Videodrome: Canadian Film Development Corp./ Universal Pictures Rating: USA: R/ USA: Unrated/ UK: 18/ Australia: R
Death to Videodrome; Long live the new flesh—Max Renn, Videodrome
Director David Cronenberg once again proves he’s the prophet of a new Dark Age with his incredible 1983 film Videodrome. Made at the dawn of the video era, Videodrome is both a meditative study of what is truly reality and an interesting twist on the whole "cyberpunk" movement—a literary movement featuring stories that would see humans merging themselves into a world created by machines. And like the majority of Cronenberg’s work, it returns to exploring themes involving corrupted bodies, revolting flesh, and malignancy that grows from within.
I’m not going to tell you that I understand Videodrome—I do, to a point, but I don’t know that anyone (except for maybe Cronenberg himself) understands it in its entirety. Cronenberg has long been acknowledged as a master of "screw with your head" cinema, and this film is probably his crowning achievement. Videodrome is a bizarre, surreal, stylish, and gory descent into one character’s reality—only he, like us, is never totally sure what’s real.
Now, I hope that doesn’t put anyone off seeing the film. Yes, Videodrome can be confounding to interpret (especially in the last thirty minutes) but it’s also a lot of fun—and the confusing nature of Cronenberg’s narrative is ultimately part of the film’s charm.
Videodrome tells the story of Max Renn (James Woods: Vampires, Nixon, Casino), who runs a small cable station specializing in airing shows that highlight sex and violence (sort of like Fox). In his never-ending quest for new programming, he has an associate scanning the airwaves looking for pirate feeds of bizarre shows—which leads him to Videodrome.
Videodrome is a show produced in Pittsburgh that is little more than a snuff film. Set in one room, with one camera, viewers watch as two hooded men torture, and eventually murder, women. Renn is intrigued by the show, believing it’ll be the next big thing in television, and sets out to find the makers of the program. His masochist girlfriend, Nicki (Debbie Harry: Hair Spray), is also intrigued by the show—and sets out to become a "contestant".
As Renn gets closer to the truth behind Videodrome, he becomes caught up in an interesting shadow conspiracy—one that the makers don’t want him to unravel. It seems that Videodrome is an experiment—it emits certain signals that affect the body’s neurological centers, causing the growth of tumors and extreme hallucinations. Renn suffers an ever increasing number of weird dreams and physiological changes after watching the Videodrome tapes—including developing a vagina-like opening in his stomach that certain breathing, moaning videotapes can be inserted into. These tapes make Renn a puppet for the people behind Videodrome—people who intend to use him as an assassin to kill anyone who knows too much about the project.
While that’s a pretty long plot synopsis, it really only scratches the surface of what the film is about. With Videodrome Cronenberg has made an eerily prophetic film detailing our ever burgeoning fascination with media (a fascination that has grown a hundredfold since the birth of the Internet) and how it affects our own views of everyday reality. It also examines the effects of violent programming on viewers—long before it was such a hot political issue. The men behind Videodrome chose to make a show about torture and murder because it would appeal to "scummy viewers"—viewers who weren’t worth having in society anyway.
As mentioned above, the film has a decidedly cyberpunk slant, yet it’s almost the inverse of the whole cyberpunk manifesto. Woods doesn’t find himself in a cyberworld after watching Videodrome—the cyberworld starts to manifest in reality. Cronenberg achieves this by having everyday objects such as a television become living, breathing entities—in essence, becoming part of the living world of humankind.
Cronenberg’s direction is as inspired as always. The film has a very bleak look to it—whether it’s in the grays of a blighted urban landscape that Max moves through, the static Videodrome set (lit with a lot of red and orange) or in the grainy video footage and snowy televisions, Videodrome never looks light and cheery. In fact, the film looks as washed out as the images that would appear on Max’s channel 83 (before the advent of digital cable and High Definition TV). It’s an amazing, almost sublime effect, but it draws you into Max’s world right from the start.
Woods is fantastic as Max, playing the guy as your typical sleazy TV executive until he realizes that he’s caught up in something much more insidious than he first realized. Woods is almost always fun to watch, and his performance here is one of my favorites. Debbie Harry (of Blondie fame) is quite good as well. The two actors definitely have chemistry, and the only real shame is that Harry’s character disappears around the middle of the film.
Rick Baker provides the film’s make up FX…and they’re classic. Videodrome deals with the idea of "the new flesh"—which probably means that someone like Max will evolve after experiencing this new media—and evolve he does. Aside from the aforementioned stomach opening, Max also develops a weirdly formed right hand—a hand merged with his pistol. Cronenberg would return to this type of imagery with Existenz—a recent film that seems a lot like a continuation of the ideas and themes first explored in Videodrome. The film also features a lot of gore, including a spectacular sequence near the climax where a man is shot, then his body literally explodes with all these weird polyp-like things bursting through his skin. Videodrome definitely delivers the goods in terms of grue.
Videodrome is currently available on DVD, and while the unrated, letterboxed format is nice, the lack of extras is bothersome. If ever there was a film that begged for a director’s commentary, it’s this one. I’m sure I’m not the only one who’d like to hear Cronenberg’s thoughts on the creation of the film.
In the end, there’s no doubt in my mind that Videodrome is a classic film. Sure, the last thirty minutes seems more than a bit disjointed, but it fits in with the surreal mood of the film. Cronenberg has demonstrated once again that he has the unique ability to fuse visceral gore with cerebral philosophy in order to create an intriguing and challenging piece of art. Even more amazing is that today, all these years later, Videodrome is still both effective and relevant. While the world Cronenberg envisioned may not exist as he imagined it, the issues from his film do.
Videodrome is required viewing for any cult, horror, sci-fi, cyberpunk, or philosophical film fan.
Sleazy cable TV programmer Max Renn Woods encounters a strange new program known as "Videodrome". Under its mysterious influence Max's fantasies seem ...More at Family Video
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