Naked Lunch (film) items and themes from the film woven into the lyrics. Naked Lunch (film) Naked Lunch is a 1991 drama film co-written and directed by David Cronenberg and starring Peter Weller, Judy Davis, Ian Holm, and Roy Scheider. It is an adaptation of William S. Burroughs' 1959 novel of the same name, and an international co-production of Canada, Britain and Japan. The film was released on December 27, 1991, in the United States and April 24, 1992, in the United Kingdom by 20th Century Fox. It received positive reviews from critics, but was a box office bomb, garnering only $2.6 million
Ali's Smile: Naked Scientology a scholar of the Beats, describes as "a tormented but supremely curious person who explored the dark side of the human consciousness." Burroughs often probed contentious social and political problems with "a cold-blooded, almost insectlike presence" that influenced popular culture as well as literature. Burroughs believed readers needed to take an active part in reshaping their own reality through reading. For example, works such as the controversial novel "Naked Lunch" (1959) dealt with his concerns regarding "the battle against control," and Burroughs wrote others "might see the control that governments, religions, greedy human beings, and their own cravings for drugs,