Destroy all rational thought

Bill Lee: I understood writing could be dangerous. I didn't realize the danger came from the machinery.

David Cronenberg ceases to amaze me with his talent for filming things that are strange, yet meaningful. Taken from the William S. Burrough's novel and from biographical events in his life Naked Lunch is a film that transcends adaptation and biography. Taking events from the novel and events from Burrough's life, the film takes on mystique of trying to figure out reality and the other world in which the drug-abusing Bill Lee lives. What is real? What is in his head? What parts of the talking typewriter bugs are actually there? It's a really bizzarre film that leaves you questioning what is going on. But that's what makes it great. It's like Videodrome where nothing can be trusted, yet everything should be seen as real. Cronenberg loves these topics. Even A History of Violence takes on the topics of what is real and what is not (although in a much more basic and realistic way.) Where Naked Lunch shines among Cronenberg's films (probably second only to Videodrome for me) is in its effects and its ability to make the fantasy elements of the story come to life. I really miss the days where effects came from tangible things rather than CGI. The bug typewriters, although obviously not real, seem more realistic than if it were done today with a computer. The mugwumps too look much better as animtronic or puppets or whatever you want to call them. You know its a film and its not real, but it looks better than Jar-Jar Binks, which is basically the same exact creature. Another thing Cronenberg loves is the idea of the mechanical. In Videodrome, the camera and television were extensions of the body, so much so that the one character could only appear through VHS tape on a television screen. In Naked Lunch it was the was the typewriter that was the extension of the mind. Writing took over the body so much so that the typewriters came alive. Naked Lunch is hard to talk about unless you are in a group of people who have witnessed it. It's just flat-out bizzarre. And I love it for that. Here is a monologue that is actually verbatim from the novel, but you have to love Peter Wellers delivery of these lines.

Bill Lee: Did I ever tell you about the man who taught his ass to talk? His whole abdomen would move up and down, you dig, farting out the words. It was unlike anything I had ever heard. This ass talk had sort of a gut frequency. It hit you right down there like you gotta go. You know when the old colon gives you the elbow and it feels sorta cold inside, and you know all you have to do is turn loose? Well this talking hit you right down there, a bubbly, thick stagnant sound, a sound you could smell. This man worked for a carnival you dig, and to start with it was like a novelty ventri-liquist act. Real funny, too, at first. He had a number he called The Better Ole that was a scream, I tell you. I forget most of it but it was clever. Like, "Oh I say, are you still down there, old thing?" "Nah I had to go relieve myself." After a while the ass start talking on its own. He would go in without anything prepared and his ass would ad-lib and toss the gags back at him every time. Then it developed sort of teeth-like little raspy in-curving hooks and start eating. He thought this was cute at first and built an act around it, but the asshole would eat its way through his pants and start talking on the street, shouting out it wanted equal rights. It would get drunk, too, and have crying jags nobody loved it and it wanted to be kissed same as any other mouth. Finally it talked all the time day and night, you could hear him for blocks screaming at it to shut up, and beating it with his fist, and sticking candles up it, but nothing did any good and the asshole said to him Its you who will shut up in the end. Not me. Because we dont need you around here any more. I can talk and eat AND shit. After that he began waking up in the morning with a transparent jelly like a tadpoles tail all over his mouth. This jelly was what the scientists call un-D.T., Undifferentiated Tissue, which can grow into any kind of flesh on the human body. He would tear it off his mouth and the pieces would stick to his hands like burning gasoline jelly and grow there, grow anywhere on him a glob of it fell. So finally his mouth sealed over, and the whole head would have have amputated spontaneous - except for the EYES you dig. Thats one thing the asshole COULDN'T do was see. It needed the eyes. But nerve connections were blocked and infiltrated and atrophied so the brain couldnt give orders any more. It was trapped in the skull, sealed off. For a while you could see the silent, helpless suffer-ing of the brain behind the eyes, then finally the brain must have died, because the eyes WENT OUT, and there was no more feeling in them than a crabs eyes on the end of a stalk.

Definitely a must see film. Just be prepared for something rediculous and out there. Again, along with La Dolce Vita, it's not your popcorn flick; you need to use your mind. Also, popcorn might not be good since it is gross at many times.