Videodrome (Criterion)
When Max Renn goes looking for edgy new shows for his sleazy cable TV station, he stumbles across the pirate broadcast of a hyperviolent torture show called Videodrome. As he unearths the origins of the program, he embarks on a hallucinatory journey into a shadow world of right-wing conspiracies, sadomasochistic sex games, and bodily transformation. Renn’s ordinary life dissolves around him, he finds himself at the center of a conflict between opposing factions in the struggle to control the truth behind the radical human future of “the New Flesh.”
Starring James Woods and Deborah Harry in one of her first film roles, Videodrome is one of writer/director David Cronenberg’s most original and provocative works, fusing social commentary with shocking elements of sex and violence. With groundbreaking special effects makeup by Academy Award®-winner Rick Baker, Videodrome has come to be regarded as one of the most influential and mind-bending science fiction films of the 1980s, and The Criterion Collection is proud to present it in its full-length unrated edition.
Member Reviews
Ahead of its time doesn't do it justice - Boogeypop
Cronenberg is the man when it comes to creepy science fiction. He creates these worlds that embrace the strange as a daily occurrence.
James Woods is excellent as a small time tv producer trying to make a name for himself. He does the film justice by keeping his deteriorating mind and sanity at a good and constant pace. There's nothing worse than someone who's introduced to crazy things and just snaps out of nowhere. Here, he regresses at just the right pace.
While the effects aren't the greatest, this movie isn't about the FX, it's about the story and where civilized society was heading. Seriously, some of the content actual foretold the internet being as prevalent as it is and reality television being the next big thing.
If you watch it, be prepared to think a little and want more. It ends abruptly so don't be surprised as it is only roughly 1h20 long.long live new flash - basilbenz
David Cronenberg has turned out a lot of films that range from the bizarre to the slightly less bizarre to the stupefying. I used to think that his update of The Fly was his masterwork, as it certainly is an improvement over the original in every sense of the word. Videodrome, however, is entirely his idea, and what an idea it is. Filmed at a time when VHS and Betamax were still at war for market share, and television was still beholden to some standard of public service, it is hard to imagine what the public of 1983 made of Videodrome. Twenty-three years on, it looks so prophetic that it is truly a wonder Sony or Toshiba are not employing Cronenberg to attempt to anticipate consumer reaction to their consumer format ideas. Shot in a Lynchian shoot-first, work-out-story-later manner, it is testament to Cronenberg's skills as a storyteller that the 'drome works as well as it does. It is also testament to the film's accuracy that in this era of so-called reality television, nobody in a remake-crazed system is trying to remake Videodrome.
Of course, in a film with a theme as speculative as Videodrome, one needs to have a reliable performer. Just like you cannot portray someone going mad with fear a la The Fly if your actor is not up to snuff, one cannot portray a weird conspiracy without an actor of James Woods' calibre. Everything that occurs on the screen from about thirty minutes in is utterly unbelievable, but we buy it because James is so good at selling it to us. His disbelief graduating into terror graduating into acceptance is the rock upon which Videodrome rests, and the respect he gained from me in my recent viewing of Once Upon A Time In America went through the atmosphere during Videodrome. So many films are made with a singular star as its entire focus. Sylvester Stallone made a few, but Woods demonstrates he is more than up to the challenge here. The James Woods of the 1980s and the James Woods post 1990 are really two different people, or so one mLong Live the new Betamax! - Spuzz
Quite influential when it came out, and STILL, quite oddly, quite ahead of it’s time, Videodrome is one odd little film about many different things I suppose, the advance of technology, reality shows, James Woods’ complexion, all made doubly weird by David Cronenberg’s direction. What’s really strange about watching this now, is how I saw this when it JUST came out on video, so I was only 13. Heaven knows what I thought of this at the time (if I recall, this was THE movie I had to see). Heaven knows what my parents thought. Also amusingly, I almost devised a new subplot about the “advances” of Beta technology (the new flesh) vs VHS. It was quite amusingly effective.
Member Reviews
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Ahead of its time doesn't do it justice - Boogeypop
Cronenberg is the man when it comes to creepy science fiction. He creates these worlds that embrace the strange as a daily occurrence.
James Woods is excellent as a small time tv producer trying to make a name for himself. He does the film justice ...long live new flash - basilbenz
David Cronenberg has turned out a lot of films that range from the bizarre to the slightly less bizarre to the stupefying. I used to think that his update of The Fly was his masterwork, as it certainly is an improvement over the original in every sense of ...Long Live the new Betamax! - Spuzz
Quite influential when it came out, and STILL, quite oddly, quite ahead of it’s time, Videodrome is one odd little film about many different things I suppose, the advance of technology, reality shows, James Woods’ complexion, all made doubly weird by David ...