Movie of the Week |
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| 8/17/02 Scanners might have been the movie that made David Cronenberg a well-known name in America, but it was Videodrome that made me a lifelong fan of the Canadian director. James Woods plays Max, a somewhat sleazy small time television station operator who is always looking for something new to shock, and perhaps offend, his audience. One night he finds exactly what he's looking for in Videodrome. Videodrome is a "television show" with a simple concept. Tie a woman up in the middle of a room, torture her and then kill her. Max isn't sure why, but he is fascinated by the show and can't get enough of it. His girlfriend, Nicki (played so coolly by Debbie Harry), is also hooked. Max wants to learn more about Videodrome and its creators. Nicki becomes so wrapped up in the show, she decides to go and try to appear on the show. Except Nicki never comes back. Max then starts to realize something strange is happening to him. He starts having hallucinations and begins to realize he can't separate fantasy from reality. Max then learns he has become the victim of a cruel experiment. Signals are sent along with that show that cause the viewer to get a brain tumor that cause hallucinations which are often repulsive and always unsettling. Cronenberg, although thought of as a horror director, is a more accurately a prototypical science fiction writer and director. In Videodrome, made in 1983, he examines the effect that television can have on society. Television has always been considered a way of anesthetizing society, Cronenberg examines here television's ability to control society. If this sounds familiar, it should. It is a similar concept as another David Cronenberg movie I reviewed, eXistenZ. Stories dealing with science's affect on society is the definition of science fiction, and that is represented to a T here. Whereas Videodrome dealt with television and video tape, Cronenberg updated the concept for eXistenZ to include the new world of virtual reality. CDWH |
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