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The commentary on the potential effects of video/violence and pornography is fascinating and in typical Cronenberg style, it all ends badly with much gore and violence. Extremely thought provoking and perhaps even more relevant today, in light of the power of the media and TV to influence our perception of different events.
Watch and be propelled into a dangerous underground world of S&M, violence and a quest for the truth that ends in tragedy.
Superb and obviously worth the modest price. Just be careful - 'it bites'!!
Ah, VIDEODROME: one of a very small number of films to have given me nightmares.
THE STORY
MAX RENN, a sleazy cable-TV programmer begins to see his life and the future of media spin out of control after stumbling upon the broadcast signal of a seemingly plotless tv show called VIDEODROME which features extreme violence and torture. To his horror, he discovers that the signal causes damage to the viewer's brain through terrifying hallucinations, and that he himself is now a 'carrier' of it's malicious content.
Made in 1983 and Thank God I didn't see this on my own.
DAVID CRONENBERG is a director who knows how to work his way under the skin - then, when you're expecting the worst, he'll go one better and rip it inside out with intense bursts of visceral imagery, often utterly repulsive...yet strangely fascinating. Directorial mind games of the highest order and very, very effective. SHIVERS, THE BROOD and SCANNERS all dealt with similar themes - in essence, a fear of the flesh, of uncontrollable bodily transformation - but this is the first film of his to seriously tap into that deeply subconscious anxiety we all have of internal corruption, of something dark and malevolent eating away at our, for want of a better word, soul.
VIDEODROME: the public face of a crypto-government conspiracy to morally and ideologically "purge" North America by giving fatal brain tumours to "lowlifes" fixated on extreme forms of sex and violence...
JAMES WOODS is skin-crawlingly excellent as Max Renn, an opportunistic CEO always on the lookout for material that will push the envelope - or "break through", as he calls it - in order to reverse the fortunes (and ratings) of his tired cable tv station. But VIDEODROME is a freakshow like no other, and truly interactive in the most gut-churning way, literally sucking him into a world where the only path available is the one leading to self-destruction.
So this is as close as it gets to a morality tale of one man's descent into hell, but it's also an outrageously twisted glimpse at what might happen when broadcast media becomes completely unregulated - pretty far-sighted in 1983. Twenty-seven years further down the line, you'll still need a Kevlar-coated stomach to fully appreciate the film's 'message', but it's worth it.
SCENE GUARANTEED TO INDUCE NAUSEA
HARLAN removing his arm from the gaping orifice (it is not a wound) in Renn's torso to find an old German stick grenade (ticking) attached to the bloody stump.
An unforgettable experience from a director on the verge of mainstream greatness.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
In 'Videodrome', James Woods plays a Canadian television entrepreneur, a man who provides material - usually suspect, often porn - for cable TV. In the course of his seedy research he finds a pirate broadcast of a strange, compelling programme. The torture and masochism he glimpses as the programme hisses and breaks up is ... well, it looks real. Or is it just incredibly well made, with the interference and fluctuating picture quality just an example of good engineering and clever directing, simulating clandestine status to give the show a bit of edge?
Woods teams up with a radio broadcaster (Debbie Harry) to investigate. They tune in, turn on, and drop into an underworld of research and exploration which exposes human vulnerability to the influence of television. Maybe it doesn't just have a numbing effect on the brain ... maybe it can take over your body ... maybe the broadcast can become flesh as TV and reality merge? This is television as an acid trip.
An engrossing movie, playing off its own ironic take on the ability of film and television to confuse, mislead, misinform, or corrupt. Cronenberg speculates on the impact of television by taking you into the surreal, asking you to suspend your disbelief ... then question your belief.
Woods' character is sated by all the garbage he's seen. Nothing surprises him any more. He needs something weird, something even more shocking than porn. Do people really need to be shocked? Given the mind-numbing diet of reality TV to which we've been subjected in recent years, maybe Cronenberg is wrong. Television doesn't have to push us to the extreme ... it can destroy our minds with monotony instead.
But 'Videodrome' takes us beyond the unreal. Consider how much of your understanding and experience of the world is based on television news. The truth, and its corruption, is out there, and can come at you through your television screen. The moment we accept reality as what the television portrays, that's the moment it takes over our bodies as well as our minds.
A disturbing, thought-provoking, hugely entertaining film. Like many of Cronenberg's movies, though, you'll either love it or hate it. He's a man who doesn't seem to allow much room for a middle way. If you enjoy the unusual, if you appreciate the surreal, if you like to be challenged and explore irony, this may be a movie you'll love.
Great Movie but since RC-free devices are rare for Blu-Rays I... Read more
I would recommend for sci-fi fans, really good service, delivery was well fast. Read more
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