This 1983 classic film paradoxically kept me spellbound and yet totally repulsed me! At times I was compelled to finish watching through my childhood pose of "hand over face peeping through two fingers." (some habits are hard to break) After a term of watching Horror Genre films, I've come to the conclusion that "horror is not my thing!"
"There is nothing real outside our perception of reality" - hmmm....this has become a classic statement somewhat over used by 2012.
Love this one - "The TV screen has become the retina of the mind's eye" - priceless!
And last - "It has a philosophy and that's what makes it dangerous" - speechless!
During the sex scene between Max and Nickie I was uncomfortable with the blood trickling down her neck from the hat pin inserted into her ear....Ouch......Hmmm........take a little bloody S&M, add a dose of soft porn, combine it with a dash of horror, and what do you have--Videodrome
I couldn't quite get me head around this film (no pun intented given some of the scenes of the film).
ReplyDeleteMax is the quintessial sleazy bag, who I just couldn't feel sorry for.
The quasi-government conspiracy was interesting in its premise. Plato would have been happy to see the "artists" rendered useless by thier own need for "art". Undoubtably, the premise of ridding the US of the likes of Max, I can't help but agree.
However, I would never stick a VCR tape (Betamax, no less) into a person. I know this is supposed to be imaginery and the fantasy, but somehow vampires and zombies seemed more believable that this.
The idea is there, and I dare say we are on the path to exactly what is described in this 1980s film. It would be interesting to see what Cronberg would say today given the media saturation we all live with. Are we all in danger of the same fate as Max if we don't learn to unplugg from the system.
Grandfather to Mad Max?
DeleteWhen we wonder whether video games are "good" for us, take a note on who invented the FIRST (official) video game .... (per Brookline National Laboratory)
ReplyDeleteTennis for Two was first introduced on October 18, 1958, at one of the Lab’s annual visitors’ days. Two people played the electronic tennis game with separate controllers that connected to an analog computer and used an oscilloscope for a screen. The game’s creator, William Higinbotham, was a nuclear physicist who had worked on the Manhattan Project and lobbied for nuclear nonproliferation as the first chair of the Federation of American Scientists.
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/history/higinbotham4.asp
We can be pretty sure that even Higinbotham never saw the VCR in the belly thing coming. Ew. Can't say I'll chalk this one up as James Woods' best movie. Although, to quote a famous professor that we know, he literally "chewed up the scenery." It chewed back.
Loved the premise - could have been much more of a psychological thriller in my opinion. Although I must admit, Debra Harry is pretty sexy and this might have worked as a musical as well. No pun intended, but this put a new twist on sex as a form of horror.
I agree that the line is being blurred between reality and entertainment/fiction. Many elements of the film, in particular the O'Blivion character, in his concept of his TV persona being a separate (yet equally alive) entity from himself, reminded me of the current internet and social media trends, where your facebook, twitter, linkedIn, etc. profiles almost have lives of their own. South Park actually did a pretty good episode recently, spoofing the movie Tron, where one of the characters has to do battle with his facebook avatar.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I think The Running Man, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, is another pretty interesting, yet goofier, 80s take on the dangers of television.
The Running Man - a terrific movie. It's goofy, but yet ... Hunger Games "run" along the same lines. Leading right back to Betcinda's comments about morbid curiosity.
ReplyDelete