| Altered States (1980)
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| Front Cover |
Actor |
Back Cover |
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| William Hurt |
Professor Eddie Jessup
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| Bob Balaban |
Arthur Rosenberg
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| Blair Brown |
Emily Jessup
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| Charles Haid |
Mason Parrish, Professor of Endocrinology at Harvard Medical School
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| Thaao Penghlis |
Prof. Eduardo Eccheverria at University of Mexico
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| Miguel Godreau |
Primal Man
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| Dori Brenner |
Sylvia Rosenberg
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| Peter Brandon |
Alan Hobart
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| Charles White-Eagle |
The Brujo, Hindris Indian
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| Drew Barrymore |
Margaret Jessup
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| Plot |
| It's easy to understand why the late, great screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky removed his name from the credits of Altered States and substituted the pseudonym Sidney Aaron. After all, Chayefsky was a revered dramatist whose original source novel was intended as a serious exploration of altered consciousness, inspired by the immersion-tank experiments of Dr. John Lilly in the 1970s. In the hands of maverick director Ken Russell, however, Altered States became a full-on sensory assault, using symbolic imagery and mind- blowing special effects to depict one man's physical and hallucinatory journey through the entire history of human evolution. It's a brazenly silly film redeemed by its intellectual ambition--a dazzling extravaganza that's in love with science and scientists, and eagerly willing to dive off the precipice of rationality to explore uncharted regions of mind, body, and spirit. William Hurt made his bold film debut as the psycho-physiologist who plays guinea pig to his own experiments; Blair Brown plays his equally brilliant wife, whose devotion is just strong enough to bring him back from the most altered state imaginable. From the eternal channels of sense memory to the restorative power of a loving embrace, this movie rocks you to the birth of the universe and back again. And while it's clearly not the story that Chayefsky wanted on the screen, the directorial audacity of Ken Russell makes it one heck of a memorable trip. --Jeff Shannon |
| Movie Details |
| Genre |
Drama; Fantasy; Horror; Sci-Fi |
| Director |
Ken Russell |
| Producer |
Howard Gottfried |
| Writer |
Sidney Aaron; Paddy Chayefsky |
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| Studio |
Warner Bros. |
| Country |
USA
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| Language |
English |
| Audience Rating |
R |
| Running Time |
103 mins |
| Movie Release Date |
12/25/1980 |
| Color |
Color |
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| Personal Details |
| Format |
DVD |
| Seen It |
No |
| Index |
527 |
| Collection Status |
In Collection |
| Purchase Date |
9/24/2005 |
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| Product Details |
| Region |
 Region 1 |
| Screen Ratio |
 Standard 1.33:1 Color
 Widescreen 1.85:1 Color (Anamorphic) |
| Layers |
Dual Side, Single Layer |
| UPC (Barcode) |
085391107620 |
| Chapters |
31 |
| Release Date |
6/1/2004 |
| Subtitles |
English; French |
| Packaging |
Snap Case |
| Audio Tracks |
 ENGLISH: Dolby Digital 5.1 [CC]
FRENCH: Dolby Digital Surround |
| Nr of Disks/Tapes |
1 |
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Extra Features
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| Color Closed-captioned Widescreen Dolby |
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