On Videodrome...

Well, when I plopped down in my sofa-sized bean-bag-chair with my cat and a glass of wine, I can't say that what I saw was what I expected. At all.

Personally, I found Videodrome to be disturbing, entertaining, nostalgic & thought provoking all at the same time- which suits me just fine. If one could take A Clockwork Orange, mate it with Naked Lunch, and perhaps dash a springle of Requiem for a Dream into the mix- it would be this film. With its absurd "over-the-top-so-you-can't-ignore-it" machinisms, it seemed clear that one message it was sending about mediation is that it influences people; that with enough mediation, we can no longer distinguish what is "real" from what is "fantasy". The only thing I could gather from the tag-team style mediation warfare towards the end of the movie, is that mediation has the power to turn us into pawns, even if we think we know what is being inflicted upon us.

Certain references were comical in their directness: How we are introduced to the film by an "alarm video" that purportedly assumes the role of the alarm clock... How Max, the main character, assumed that brutal torture, rape and killing scrambled from an obscure frequency MUST be scripted, and couldn't possibly be *real* torture. No "real" harm could be inflicted. Not if it's on television... especially if it's pirated! Another gem of a moment was in the beginning, when Max attended a panel show with a host and another guest who opposed his controversial broadcasts... the other guest literally went from being critical of his work to being coy with him- which perhaps suggests that even "objective" mediation is never truly objective.

Overall, what I gather from Videodrome is that mediation is now an integral part of our technological lives, but it has softened the lines we hold between that which is true, and that which is imagined. This film seemed to address this issue with no small amount of irony and absurd humor.