Nearly forty years old, the film holds up extremely well for a movie focused on the relationship between people and media (rather than technology directly). The first half of the films does a spectacular job exploring our relationship with the extreme. Imagine the entire film as an email from a friend with a link to a website full of snuff films. Would you click the link? Would you not? It's that curiosity about the dark side of humanity that forms the predicate of this entire film, a movie with a protagonist running a television station premised on the broadcasting the most immoral (amoral?) pixels capable of being sold. That portion of the movie - and its general status as a thought piece - I give a 10/10.
But, as a film, I struggle to give it more than a 6, even if it's a 6 pushing a 7. The final quarter of the film simply comes off the rails. Yes, this is the portion of the film where the hipsters come to love the movie and shout its tagline to the less informed: "Long live the new flesh." But, it's precisely in this final portion of the movie where it fails most at being a coherent piece of art. Veering into incomprehensibility simply isn't a replacement for crafting an ending, though it's apparently a successful formula for achieving cult status.
But, as a film, I struggle to give it more than a 6, even if it's a 6 pushing a 7. The final quarter of the film simply comes off the rails. Yes, this is the portion of the film where the hipsters come to love the movie and shout its tagline to the less informed: "Long live the new flesh." But, it's precisely in this final portion of the movie where it fails most at being a coherent piece of art. Veering into incomprehensibility simply isn't a replacement for crafting an ending, though it's apparently a successful formula for achieving cult status.