MK Ultra

What would you do, the CIA have approached you, to make some tests on people's minds, to discover and to find, if control can be acquired, of their thoughts and their desires, make them act against their will, to satisfy and to fulfil, the less well-off are your patients, some don't make a lot of sense, but they'll do what they are told, let's see if science can remould.

A far from engaging tale (quite dull in fact) of the abuse dealt out to those less well off in the 1960s by those in authority in order to find out how they might be able to control a person's mind, change their behaviour and make them do things against their will.

I like the lead actor that plays the doctor; this was a gimmick and I feel for it.

This is not just low budget. You can do a lot with a short changed budget. Even in the opening; there should not have just been a 1:1 old video playing. There were no effects used; not even a ken burns effect or something. The CIA guy has huge nose hairs coming up from pretending to snort cocaine. This is super obvious against a light colored background. NOBODY looked at this film after it was put in the can. The lighting is terrible in every indoor scene and the shadows are not managed at all.

FIFTEEN MINUTES IN... I had to hit the ejector button. I am not going to waste my time watching a movie that was not worth a second look to the people that made the dang thing.

Started off good, then sadly dived into a similar turf to canninbal holocaust showing us grim sexual, physical and mental torture.

You'd be better off reading Wikipedia to get the jist of the illegal program of MK Ultra than watch this boring, cult-like movie. The movie jumps around in places from 1 scene to another, then quickly snaps back to another torture type scene.

The psychiatrist appears to be shocked and bewildered the entire movie which is really irksome.

I wouldn't waste 90mins watching this movie, as I mentioned, there are plenty of sources on what MK Ultra achieved and conducted.

In the 60's, the CIA is conducting mind control experiments using LSD. Dr. Ford Strauss (Anson Mount) is recruited by CIA agent Galvin Morgan (Jason Patric) to run experiments at a small Mississippi clinic. Rose (Jaime Ray Newman) is Ford's wife.

The style is faux documentary. It doesn't have much of a story flow. It's basically a lot of individual scenes of Ford's life and his experiments. It's trying for realism. There are a few interesting ideas and scenes. The transgender patient is most interesting. Mostly, it's rather dull until the last act explodes into gun violence. Through that whole section, I am most intrigued by Anson Mount and Jason Patric's similar looks. That's not a good thing. I don't find their struggle that compelling.

Attempt to qbtain allsorts of authenticity, a drama pseudo documentary styled look at projects done in the name of c.i.a., and psychriatic institutions, famous as well as infamous, dealing with psychedelic compunds to treat mental patients, or to leech information from enemy spies and soforth, using the force of lsd and other caleidoscopic formulaes to turn a mans brain inside out...

the actual issues are real and shouldve been covered so too, but the plot and acts are like a rambling tree of b-quality, and gives you just a minor clue of the severity of the deeds done back then

the task of making a film like this needs a lot of economic foundation to obtain credibility, especially when the audience is history nerds that knows the abc, and others like me the grumpy old man that wants more than just close ups shoots to hide the real world and pinups doing erotic yoga with cia agents that seems pretty skidrunning if you ask me, therefore i will not award this more than a 5, and that you can easily let this slip by.