Videodrome

viewed May 19, 2000 on video

Details

Seminal work by Canadian David Cronenberg, whose films (Naked Lunch, Crash, ExistenZ), though not always pleasant, are always interesting, especially in the visual expression of his metaphors (car crashes as sex, typewriters as anuses, and in this, an early film of his, a man as a walking VCR).  James Woods has a grand time playing an edgy television executive searching for the ultimate hit.  He is entranced by a pirate transmission of what may be a real televised torture and execution, from Pittsburgh of all places.  His search to find the truth about this broadcast leads him deep into a journey through the effects of television both within and without, an experience of anthropomorphic paranoia. He becomes "programmed" by the mysterious powers that have plugged into him through a slot in his stomach that receives videotapes.  A particularly stunning visual -- one that could claim influence over films such as The Terminator, Robocop and The Matrix -- involves a gun growing out of the muscular/mechanical sinews of Woods' hand.  Few directors navigate the line between man and machine quite as doggedly as Cronenberg, and though the results of this particular effort are thematically bewildering, it is always compelling visually.

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