Naked Lunch

You are now entering Interzone, William S. Burroughs's phantasmagorical land of junk, paranoia, and crawly things. Best travel advice: "Exterminate all rational thought." In David Cronenberg's superbly shot, unnerving warp on the Burroughs novel, the novelist himself becomes a main character (played in an implacable monotone by Peter Weller), with elements from Burroughs' life--including the shooting of his wife during a "William Tell" game, and bohemian friends Kerouac and Ginsberg--added to frame the book's wild visions. This is, ironically, a somewhat rational approach to an unfilmable book (and it makes a hair-curling double bill with Barton Fink, another look at writerly madness, with both films sharing Judy Davis). Cronenberg is a natural for oozing mugwumps and typewriters that turn into giant bugs, of course. But in the end, this is really his own vision of the artistic process, rather than Burroughs's hallucinatory descent into hell. --Robert Horton

Movie Details

Cast: Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, Julian Sands, Roy Scheider, Monique Mercure, Nicholas Campbell, Michael Zelniker, Robert A. Silverman, Joseph Scoren, Peter Boretski, Yuval Daniel, John Friesen, Sean McCann, Howard Jerome, Michael Caruana, Kurt Reis, Justin Louis, Julian Richings, Jim Yip, Claude Aflalo, Laurent Hazout, Joseph Di Mambro
MPAA Rating: R
Running time: 115 min
DVD Aspect Ratios: 1.85:1

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DVD Features:

New high-definition digital transfer, approved by director David Cronenberg and enhanced for widescreen televisions

Audio commentary by Cronenberg and actor Peter Weller

Naked Making Lunch, a London Weekend Television documentary about the making of the film, directed by Chris Rodley

Illustrated essay about the special effects in Naked Lunch by the editor of Cinefex magazine, Jody Duncan, featuring artifacts from Cronenberg's archive

Film stills gallery

A collection of original marketing materials

William S. Burroughs' audio recording of excerpts from Naked Lunch

A collection of archival stills of William S. Burroughs from the Allen Ginsberg Trust

32-page booklet featuring essays by film critic Janet Maslin, Chris Rodley, Gary Indiana, and a piece by William S. Burroughs

International rating:

Europe: 18
Australia: M

DVD International release dates:
North America: Nov 11, 03

VHS International release dates:
North America: Oct 9, 01