{"id":36221,"date":"2016-09-01T22:36:39","date_gmt":"2016-09-02T05:36:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/?p=36221"},"modified":"2016-09-01T22:37:01","modified_gmt":"2016-09-02T05:37:01","slug":"challenge-week-33-videodrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-33-videodrome\/","title":{"rendered":"Challenge Week 33: Videodrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

I went into Videodrome<\/em> with both anticipation and some amount of apprehension, as I have some Cronenberg films I love, but I’m also not really into body horror that much (though my favorite Cronenberg is eXistenZ<\/em>, and it definitely delves into some of the same territory as Videodrome<\/em>). And the first thirty minutes or so were kind of rough going, between the literal torture porn that Max, our TV producer lead character, tries to get for his extreme network and the rough sex he has with Nicki Brand (Debbie Harry – very fun to see her in a movie, as I’m a big Blondie fan). If Max hadn’t come across a VERY intriguing conspiracy surrounding Videodrome right about that time, I would’ve been very tempted to quit.<\/p>\n

I’m glad I didn’t, as all the mystery surrounding Videodrome (once we stopped actually watching clips from the torture porn show cover) was really interesting – hidden subliminal messages that alter reality for anyone who hears it. From that point on, it becomes increasingly difficult to tell what’s real and what’s hallucination for Max, which is kind of good and bad, actually.<\/p>\n

\"tf-tapeflesh\"<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It did keep me quite engaged with the film, but I also kept trying to figure it out, and there doesn’t seem to be a way to ultimately figure it out, or if there is I didn’t see it. It’s more about the waking nightmare, the texture of horror when even your own body can’t be trusted. A lot of these elements were recycled for eXistenZ<\/em>, which does for video games basically what Videodrome<\/em> does for video\/TV, but I’d need to rewatch eXistenZ<\/em> to remember exactly what it was that I liked so much about it – it might literally have just been that I hadn’t seen very many weird things at the time and I was captivated by that. Whereas now, I enjoyed the weirdness of Videodrome<\/em>, but felt like it lost its point toward the end, somewhere about the time it totally lost all sense of the real.<\/p>\n

I realize “but what actually happened” is like the least interesting question to have at the end of a movie like this, but that is pretty much where I was. I mean, (spoilers) if the solution was for him to kill himself – did that actually stop Videodrome? Wasn’t it affecting lots more people than just him? Or do we not care about that? Or was all that part of his delusion too? On rewatch, questions like that likely wouldn’t matter to me as much and I’d enjoy it more for the texture and mood. On the other hand, it wasn’t what I’d call a pleasant watch – not that it’s meant to be, but I’d think twice before popping it back in the player.<\/p>\n

\"tf-stomachgun\"<\/p>\n

Stats and stuff…<\/h3>\n

1983, Canada<\/em>
\nwritten and directed by David Cronenberg<\/em>
\nstarring James Woods, Sonja Smits, Debbie Harry, Peter Dvorsky, Leslie Carlson, Jack Creley<\/em><\/p>\n

I’m ranking all my Challenge films on Flickchart (as I do all the films I see), a movie-ranking website that asks you to choose your favorite between two movies until it builds a ranked list of your favorites. Just for fun, I will average out the rankings and keep a running tally of whose recommendations rank the highest. When you add a film to Flickchart, it pits it against films already on your chart to see where it should fall. Here’s how Videodrome<\/em> entered my chart:<\/p>\n

Videodrome<\/b> > Film Socialisme
\nVideodrome < Dial M for Murder<\/b>
\nVideodrome<\/b> > Apocalypse Now
\nVideodrome<\/b> > The Magnificent Ambersons
\nVideodrome < Brief Encounter<\/b>
\nVideodrome < Black Sunday<\/b>
\nVideodrome < Jean de Florette<\/b>
\nVideodrome < Three Kings<\/b>
\nVideodrome < Batman Returns<\/b>
\nVideodrome < Freeway<\/b>
\nVideodrome < The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit<\/b>
\nVideodrome<\/b> > Down Terrace<\/p>\n

Final #1153 out of 3693 films on my chart (69%)<\/p>\n

It is now my #3 David Cronenberg film, my #9 Body Horror film, my #16 Cyberpunk\/Tech Noir, my #8 Media Satire, my #32 Mindbender, my #59 Psychological Thriller, and my #3 film of 1983 (I finally have a top 10 of 1983 – if you include shorts).<\/p>\n

