Watch carefully. John Pilchard dives head first into Cronenberg’s Videodrome.
By John Pilchard // It’s hard to unpack concepts and underlying themes within a movie when the concepts and underlying themes are the movie. Videodrome is one of the most iconic examples, and Videdrome will be unpacked, albeit poorly and incomprehensibly, below.
Videodrome is the 1983 classic directed by body-horror master, David Cronenberg. The themes within the movie are pretty blatant: mass media and its manipulation over the psyche, or what effects do mass media have over the mind? It’s what Videodrome is really about during the first viewing. These themes are the face value. Some would say it doesn’t warrant a re-watch. But this film was made in 1983 and some concepts have come to fruition over the years.
Netflix Is Not A Choice
VHS debuted in the late 1970s, and in 1985, Blockbuster Video revolutionized the home viewing experience. There was a tiny window of time when collectors of VHS and Betamax were known as videophiles. Hiding away in basements, collecting obscure tapes from other countries, still thinking Andy Warhol had talent. In that window of time, Videodrome came out and told the world that what you view could be detrimental to your mental state.
Now that video was creeping into the home in more ways than one, the viewer had to be aware of what he or she was watching. Looking back, watching a VHS tape was hard work, and the setup was cumbersome, but it expanded the viewing experience of the time.
That was over 30 years ago. The viewing experience has changed drastically since then. The videophiles have evolved into streamers, and the video-on-demand market has exploded. In Videodrome, the channel Civic TV, “The one you take to bed with you” was just a satirical idea within a movie. But now it’s a complete and total reality. That reality is Netflix. It sits at the end of your bed, in your pocket, and right there with you at work. It’s everywhere you may need it to be. According to Forbes, in December 2016, Netflix reported over 94 million subscribers internationally. Those staggering numbers will continue to grow as Netflix creates more original content.
Videodrome was concerned with the North American viewers, but Netflix wants much more.
Sure, easy access to your favorite content may not sound like an issue, and right now, it might not be. But over time, the way in which content is delivered to you will change again, and then you will stop noticing.
There are no longer commercials, but product placement continues to grow through streaming services in original series.
Away With The Stars
The thumb up, thumb down rating system is a bigger issue than people let on. A few months ago Netflix removed the star rating system and opted for a thumb up, or a thumb down user rating feature. Slowly, your decision making process is being worn away. There is no longer a need for that sense of reasoning to watch a movie with three and half, or four stars. It’s 50/50 now, you will watch, or you won’t. The Netflix-Videodrome effect will start; eventually you will have no choice in the matter. Whatever algorithm Netflix uses to suggest movies and TV for you will evolve. It’s within the grand scheme of possibilities that one day you will turn in Netflix and something will just automatically play, because it’s what Netflix thinks you should be watching.
This was scary when Videodrome came out in 1983. Then pundits began to spin the narrative about how harmful rapid consumption of mass media really is. But then in the 1990s video games took the blame and distracted people from television and movies, after that there was a shortage of pundit rebuttal. Since the advent and evolution of streaming services, and their accessibility from everywhere and from almost anything, it might be time for a reviewing if Videodrome. Like the gun fused to Max Renn’s hand, and his VHS tape stomach, technology and mass media just become another extension of our own body. Consume, alter, then act.
The Sunday Girl In Red
For a brief moment the viewer is treated to Debbie Harry playing sadomasochist Nicki Brand. Her and Max’s relationship is cut short when she finds out about Videodrome, and decides to visit Pittsburgh to try it out for herself, against Max’s word of warning.
The world of Videodrome is consistently gray or grayish to reflect the bleak world the characters inhabit. “Television is the retina of the minds eye.” If you have television, why bother looking outside? The new world is right there in front of you. The predominantly black and gray color pallet is only interrupted by the bright red Videodrome set, and the aesthetic of Nicki Brand.
When the viewer is first introduced to the character Nicki Brand, they first notice her red dress accompanied by her red lipstick, red hair, and the occasional use of a red telephone. The use of red in film to indicate violence and passion is nothing new. But all of the attributes and meanings of the color red can be applied to Nicki Brand. She is power, passion, anger, strength, heat and ferocity all rolled into one. She is the catalyst for Max’s downfall, and inevitable suicide at the end of the film.
Death To Videodrome
Videodrome says what it needs to say. It will always be a fun, albeit incredibly weird ride, and window to 1980s horror. It’s the perfect movie to remind you that you wish you were watching the Fly. The ideas within Videodrome will continue to be explored and extrapolated over time, inevitably lagging behind the technology satirized within the visual medium in which it’s portrayed. Betamax?
Watching Videodrome is kind of like your nagging mother during summer break, urging you to get up, and get outside to enjoy the beautiful weather while you can. Videodrome is also the skin cancer that follows once you’re outside. It’s also the vegetative mental state if you were to stay in and watch television all summers day. You decide.
Long live the new flesh, whatever it may become.