Videodrome
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Movie Reviews of Videodrome
Movie Review: The best movie of the early 80's
Summary: 5 Stars
The best movie of the early 80's, for it's vision, for it's philosophy, for it's images and ideas, Videodrome is my favourite David Cronenberg movie, along with Crash and Naked Lunch.Movie Review: Virtuality and Videodrome
Summary: 4 Stars
Videodrome is a good movie.
I'm not here to write Cronenberg hero worship. There is enough of that here.
I don't aim to delve into the sterile observations on the darker side of humanity. I think others here have indulged that aspect of the film to exhaustion. After all, psychoanalyzing the depth of human depravity, and the way TV and mass-culture desensitizes us was hardly a revolutionary concept, even in 1983. Cronenberg obviously toys with the audience as Brian O'Blivion plays with Jame Woods' character Max, when he says:
- "Why would anybody watch a scum show like Videodrome?
- Why did you watch it, Max?
- Business reasons.
- Sure, Sure."
We're all just detached observers, right?
But this is all well treaded ground.
For all the touting of its special effects, the mundane objects of its fetishism- CRT picture tubes and VCR tapes, are decidedly dated and the movie will feel dated when you watch it. Possibly because the presentation is contextually in the low-fi analog past, a large part of its mesage seems to be lost on many viewers:
What even constitutes reality?
The quantum leap that a hyper-real projected reality will have, when we are no longer simply "observers" of the screen, but immersed in this video world where the real and the unreal are perceptively indistinguishable. This will change us as a society, as a civilization, even as a species.
Videodrome introduces a headset device:
- "Here she is. This is our prototype.
- This is the little number that started it all.
- Max, I would like you to try this on for size."
I will give away part of the movie here- at one point Max never takes the apparatus, the headgear, off (Note the similarity to the plot device used in 2001's Vanilla Sky.). Is this machine really "recording" Max's hallucinations or creating them? From this point forward, Max is stuck in his own virtual world, created from his own mind, and whatever sensory input Spectacular Optical's device is projecting- the infamous "signal", of course. Is it real? Where does the line blur? Is it just one hypothetical future for Max? If it's all projection, does this make it less real? If it is believed to be real by Max, is there really any difference? If other reviewers seemed to have overlooked a central point of the movie, does that mean it doesn't exist?
1983, Videodrome's Brian O'Blivion:
- "After all, there is nothing real outside our perception of reality, is there?"
1999, The Matrix's Morpheus:
- "What is real? How do you define real? If you're talking about your senses, what you feel, taste, smell, or see, then all you're talking about are electrical signals interpreted by your brain."
Videodrome foresaw the kind of fully-immersive virtual reality that we are just now beginning to see hints come into being with video game headset consoles and the like. William Gibson's Neuromancer, which coined the term "cyberspace", wasn't published until a year later.
1983 also saw the cinematic release of Brainstorm, which covered some parallel territory. Though exceptionally different in tone and presentation, these two movies make for good contemporary juxtapositions to one another.
I do recommend this movie.
Movie Review: Television is reality, and reality is less than television
Summary: 4 Stars
They say you either love or hate this rather bizarre offering from 1983, but I found myself somewhat indifferent as Videodrome approached its conclusion. To my mind, the final third of the story is ultimately too haphazard, esoteric, and too consciously horror-driven to clearly express the themes worked into the heart of the film. It's easy to read a lot into this film, but that's as much of a credit to the viewer as it is to the filmmakers.
Still, Videodrome is certainly a fascinating, unique film that compels the viewer to contrast the interplay between video and real life in our increasingly technological age. By 1983, most people were already seeing life through a television screen - TV defined the news, fashion, the latest fads, etc. In the movie, TV plays as integral a part as food and comfort in the rehabilitation of the homeless taken in at the Cathode Ray Mission run by Dr. O'Blivion (Jack Creley). Rather than paint the television as a soul-draining maker of brain-dead zombies, Videodrome forges its way down an even more frightening path, where television is used as a potential weapon on the masses.
