Naked Lunch (The Criterion Collection)
by David Cronenberg
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Actor: Ian Holm, Judy Davis, Julian Sands, Peter Weller, Roy ScheiderDirector: David Cronenberg
Brand: Image Entertainment
Cinematographer: Peter Suschitzky
Writer: David Cronenberg
Editor: Ronald Sanders
Producer: Gabriella Martinelli
Producer: Jeremy Thomas
Writer: William S. Burroughs
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.78:1
Running Time: 115 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2003-11-11
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Criterion
DVD Reviews of Naked Lunch (The Criterion Collection)
DVD Review: Twisted psychotic genius or contrived gooey slop?
Summary: 3 Stars
...What to make of Naked Lunch. Well having seen it for the very first time not too long ago, I have to say I'm at odds as to whether this film leans towards a sort of crazy genius, or some pretentious attempt at masking pornography with something truly "off the wall".
David Cronenberg is well renowned for creating challenging, sometimes confusing, but always mesmerising films. And that much is certainly true here. But while his fondness of goo, gore and visceral detail is usually liberally applied to a wider context and narrative, in Naked Lunch it literally forms the "meat" (for want of a better word) of the film. From start to finish, it seems like an exercise in excess. Talking fleshy holes that like to be rubbed, creatures with various <ahem> organs attached to their heads, lots and lots of squelching, talking typewriters that turn into said-creatures (usually bugs) and more metaphors, iconography and symbolism than you can throw a stick at. Which is all very nice for an exercise in directorial self indulgence, but what is it all about?
Peter "Robocop" Weller stars as William Lee (alongside Ian Holm and Roy Scheider) as a bug exterminator/drug addict/writer in 1950's America. He has a problem; namely, he ingests vast quantities of his own bug powder which in turn leads him to descend quite rapidly into a state of utter insanity, where the real world and his own imagined underworld of talking insects, spies, and carnal romance all blur into one drug induced tangle. Without ruining the film for anyone that might want to see it, Naked Lunch proceeds to dance around several themes in its own, disturbing way; drug usage, the uninhibited artistic and creative process, homosexuality, mans primitive desires, and the vast and uncharted regions of the human psyche so often stifled by the restraint imposed upon it by the social norm which is not, in itself, an original theme, but few films have dared to tackle it so directly and explicitly as this. Based on what I've read about the author of the book of the same name, William Borrough, the film would appear to be a combination of a retelling of his story as well as an interesting take on the state of his mind during its writing. All sounds pretty interesting.
But it's a hard one to call. On the one hand Naked Lunch hints at some deeper meaning, with some excellent (almost existentialist) dialogue, verging on freeform jazz poetry, peppered throughout. It seems most of the characters are on some sort of introspective journey, discovering their limits, fears and desires. This underlying theme does at least re-assure you that you haven't just been watching 111 minutes of wanton "grossness". But, this is also the films downside. Whatever plot or deeper meaning is concealed within the film is negated by the sheer crudity of it all. Added to this, the sight of a flimsy rubber model of a creature (looking suspiciously like the Facehugger from "Alien") composed entirely of a backside, and male and female "organs" getting friendly with Robocop's...sorry, Weller's rear doesn't exactly yell `Highbrow!'.
Perhaps this is an example of creativity run amok. Did David Cronenberg's weirdness get the better of him this time? Did he create something so intricate and baffling that to the outsider it ventures into the realms of simply being pretentious "art junk/pornography" decipherable only by him?
Or maybe that was the whole point. Uninhibited creativity doesn't conform. It doesn't explain itself to you. It exists purely as its creator intended it to, and as it intended to be conveyed by the creator.
Do you write the story, or does the story write you...a question you may ask yourself after viewing this film. Definitely not for those with a weak stomach or an aversion to explicit sexual content, Naked Lunch will at least get you thinking, for better or for worse. Just be well and truly prepared before you settle down to watch this one.
Description of Naked Lunch (The Criterion Collection)
Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 11/11/2003 Run time: 115 minutesYou are now entering Interzone, William S. Burroughs's phantasmagorical land of junk, paranoia, and crawly things. Best travel advice: "Exterminate all rational thought." In David Cronenberg's superbly shot, unnerving warp on the Burroughs novel, the novelist himself becomes a main character (played in an implacable monotone by Peter Weller), with elements from Burroughs' life--including the shooting of his wife during a "William Tell" game, and bohemian friends Kerouac and Ginsberg--added to frame the book's wild visions. This is, ironically, a somewhat rational approach to an unfilmable book (and it makes a hair-curling double bill with Barton Fink, another look at writerly madness, with both films sharing Judy Davis). Cronenberg is a natural for oozing mugwumps and typewriters that turn into giant bugs, of course. But in the end, this is really his own vision of the artistic process, rather than Burroughs's hallucinatory descent into hell. --Robert Horton
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