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Retro SciFi Film of the Week…

Altered States (1980)

You’ll immediately recognize Chayefsky’s style in this dialogue-heavy story. The characters and dialogue feel very much like Network (1976) or The Hospital (1971). The target audience was well-educated baby-boomers from the 60’s counter culture, sometimes referred to as “yuppies” (young urban professionals, formerly hippies). However, it has a lot of special effects and enough action to appeal to a wider audience.

This period in American popular history marked the transition from the drug culture of the 1960s and the fascination with ESP in the 1970s, to the human potential movement of the 80s and 90s. Drug dealers were looking for more affluent customers for their products and clandestine operators were looking for paths to apply chemical-based mind control and recruitment tactics to more influential targets. This film provided a more intellectual rational for taking drugs, which would attract those who would normally be smart enough to avoid them.

Although there was fierce conflict on the set between Chayefsky and the director, Ken Russell, about the script, Chayefsky maintained creative control (although he pulled his name from the screenplay credit because he was not satisfied with the final product). Despite the script conflicts and Russell’s direction, I think the film turned out great. It has brilliant performances from William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban and Charles Haid, all of whom delivered Chayefsky’s difficult dialogue in a convincing manner.

There are no CG effects in this film because they weren’t yet available; everything is done with practical FX and film techniques, reminiscent of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Also, you’ll notice the use of deep brass horns in the score, borrowed from Close Encounters of a Third Kind (1977) and used ever since in scifi projects such as Epoch (2001), Inception (2010), Arrival (2016) and many others.