Videodrome
1983 Directed by David Cronenberg
Synopsis
First it controls your mind. Then it destroys your body.
A sleazy cable-TV programmer begins to see his life and the future of media spin out of control in a very unusual fashion when he acquires a new kind of programming for his station.
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Film Number 12 on PinHeadLarry145's 30 Days 30 Countries Film Challenge!
Canada, 1983.
Well geez...
That wasn't what I was expecting at all.
Well I guess that's half a lie. I completely expected some gory practical effects, mind bending scenes and tons of "wtf" moments. And I got them. What I didn't expect was how the film handled all of that intelligently, and it had an underlying warning beneath it all. Videodrome appears to be a trippy mindfuck on the outside but its far more intelligent than it lets on. And it's filled with early David Cronenberg greatness.
The film follows a slimy Canadian television producer named Max. He is played out to his slickest potential thanks to the great…
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This is perhaps Cronenberg's most inaccessible film. It refuses to be defined and to be holed up in a genre. It is a mesmerising, frightening and hallucinatory trip into the abyss of man's mind.
Strangely enough, this film, which I consider to be one of his best, showcases his strength and his weakness really well. He is not the best storyteller, but he certainly is one of the best directors who can create tense and unnerving atmospheres.
The first time I watched this I couldn't make heads nor tails of it, but watching it was still a uniquely disturbing and fascinating experience. The oppressive and continuous sense of wrongness is evoked really well. This has a lot to do with…
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I think I can safely say that this film is very thought-provoking. It raises a great many questions, such as, "what is Cronenberg trying to say about modern society's relationship to media?" or, "why is there a vagina growing on James Woods's lower abdomen?"
No, Videodrome isn't for everyone. But at least it doesn't pretend to be. Videodrome is an eerie, surreal, and, in this day and age, relatable tale about the controlling powers of TV on people mentally (and, supposedly, physically.) If you're up for this kind of mind-bending existential horror kind of thing, Videodrome comes with my stamp of approval.
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um.. What? This is one trippy film.
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Part of the December Project: Film #45
After sitting through A Dangerous Method last night, I figured I should go back and take a look at David Cronenberg at his best with Videodrome
It's pretty great how despite its use of technology that is no longer really relevant, Videodrome remains socially relevant as a commentary of violence in the media and its effect on people.
Cronenberg does this by blurring reality and fantasy in this film. Like James Woods, the audience is never really sure what is real or hallucination, and at one point we come to accept that anything can happen in this film, just as James Woods accepts that anything can happen in his world.
This dreamlike aspect, along with all the body horror and sexuality that just gets under your skin, is why I love Cronenberg, and why Videodrome might be his best film.
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OK so I'm now 2 films into the older/weirder Cronenberg flicks, and I'm starting to think that maybe his early work is just not for me.
After watching Naked Lunch recently and thinking it was OK at best I decided the next film I'd try would be Vidoedrome. I'd read mostly positive reviews and it's one of Cronenberg's more popular body horror films. I must say I did like this one better than Naked Lunch, but overall much like Naked Lunch it just didn't work for me. Obviously the story is strange, but that's not my issue, my issue is the story just didn't grab me and pull me in. There's stuff I liked for sure, the effects look really…
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"The battle for the mind of North America will be fought in the video arena: the Videodrome. The television screen is the retina of the mind's eye. Therefore, the television screen is part of the physical structure of the brain. Therefore, whatever appears on the television screen emerges as raw experience for those who watch it. Therefore, television is reality, and reality is less than television."
- Brian O'BlivionThis quote seems to resume most of what Videodrome is about. An intense critic to the television culture and an ingenius scientific fictional story, that stays in the border of both psychological and physical horror, mostly expressed by the vivid hallucinations in its most basic concept, of corporal experiences caused by…
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Inquietante y profética.
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so many things to say about this movie. so little time.
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Film Number 12 on PinHeadLarry145's 30 Days 30 Countries Film Challenge!
Canada, 1983.
Well geez...
That wasn't what I was expecting at all.
Well I guess that's half a lie. I completely expected some gory practical effects, mind bending scenes and tons of "wtf" moments. And I got them. What I didn't expect was how the film handled all of that intelligently, and it had an underlying warning beneath it all. Videodrome appears to be a trippy mindfuck on the outside but its far more intelligent than it lets on. And it's filled with early David Cronenberg greatness.
The film follows a slimy Canadian television producer named Max. He is played out to his slickest potential thanks to the great…
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Well that was...... odd.
I get the message loud and clear - don't watch anything broadcasting from Pittsburgh.
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"Techno-surrealism," eh?
It's got a pretty easily grasp-able message inspired by Cronenberg's experience of Marshall McLuhan at the University of Toronto - heck, almost seems like the history and ideology is more interesting than the film itself. Decent special effects and soundtrack, but nothing super groundbreaking. The ability to film television screens with a camera was apparently fairly difficult in '83, so props to whoever figured out how to do it without CGI or post-processing.
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Look... this movie is just crazy. Honestly, I've seen it at least 20 times and I still don't think it makes a lick of sense, but the visuals, the subject matter, everything about it is so deliciously addictive to watch... One of those films that had a resurgence on video, after a lackluster theatrical run.
Rick Baker's effects are (for the most part) quite good in this one, but the high-resolution of the Blu-ray really shows how fake the gun melding to the hand sequence really is.
Anyway, Cronenberg is a master and this film is one of his best.
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Epic experience. Amazing ideas. Holds true even today!