James Woods plays Max Renn, a rather sleazy cable operator who depends on shocking television shows to keep his little station up and running. He discovers many of his shows through satellite piracy, and that is just how Videodrome first comes to his attention. He is fascinated with the show, which features nothing but torture and abuse of individuals, especially women, with no sign of a plot anywhere behind it. It's just the kind of shocking new thing he's after, and so he begins searching for its source. His prurient interest in such violent material is enhanced by his current girlfriend, Nicki Brand (Deborah Harry), who is so into S&M that she vows to audition for Videodrome herself. Before long, Max begins hallucinating, and his efforts to discover the source of Videodrome become, at the same time, a desperate attempt to maintain his sanity if not physical life. The show isn't rotting his brain, but it is physically changing it, and therein lies the unheralded danger of this example of reality TV taken to the extreme.
All of this works beautifully for the first hour, but I just feel the psychology of the story is ultimately sacrificed in the name of horror, as the special effects force something of a disconnect between the viewer and the film. At least in my case, this robbed this otherwise perversely fascinating film of much of its power.
Movie Review: Long live the new flesh!
Summary: 4 Stars
Max Renn (James Woods) runs a cable station that specializes in showing what most stations wouldn't, soft core, hardcore, ... etc. In the competitive market of cable programming, he fills a niche, and makes a profit. He justifies what he shows as an act of social consciousness, believing he's providing an outlet for people to get what they want, instead of going out in the streets and finding it themselves. He's looking for the next big thing, and he thinks he's found it in a program called Videodrome.Videodrome, appearing simplistic at first, shows scenes of graphic torture and murder. After further investigation, questions come up about the reality of the scenes portrayed, and this leads to the tip of a conspiracy and the real secret behind Videodrome.
Deborah Harry plays a radio talk show host Nikki Brand. Nikki and Max meet on a television panel show, and Max pursues a relationship with her. While together, Max learns of Nikki's preference towards S&M, and, while watching a pirate copy of Videodrome, Nikki decides she wants to take a more participatory role in the program rather than just viewing it.
Nikki disappears, and the lines of reality begin to blur, Max is deluged with hallucinations, ranging from his television set coming alive, a gaping maw opening in his stomach, to a gun that integrates itself into his hand. The weirdness spills forth, as Max tries to keep his tenuous grip on reality.
While some may be put off initially by this movie and it's confusing themes, it really does merit repeated viewing. It's definitely a puzzle, and all the pieces are there, it's just a matter of putting it together. There is a fair bit of gore and surreal imagery, including the extra bit when Covex shows his 'new flesh' after a dramatic encounter with Renn. I don't think this scene was in the VHS version.
I didn't really go into many details of this movie, as I would rather someone watch without a lot of preconceptions, and come to their own conclusions. Thought is required, so bring your brain...long live the new flesh!
Movie Review: Here's the Deal...
Summary: 4 Stars
I own Scanners, Dead Zone, Videodrome, and The Fly. Overall, I like these movies, but they all have one thing in common for sure, and that is they all start out good and have a good idea, but by the end of the movie, you are like, "What was that?" or "Why didn't they go this way with the film?" For example, "Scanners", the guy had the ability to do what he could do, but didn't use it convincingly or very well. I felt Ironside in that movie should have been the good guy, not the bad guy, which he played very well I might add. The last scene where him and his brother have a scan off, his transformation was very intense. It could have been used as his comeback on a bad guy, the ultimate Michael Ironside Scan. And with "Videodrome", how cutting edge and creepy it was until he started having the hallucinations(?), then it got way too out of control and over the top, which I've come to expect from a Cronenberg film. But it would have been even better had they kept the over-the-top sci-fi stuff out and made it about the cable company broadcasting such trashy stuff and maybe finding out it was real death they were watching. That could have been the mystery. Finding out where this was going on. They should have stuck with the whole "snuff" t.v./ S&M stuff.
I watched Videodrome last night and was really really into it, until he lost his gun in his stomach, the gun grew into his hand sometimes, and sometimes it wasn't. If you buy this, don't get Criterion version, you might be disappointed. But this release for like 8 or 10 bucks is well worth it, especially for Cronenberg fans. I do believe I'm done buying Cronenberg for now though. I might get "Naked Lunch" or "Dead Ringers". David Lynch movies will be my next project.
My favorite Cronenberg, in order is...Haven't seen any others....
1. The Dead Zone
2. Videodrome
3. Scanners
4. The Fly