Altered States
1980, R, 102 min.
D: Ken Russell; with William Hurt, Blair Brown, Bob Balaban.

Hard to believe that this was William Hurt’s film debut (as well as Drew Barrymore’s). In this uneasy blend of the extreme visuals of director Ken Russell (Mahler, Tommy, Crimes of Passion) and the bloated dramaturgy of writer Paddy Chayefsky (Network, Hospital, who disowned this adaptation of his novel), Hurt plays an agnostic psychophysiologist who’s willing to try anything to find life’s answers: sensory deprivation tanks, mushrooms, you name it. His family, friends, and colleagues are dismayed as his ego gradually breaks down, but this is no trip he’s on – it’s a quest.

This article appears in November 26 • 1999.

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Marjorie Baumgarten is a film critic and contributing writer at The Austin Chronicle, where she has worked in many capacities since the paper's founding in 1981. She served as the Chronicle's Film Reviews editor for 25 years.