Smooth_J Blog

I somehow discovered this movie on Amazon a few weeks ago, and after reading up on it, I bought it out pure curiosity, and based on the fact that I had loved all the criterion films I had bought before this one.  I’m still amazed at how much I liked this movie.

I would like to start off by mentioning that William S. Burroughs is one of the most interesting people I have ever heard of, and I plan on reading his work very soon.  What is most fascinating about him is trying to decipher what about is actually true, and what about him is myth or fiction.  He actually reminds of a more literary Hunter S. Thompson, one of my favorite characters in writing (or even history).

However, it was not only these few reasons that I found the movie so exceptional.  The exposition is especially well-done, introducing you to Peter Weller’s Bill Lee character and his deadpan delivery of exterminator lines.  Even when the film is anchored in reality, it has a strange, surreal feel to it, heightened by awesome saxophone work by Ornette Coleman and a quietly strange score by Howard Shore.  Soon after Bill Lee utters the line “Exterminate all rational thought—that is the conclusion I have come to”, which acts as self-explanatory advice to the viewer, the film dips into the surreal and haunting world of a writer struggling with a near impossible work to finish.

Peter Weller is outstanding.  I have never seen such a perfectly deadpan performance that still contains so much depth and undertones in the right parts of his portrayal.  Judy Davis is also very good as his unfaithful, drug addled wife (and later lover?).  Most of the other performances are pretty much bit parts, shown to heighten the insignificance of normal human contact in the writing process.  There are a couple characters, however, to pay attention to—Ian Holm plays a fellow writer in “Interzone”, who lends Bill his cherished typewriter, only to have it be labeled as an “enemy agent” by Bill’s typewriter and destroyed.  Roy Scheider very effectively plays the role of a drug manufacturer in Interzone, and also seems to have a lot of fun with the part, hamming it up near the end of the final act.

It is also important to note that most of the occurrences in the film are in fact happening, but the way they are portrayed is through Bill Lee’s hallucinatory visions, as he believes that everything is assignment from a secret organization, and his writing is merely “reports.”

What is remarkable about the film is that it never delves into bizarrity without making you genuinely care what happens to Lee.  You watch his deliriums and dependencies spiral out of control, but he always retains his main character traits, though they may not be all that likeable.  It is difficult to watch sometimes, as it is often graphic and disturbing, but in the end, it is an extremely rewarding, yet puzzling, experience.

All in all, it is a meditation on the difficulties of the writing process, and the effect that drugs may have on a writer in the middle of it.  Burroughs really struggled with similar hallucinations and difficulties while writing the novel in Tangier, giving the film a very credible stand on the subject matter.  It was very effective that Cronenberg included not only events from the novel, but various happenings in Burroughs’ life and even some parts of his other books.  He even uses the William Tell routine to demonstrate what Burroughs said, in his own words, “Inspired him to be a writer.”  The significance of including it again after finally leaving Interzone is very simple—the “accidental” murder of his wife got him there, got him into writing; and now it is ultimately what will help him to finish his novel, and leave Interzone.