Touches You

One of my all time favorites.

It is a performances centric movie

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

If there is such a thing as genetic memory, than all the phases of human evolution must lie somewhere in our genetic code. What if there was a way we could tap into that stream of information through consciousness? What would we see? What would we learn? Professor Eddie Jessup (William Hurt in his debut role) is intrigued by the data being produced by the use of isolation tanks to induce altered states of consciousness, and decides to undergo the experience himself. What he discovers at first is the ability to relive with total clarity experiences of his childhood. As he continues these experiments, his visions become more acute and filled with religious illusions. Years go by and Jessup has become sedated with the trappings of academia, leaving him unfulfilled and longing for the good old days of experimentation and wonder. He visits a tribe of Mexican Indians that use a hallucinatory drug to evokes a common experience in all users and has the trip of his life! What might he learn inside an isolation tank while being under the influence of this drug? Would he be able to peel away the layers of evolutionary time back to early man and beyond? Perhaps even back to the first thought? I think it's a classic example of the genre & demonstrates that as weird & unlikely as a plot might be it can still come across as convincing genuinely eerie if handled right i.e. good acting, good script, compelling story line & maybe some decent special FX. All to often these days the special FX seem to be put before everything else & as such films of this genre lack substance & usually don't amount to much outside of the box office. For me the special FX in this film still stand up & look good. The trip sequences are extremely surreal & somewhat disturbing in parts but there are some great sequences that definitely start to mess with your head! The only reason this movie still works today is because the movie makes clear that in some tribes, there are substances that are traditionally and successfully used in spiritual rituals, and it is one of these that Hurt uses, in combination with sensory deprivation techniques, to try to get in touch with his own "genetic memory", for lack of a better term.Overall rating: 8 out of 10.

Dr. Eddie Jessup (William Hurt) is doing experiments in an isolation tank with Arthur Rosenberg (Bob Balaban). Emily (Blair Brown) is a young anthropology PHD candidate from Columbia who is taken with Jessup. He has conflicted feelings about his father and religion. Over seven years later, they are married with kids in San Francisco. Arthur and wife Sylvia join them to find that they're on the brink of divorce. Emily wants to stay together but Eddie is restless in his settled unimpressive academic life. He visits a Mexican native tribe and has an out-of-body experience. He returns to resume his sensory deprivation experiments with a new tank. The hallucinations are visually dynamite. This is held together by William Hurt. He has the leading man looks but also has a hidden sense of reserved madness. There is a nice steady devolution and memorable scenes of his metamorphosis.

Stubborn and determined research scientist Eddie Jessup (a fine and credible performance by William Hurt in his film debut) subjects himself to sensory deprivation and takes hallucinogenic drugs in order to explore alternate states of consciousness and discover the basic primordial roots of human evolution. However, Jessup finds himself teetering on the brink of madness after he regresses to a dangerous primitive state. Although director Ken Russell brings his trademark wild'n'trippy sensibility and flair for bold and alarming mind-roasting imagery to Paddy Chayefsky's smart and provocative script, he fortunately manages for the most part to keep his more self-indulgent impulses under control and grounds the fantastic premise in a plausible everyday reality. Moreover, the story not only acquires extra substance and resonance from its key themes about science, religion, the meaning of life, and the origins of man, but also has a surprising additional poignancy thanks to the touching central love story between Eddie and his concerned wife Emily (a winningly sharp and spunky portrayal by Blair Brown). The ace acting by the superior cast keeps this picture on track: Hurt and Brown do sterling work in the leads, with sturdy support from Bob Balaban as bookish and loyal colleague Arthur Rosenberg, Charles Haid as the huffy and disapproving Mason Parrish, and Miguel Godreau as a crazed caveman. Jordan Cronenweth's striking cinematography offers a wealth of breathtaking outré visuals. Kudos are also in order for Dick Smith's remarkable make-up, the dazzling special effects, and John Corigliano's moody'n'melodic score. A truly unique and fascinating film.

First when I heard the title I though this was another b movie trying to treat another cheesy sci-fi story, but I was wrong. The idea is not that original or mind-blowing but it has it's own rights to stand for: the depths and the complexity of the human mind, technology evolving and a more realistic effect on hallucination and transformation. The effects are OK, it has that Lovecraft feel,suspense and decent scary scenes. The hallucination in the Indian village and the monkey state are well made, but Eddies Jessup's transformations it isn't shown completely, so I'll give that a minus. Actors are doing a decent job, specially William Hurt and Charles Haid with his attitude and all.