Videodrome<\/em> was recommended by Matthew Thomas, a friend from the Flickcharters group on Facebook.<\/p>\n

A few quotes…<\/h3>\n

Dr. O’Blivion<\/b>: Television has become the retina of the mind’s eye.<\/p>\n

Max<\/b>: I think Videodrome is what’s next.
\nMasha<\/b>: Then God help us.<\/p>\n

Masha<\/b>: It has something you don’t…a philosophy. That’s what makes it dangerous.<\/p>\n

Dr. O’Blivion<\/b>: Television is reality and reality is less than television.<\/p>\n

Max<\/b>: Death to Videodrome. Long live the new flesh.<\/p>\n

A few more screenshots…<\/h3>\n

\"tf-Max-Nicki\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-guntv\"<\/p>\n

\"tf-gun-hand\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I went into Videodrome with both anticipation and some amount of apprehension, as I have some Cronenberg films I love, but I’m also not really into body horror that much (though my favorite Cronenberg is eXistenZ, and it definitely delves into some of the same territory as Videodrome). And the first thirty minutes or so […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3027],"tags":[3202,3204,3203,3201],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tf-feat-videodrome.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36223,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/09\/challenge-week-33-the-blues-brothers\/","url_meta":{"origin":36221,"position":0},"title":"Challenge Week 33: The Blues Brothers","author":"Jandy","date":"September 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"WHERE HAS THIS MOVIE BEEN ALL MY LIFE. I didn't know which way this one would go, frankly - comedies from the '80s are pretty hit or miss with me. I knew it was a musical of some sort, which is a bonus, but I didn't know really what kind\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/tf-feat-blues2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35387,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/the-2016-movie-challenge-a-preview\/","url_meta":{"origin":36221,"position":1},"title":"The 2016 Movie Challenge: A Preview","author":"Jandy","date":"January 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Because I can't leave well enough alone, here's a brief rundown of (some of) what I'll be watching in 2016 for this crazy challenge. I currently have 50 people signed up to recommend me movies, and all but a handful have already chosen their picks, so this thing is scheduled\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/fc-keaton.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35505,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2017\/03\/2016-challenge-debrief\/","url_meta":{"origin":36221,"position":2},"title":"2016 Challenge Debrief","author":"Jandy","date":"March 15, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, it's been almost three months since my year-long movie challenge officially completed, and it's taken me that long to decompress, rerank everything, and generally get ready to post a recap of the year. The short version: it was awesome! I watched a ton of movies I really liked, very\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/crop-400-Blows-watching.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":650,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2007\/09\/theatrical-pick-for-91407-eastern-promises\/","url_meta":{"origin":36221,"position":3},"title":"Theatrical Pick for 9\/14\/07 – Eastern Promises","author":"Jandy","date":"September 14, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Okay, now, both sources I'm using for movie release information (IMDb and FirstShowing.net) say that David Cronenberg's Eastern Promises is opening in wide release this week. I don't know how wide \"wide\" is, though, since it isn't playing in Austin or St. Louis, and is only in one theatre in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Film"","block_context":{"text":"Film","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36289,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/10\/challenge-week-36-paris-texas\/","url_meta":{"origin":36221,"position":4},"title":"Challenge Week 36: Paris, Texas","author":"Jandy","date":"October 5, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"As a huge fan of Wings of Desire, I've been really eager to see more Wim Wenders films, especially this one. I didn't know much about what it was about, though. It's kind of a road movie, with Walt (Dean Stockwell) finding his brother Travis (Harry Dean Stanton) wandering through\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/tf-feat.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":35470,"url":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/2016\/01\/challenge-week-3-grumpy-old-men\/","url_meta":{"origin":36221,"position":5},"title":"Challenge Week 3: Grumpy Old Men","author":"Jandy","date":"January 24, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"I've never been too motivated to see out the later Jack Lemmon-Walter Matthau vehicles, despite being a fan of both of them in their earlier years - unconscious ageism? Probably. Anyway, I should've expected these two to play well off each other, given their respective talent and proven chemistry back\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "2016 Movie Challenge"","block_context":{"text":"2016 Movie Challenge","link":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/category\/film\/2016-movie-challenge\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/tf-feat-Grumpy03.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36221"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36221\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.the-frame.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}