Blog 10: Videodrome

Normally, I look forward analyzing videos or text for IML 101, but after seeing Videodrome, I was dreading it. Videodrome could perhaps be viewed as a form of “art,” but to me, it is an unnecessary focus on the perverted underworld of violence and sex. Never in my life would I have chosen to watch something like that. There are many other movies that could have applied to Marshall MacLuhan’s theories. Never will I willingly watch something like that again.

I was disturbed and upset by the film.

Since watching the movie, it has not seemed as bad as I thought at first, simply because my brain has tried to rationalize it. This horrifies me because I do not want to normalize any sort of behavior relating to the sadomasochistic smut that we watched. I have tried to block the movie from my mind.

I hate having to recall the movie, but since my grade depend upon it, I will now relate Cronenberg’s Videodrome to Marshall McLuhan’s theories:



McLuhan’s concept of a global village can be seen in Videodrome in the way that the main character is able to pick up channels being distributed from around the world.

McLuhan’s text states, “all media work us over completely.” This is also apparent in Videodrome in the way that the main character becomes so completely involved with his work that it becomes a part of his life away from work. He is apparently extra-receptive to the hallucinations because of his exposure to violence and sex in the media.

“We are enveloped by sound… We can’t shut out sound automatically.” – McLuhan. A reader can choose to look away from reading a book if it becomes distasteful. A listener cannot choose to close their “earlids” when they hear something they do not like. When the main character is watching Dr. Oblivion’s videos and hallucinating, looking away will not stop him from experiencing the sounds of the recording. He could have shut the TV off (but perhaps the hallucination’s grasp on him were too strong), but otherwise, he was plagued by the sound coming from the television.

“In television, the images are projected at you. You are the screen. The images wrap around you. You are the vanishing point.” – McLuhan. The first part of the quote is relevant to the movie because the main character’s job depends on sampling media for his television channel’s audience. The second part of the quote is relevant in a whole different level because the screen stimulates the hallucinations and they take hold of the audience.