Naked Lunch [Region 2]

In essence, Cronenberg didn't attempt to recreate the book verbatim. Instead he deftly interwove Burroughs' life with some of the routines and rants from the book. This movie is not for the fainthearted as it shows man-sized mugwumps and talking typwriter/insects who are really operatives for a covert attempt to penetrate Interzone, using a hapless writer, Bill Lee, as their chief spy.

Definitive moments in Burroughs' life, such as his relationship with Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac and the death of his wife Joan at his own hand are featured in the movie. It also gives a surreal biography to the birth of the writer in Burroughs as he attempts to write his way out of the guilt of his wife's death and the drugs that numbed the difficulties of his life.

Those who think that this movie had no real plot or if they did think there was a plot that the plot wasn't linear, then they can't be that big a fan of Burroughs. His life was not normal, his fans are not normal, and his mode of thinking was, frankly, insane. Cronenberg does a brilliant job getting inside the mind of the writer, the genius, the man, William S. Burroughs. Take a trip into his mind, ladies and gentlemen, and be changed forever.


It's a literary high   November 26, 2003
SPM (Eugene, Oregon)
12 out of 13 found this review helpful

Cronenberg's version of Naked Lunch is a brilliant combination of Burroughs' novel and Burroughs' life. He blends the true story of Burroughs life (and his reason for writing) with the surreal dark-comedy 'routines' of the novel until they become one story. The story is a quiet hallucination featuring exterminators, addiction, typewriters in the form of insects, typewriters that grow genitals, a global conspiracy of intelligence agents, the drug trade, homosexual ambiguity, writer's block, accidental murder, and literary paranoia. None of these elements is explored completely. Instead, Cronenberg touches on each one until they form some strange, underlying logic.

This edition of the DVD has enough extras to make it the only version of Naked Lunch you'll ever have to buy. (They won't release a bigger, better edition later.) The BBC documentary is okay. It's about 45 minutes long, giving Cronenberg and William Burroughs a lot of time to speak. (Burroughs is particularly good, with a dry sense of humor and a habit of saying obvious truths that make people uneasy.) The second disc also has stills from the special effects team, showing how the various creatures and organic typewriters were developed.

But it's the first disc --- the movie itself --- that makes it worth buying and watching. The special audio track, shared by Peter Weller and Cronenberg, adds a lot of useful background information. The film itself is bright and sharp, a perfect example of DVD clarity. I highly recommend this DVD to anyone who is interested in the best films of the 1990s. Naked Lunch didn't make as big an impact in theaters as it did in book stores, but it should have.


Superb.   December 4, 2000
Amy Balot (pa)
17 out of 20 found this review helpful

David Cronenberg's dazzling sci-fi imagery meets William S. Burroughs' dark humor in this bizarre cult film. Peter Weller plays William Lee, an exterminator who can't seem to keep track of his bug powder. His writer friends hint that it may be a `domestic problem.' Indeed, he finds that his wife is stealing his bug powder for its narcotic effects.

At a party with two friends (meant to be Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg), Lee nods to his wife and says, `About time for our William Tell act...' Joan balances her highball glass on her head and closes her eyes. Bill isn't such a good shot that night, and accidentally shoots a hole through Joan's forehead. The glass falls to the floor, intact.

Soon the police are after Lee. They lock him in a room with a giant bug, who tells him his real identity. It starts him on his journey to Interzone, a strange hallucinatory world inhabited by talking insects, living typewriters, and alien/insect mugwumps that secrete intoxicating juices from the penises on their heads.

Lee has a long strange trip in Interzone. His insect typewriter sends him on missions where he meets strange people and even stranger creatures. And all the while he is still on the run from the police.

David Cronenberg's screenwriting and directing skills were in top form for this movie. Once called `the king of venereal horror,' his trademark grotesque sexual imagery and bug obsessions, as seen in Videodrome and The Fly, have been honed to give the perfect nightmarish effect. Surely there couldn't be a better man to bring Burroughs' Interzone to the big-screen.

The acting was also superb. Wearing a fedora and an anonymous tan overcoat, and speaking in Burroughs' low monotonous drawl, Weller is a very believable William Lee. Judy Davis was also excellent, bringing to life the most three-dimensional portrayal of Joan Vollmer Burroughs ever.

The fabulously surreal special effects are sure to draw in Cronenberg fans, and fans of Burroughs will be equally entertained by samplings of the original book's `routines' and parallels to Burroughs' own life. However, Cronenberg isn't known for making accessible movies, and when coupled with Burroughs' characters, this certainly isn't a film for everyone. Rated `R' for heavy drug content, adult language, and `bizarre eroticism,' there are scenes portraying bug powder injection (a heroin metaphor), typewriters with genitalia, and a gay sex scene in which Julian Sands turns into a parrot. But for all the "adult" content, this is a very intelligent, complex, and inspired movie that its viewers will not soon forget.


Homebrewer   February 17, 2005
T. Crockett (Ballwin, MO)
8 out of 9 found this review helpful

The idea of bringing the novel Naked Lunch to the screen is a monumental undertaking. It was a task that could only have been executed well by a truly innovative director like David Cronenberg. Instead of attempting a literal depiction of the book, which would be all but impossible due to its stream of consciousness style, Cronenberg instead paints us a picture of what it might have been like to have been in the head of William Burroughs while he was writing it. The film can be considered a surrealistic biography; elements of Burroughs's life are melded with images and characters from his novels. Peter Weller plays the part of William Lee, Burroughs's alter ego, perfectly; with the right degree of apathy, detachment, and despair. Burroughs himself commended Cronenberg and Wellers on the accuracy of their depiction of his ideas. The supporting cast is also wonderful, giving life to an array of colourful Burroughsian characters.

The plot is essentially as follows... William Lee, having long given up writing as "too dangerous", lives a comfortable if morose life as a pest exterminator. His wife Joan, however, introduces him to the pleasures of his bug powder, as a powerful narcotic. Soon, Bill's world begins to unravel; the narcotic squad is after him, and at the behest of a talking typewriter/cockroach, Bill and Joan play "William Tell", leaving Joan with a gunshot wound to the head. After shooting his wife, Bill escapes to the hallucinatory world of Interzone, where he begins writing reports; again at the request of the talking typewriter/cockroach. The reports he writes end up becoming the novel Naked Lunch.

This film certainly isn't for everyone's taste, but it is a must for any Burroughs fan, and for anyone interested in surrealist existentialism. Now go out and purchase a copy of Naked Lunch 'ASAP', they don't make movies like this anymore (you will need a nap after you watch this movie). Enjoy kiddies!