Videodrome: Director’s Cut

• Cat.no: PFLEB 36041
• Cert: 18
• Running time: 85 minutes
• Sides: 2 (CLV/CAV)
• Year: 1982
• Pressing: UK, 1997
• Chapters : 28 (19/9)
• Sound: Mono
• Widescreen: 1.85:1
• Price: £19.99
• Extras : None
  

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  Director:

  David Cronenberg

  (Crash, Naked Lunch, The Fly)

Cast:

James Woods (Contact, The Hard Way, Salvador)
Sonja Smits
Debbie Harry

Adecade and a half on and still retaining its incredible power toshock, this is the film in which David Cronenberg first coined hisbattle cry, “Long Live the New Flesh.”.

If a clear lineage can be traced in his films from Shivers‘ aphrodisiac turdsthrough to Crash‘s orgasmic collision of swingers and twisted metal,Videodrome remains unique in Cronenberg’s oeuvre – a black joke, a comeon to the censor.

Just suppose, runs the pitch, violent porno (television signals) directlyaffected people causing them to hallucinate. This is the fate whichbefalls sleazoid Channel 83 cable television executive Max Renn (a youngJames Woods in his best – and edgiest – role to date) who tells pornoprogramme sales agents their merchandise is “too SOFT. I’m looking forsomething HARD.” (He stubs out his cigarette.)

Not for Channel 83 the oriental softcore Samurai Dreams, featuring geisha anddildo – Renn’s interested lies rather in what illicit programming his basementtechnical whizzkid and self-styled pirate of the airwaves Harlan cantrack down by satellite. And Harlan has locked on to a signal calledVideodrome. Nil production values – just continuous beatings and torturefor an hour. Renn is impressed.

Meanwhile, Max is also being seduced by radio talk show host Nicky Brand(Debbie Harry) whose reaction on discovering that illicit VHS Videodrometape in Renn’s collection at home contains, in his words, mutilation andtorture, is that of arousal. “Not exactly sex,” he says. “Says who?”,she replies. What Renn doesn’t realise is that he’s being hooked on theVideodrome signal.

Soon he starts to hallucinate (for instance, hitting his P.A. girlFriday who temporarily – in his head and in our heads – becomes Nicky asif the film is momentarily hopping from one TV channel to another andback again).

As a series of pulsating VHS cassettes containing programming from rivalinterest groups are inserted into the vagina-like slit that appears in Renn’sstomach, he finds himself sprouting metal tendrils connecting his arm and handto his revolver which turn him into an assassin.

The narrative descends into ever-increasing madness and characters turn upbearing such names as Brian O’Blivion (“not my real name – the one I was bornwith – but my television name”), his protective daughter Bianca (“I am myfather’s screen”) and their arch rival Barry Convex (“Why would anyone watch ascum show like Videodrome? Why did YOU watch it, Max?”).

Derelicts hole up at the Cathode Ray Mission to pathetically watch TV sets inlittle cubicles, guns distort television screen membranes to shoot (or”deprogramme”) people and Renn finds himself literally burying his head in animage of Nicky’s lips on an organically expanding television screen.

The extremely icky hallucinations – with the majority on a commendableCAV second side – are pretty weird even by Cronenberg’s standards, thedirector only returning to this sheer quantity and variety of extremeand grotesque imagery in his adaptation of William Burroughs’ NakedLunch. And in this Director’s Cut of Videodrome, they’re more extremethan I can ever remember seeing them before. (The Samurai Dreamssequence, for instance, here contains a lengthy shot of a fleshy dildowhile the late sequence of a man splitting open and sprouting cancerousgrowths runs to several shots which add much to the immediate gorequotient but little to the overall emotional impact of the movie.)

For those who expected an extra ending scene of Renn himself in theVideodrome Arena, rumoured to have existed in an early cut of the film,it’s not here – but again, would it really have added much? After all,Videodrome hangs together by dint of some bizarre subliminal logic -what ultimately makes Cronenberg’s film so disturbing isn’t thesuperficial gore (unsettling though that is) but rather the underlyingemotional journey of its protagonist that affects the viewer on a fardeeper level.

And the ending of the film as it appears here – which is as it has previouslyappeared in UK cinemas and PAL VHS before – seems to represent the perfectconclusion of that journey.

Most of the visual action is concentrated towards picture centre, withvery little happening off to pic sides – consequently widescreenpresentation adds surprisingly little (though obviously in terms ofcomposition it’s preferable to a fullscreen version, so we’re certainlynot complaining).

However, the sound mix (especially the score) is improved no end by thisdisc’s digital audio presentation (the film was made, incidentally, in mono).Chaptering is more than adequate (nineteen on side one, nine on side two).

While it’s true that subject matter about inserting VHS cassettes intofirst VCRs and later hitherto unknown human orifices loses somethingwhen you have to load an LD not a VHS into your living room hardwarebeforehand, it’s equally true that the viewing experience is enhancedover the VHS experience by LD’s sound/picture quality (not to mentionthe little snippets of additional footage found in this version.)

In the end, though, widescreening and extra footage are, as it were, merelyicing on the cake. But what a cake! Even Crash – impressive though itundeniably is and with all the controversy it generated to boot – isn’tquite up there with this extraordinary, earlier outing. Fifteen yearson, Videodrome remains Cronenberg’s masterpiece – and Pioneer are to becongratulated for this timely and superb release on LD.

Film: 5/5
Picture: 5/5
Sound: 5/5