured, light-skinned caveman, going on a rampage in town and breaking into a zoo before returning to his natural form. In the final experiment, he experiences a more profound regression, transforming into an amorphous mass of conscious, primordial matter. An energy wave released from the experiment stuns Edward's colleagues and destroys his tank. Emily recovers and finds a swirling maelstrom where the tank had been. She searches in the vortex for Edward, finding him as he is on the brink of becoming a non-corporeal energy being that will vanish from reality if this transformation reaches its conclusion.
His friends bring Edward home, hoping that the transformations will end. Watched over by Emily, Edward begins to regress uncontrollably, the transformations no longer requiring the intake of "first flower" or sensory deprivation. Urging Edward to fight the change, Emily grabs his hand, being enveloped by the primordial energy emanating from him. The sight of Emily apparently being consumed by the energy stirs the human consciousness in Edward's devolving form. He fights the transformation off by banging repeatedly into the hallway wall and returns to his human form. Edward then grabs Emily's form, and she returns to normal. The movie ends with the two on the floor in a nude embrace as Edward tells Emily that he loves her, which she had longed to hear him say.
Cast
Production Development The film had its origins with a meeting Paddy Chayefsky had with his friends Bob Fosse and Herb Gardner at the Russian Tea Room in 1975. They were feeling "disgruntled" and as a joke conceived a movie they could make together. They wanted to pitch something to Dino De Laurentiis, who was making King Kong. After discussing a version of Frankenstein they decided to do a version of Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde. Chayefsky went home and wrote a three-page "dramatic statement and I have never seen something come together so fast."The man who took a scientist's approach to the novel. The Guardian 23 May 1978: 8.
Chayefsky decided to write a serious film on the American scientific community and the archetypal man in his search for his true self. A producer at Columbia Pictures, Daniel Melnick, suggested that Chayefsky turn a treatment he had written into a novel first, and he agreed. He did extensive research with scientists and anthropologists. The novel was published in early 1978.book notes: A First Novel for Chayefsky. Lochte, Dick. Los Angeles Times 26 Feb 1978: m2. As was the case with his previous films, Chayefsky was granted full creative control over the film version of Altered States.
Film rights were sold to Melnick, who had greenlit Network while the head of production at MGM, and who had a deal with Columbia.
In April 1978, Chayefsky turned in his script to Columbia.On the Leigh Side of Berenson. Mann, Roderick. Los Angeles Times 11 Apr 1978: e7. In June 1978, Melnick became the head of production at Columbia, but under his deal, he was still allowed to produce Altered States.Melnick Named President Of Columbia Pictures: Wry About the News 'On Side of the Artist'. By ALJEAN HARMETZ, The New York Times, 2 June 1978: D3. Melnick wound up resigning in October, taking Altered States with him.FILM CLIPS: Melnick Resigns Columbia Post. Kilday, Gregg. Los Angeles Times25 Oct 1978: f9.
Production For the final transformation sequence a computer-assisted rotoscope system was created, which produced smooth movements without jitter or objectionable outline. The glow and particles were made on a computer. The frames were first manually traced with an electronic pen and transferred to a tablet. For more complex scenes a high-resolution scanner was used. When finished, a digital plotter would draw the frames in black and white on frosted mylar animation cels. The cels were then photographed on a computer-controlled animation stand. An optical printer added the colors, requiring multiple passes with color filtration and separate mattes.
Casting The film's original director was Arthur Penn. He cast the movie, including the relatively unknown leads William Hurt (in his first movie) and Blair Brown.RODERICK MANN: Beauty as a 4-Letter Word--Blob Los Angeles Times 4 Jan 1979: g14. At one point, Scott Glenn was a contender for the male lead.MOVIES: FINDING KETCHUM, GLENN FOUND HIMSELF. Mills, Bart. Los Angeles Times 30 Jan 1983: k26. Another key role went to Bob Balaban. Miguel Godreau, a dancer and teacher with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, was cast as Jessup's caveman incarnation.
Change of director Filming was to begin in November 1978. However, during rehearsals Penn resigned after a dispute with Chayefsky. Penn later recalled that the only way he could leave the project and get paid for his work was to be fired. But he and Chayefsky remained friends thereafter.
The eventual director was Ken Russell, who had struggled to find feature film work since the box office failure of Valentino (1977). Russell later recalled that "they wanted a director who has a very visual imagination, and they knew I had that." or
Russell later said his agent told him directors who had turned down the project included Steven Spielberg, Stanley Kubrick, Sydney Pollack, Robert Wise, and Orson Welles. He says his agent told him he was the twenty-seventh choice.Russell p 190 Filming was then set to begin in March 1979 for Columbia with Howard Gottfried as producer.Melnick, of Columbia, Takes a Film to Warner: No Auction Held. By ALJEAN HARMETZ, The New York Times, 18 Feb 1979: 65 The film would eventually be done for Warner Bros, in part because the cost rose from an original budgeted $9 million to $12.5 million.Floating Altered Melnick's State: MOVIE NEWS. Mann, Roderick. Los Angeles Times 20 Nov 1979: f10. It would eventually come in at just under $15 million, with $4 million of that going on special effects.
Russell later replaced special effects expert John Dykstra with Bran Ferren, who is credited for Special Visual Effects in the front titles, and created the VFX actually used in the film.Altering 'States'. Yakir, Dan. Film Comment; New York Vol. 17, Iss. 1, (Jan/Feb 1981): 52-55 Dick Smith worked on the groundbreaking special makeup effects, which made extensive use of his pioneering air bladder technique.
It was the first time Russell had made a film in Hollywood. He later said, "I thought I would hate Hollywood, but I rather liked it. Everyone there is supposed to be terribly materialistic, but Altered States was the first movie I ever worked on where nobody—not Warner Bros., not Dan Melnick, the executive producer, or Howard Gottfried, the producer—ever mentioned money."
Locations The film was shot at Sunset Gower Studios, Burbank Studios, Boston, and New York City. On-location filming locations included Harvard Medical School, Beacon Hill, Logan International Airport, Columbia University, the Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, and the Bronx Zoo. Additionally, scenes set in Mexico were filmed on location in Creel, Chihuahua, and included real-life footage of Tarahumara people collecting psychotropic mushrooms.
Conflict between Russell and Chayefsky There were three weeks of rehearsals in March 1979, during which Chayefsky and Russell had a massive dispute. The writer left the project and did not appear on set during filming, contrary to his normal practice.Russell Films 'Altered States'. Los Angeles Times 19 July 1979: e17.Russell p 192-208