MUSHROOM WITH A VIEW.......TRIPPIN' OVER "ALTERED STATES".......

Altered States (1980)    Now here's one of maybe the weirdest twists of fate in film history.......

              The collision of two people who never, ever should have collaborated on a film.......

               BQ first speaks of Paddy Chayefsky, master screenwriter and playwright ("Marty", "Network", "The Hospital").......possibly the only writer whose stories and dialogue commanded the utmost fidelity and respect from directors and studios........In a Chayefsky film, he was the driving artistic force........and the explosive powerful speeches he crafted for actors often won them Academy Awards......(and a screenwriting Oscars for Chayefsky himself....)

                So how in the world did "Altered States", Chayefsky's witty and typically verbose, modern re-working of "Dr. Jeckyll And Mr. Hyde" end up in the hands of visualist madman director Ken Russell?

               Beats me.  Its like Shakespeare directed by an illiterate.

                 And yet, considering the subject matter, an obsessed scientist (William Hurt) who recklessly explores the very core of the lifeforce itself, you could argue that Ruseell was both the best and worst director for this film.......

                 Who better than Russell to take you on Hurt's magic mushroom-fueled rollercoaster ride into the the dawn of the cosmos......to the very moment when cells coalesce into living things........

                 And who worse then Russell to direct a Paddy Chayefsky script, filled with pages and pages of meticulously crafted, lengthy chunks of dialogue for the actors........(watching this film, you'd be wise to keep a Thesaurus handy.....)

                 Inevitably, Chayefsky washed his hands of the film.......but such was his clout that his contract forbid any directorial tampering with his dialogue......

                 To Chayefsky's horror, Ken Russell found a way around this iron-clad clause.......

                 He simply had Hurt, Blair Brown and other cast members tear through the dialogue at 90 miles an hour.......

                 It's something to see and hear, allright.......the cast delivering their lines like they're tobacco auctioneers.......to fully savor and appreciate Chayefsky's work here, BQ would strongly advise viewers to watch it with the hearing-impaired subtitles on, so you don't miss the essence of the writer's art......

                 Without a doubt, Ken Russell's trippy-dippy stuff is a hell of a guilty pleasure to watch.....(Hurt's immersion into a sensory-deprivation tank turns him into this movie's version of Mr. Hyde, a snarling caveman who wreaks no end of havoc in the lab......)

                 But there's just as much pleasure to be had watching Hurt and company give their all to Chayefsky's exquisitely written lines........even as Russell's forcing them to speak their words like ADD-afflicted pre-schoolers.......

                 A very mixed bag........but I couldn't take my eyes off it for one second......3 stars (***).....BQ guarantees you won't see anything like it.