The Lathe of Heaven (1980)

Wonderful Movie

The performances transcend the film's tropes, grounding it in characters that feel more complete than this subgenre often produces.

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

The world of literature lost one of its finest writers with the death of Ursula Le Guin this year (2017) at the age of 88. She was one of my heroes. Her writing is elegant, humane, wise, and penetrating, and she followed no 'school', no ideology, no fashion. I write for a living too (though it's writing of a very different kind), and what I wouldn't give to be able to write just one page, one paragraph, even one sentence that would live up to her standards.Well, anyway: The Lathe of Heaven is one of her SF novels and probably my favorite among them. It's a singular vision that stands alone in her own work, and in fact I can't think of any other novel to easily compare it with by anything else in SF either. Not all that long after it was written, this movie adaptation was done for original TV broadcast, so it has a low-budget feel to it, and the lead actors (Bruce Davison, Kevin Conway, Margaret Avery) weren't all that well known at the time. It's even in black and white format. But put all that aside: it actually stays pretty close to the Le Guin storyline, unlike the inferior 2002 adaptation that strayed off the path. It's such a great story and so easily translatable to the screen for today's SF-familiar audiences that you can easily imagine a much bigger-budget superb production being done now complete with advanced CGI that would do justice to the hero George Orr's world-changing visions.George Orr (Davison) is a perfectly ordinary, nice, low-key guy except for one thing: when pressed into it, he has "effective dreams" that change reality and rewrite history. He doesn't want to do this, but gets taken advantage of by psychiatrist William Haber (Conway) who uses George to enable his own altruistic but power-hungry goals. George's torturous journey through one history after another and eventual resolution are the substance of the movie.This production disappeared for a long time after its original airing, but finally now you can see it on YouTube. Well worth it. Le Guin's stories haven't generally been served well on movies and TV but so much better could be done with them. The Earthsea fantasy books are on a level with Narnia and Tolkien and they would work brilliantly if well produced. The recent TV production of them turned out to be a travesty. So would others of her SF novels like City of Illusions, Planet of Exile, or The Left Hand of Darkness (well, maybe that last one would be best as an indie film.) Hollywood is missing a bet.

This original version remains my favorite film of all time. Somehow it's much better than even its color remake. A very close tie is Forbidden Planet. Close behind are the classic BLADE RUNNER and the color version of Lathe of Heaven. The greatest series EVER for TV is, of course, Babylon 5 followed by the original PRISONER.The stark scenes, in the 1980 LATHE, contrast vividly with the dreamer's rich ability to brighten his, OUR, world. While exploring the power of our minds, it also shows the penalty for careless use and abuse of that power. This is a film to keep and show our kids and theirs and theirs......

As a one time science fiction nut, I always found Ursula K. LeGuin to be one of the most challenging writers in her genre. For me, she hung over the mainstream. This is a nice film that doesn't touch the book, but it has fine performances and a reasonable plot within the constraints that are time travel. A psychiatrist takes advantage of a man whose dreams come to realization, trying to manipulate him for his own purposes. He never grasps the idea that dreams are often surreal and uncontrollable. After Forbidden Planet, I know that allowing the baser things to come to the fore can be disastrous. The problem with the whole topic always gets back to the immutability of time. Traveling forward doesn't seem to have issues; back creates, of course, the butterfly effect and makes for unpredictability. This goes to the mat and is reasonably satisfying, though it is full of holes that could easily render it incomprehensible.

Having first seen this film many years ago and reading the Ursula K. LeGuin novel only a few years ago, I can say the film is very faithful to it's source material. This is the kind of sci-fi they rarely do these days; no smart-ass cop stopping a CGI army of killer robots, or people shooting bullet-time weapons while running up walls! Those are glossed up, repetitive action movies. LATHE OF HEAVEN is science fiction. The story of one George Orr and his 'effective dreams'(dreams that alter the fabric of reality) is a metaphor for the genre itself; fantastical dreams (and horrific nightmares) becoming tangible and tactile. George is so afraid of the uncontrollable power of his dreams he resorts to drugs to sleep without dreaming. He later is assigned (as part of his rehabilitation) a therapist, Dr. Haber, who soon becomes convinced of Orr's incredible (and involuntary) power. This brings out Haber's innate desire for control; to 'make the world as it should be,' so to speak. Haber tries to steamroll over George's seemingly milquetoast personality to use him as his instrument of change. This is when George seeks the aid of a social worker (and future lover) Heather La Loche to give him strength in his compulsory dealings with Haber. They eventually see the 'real' world; stripped of all effective dreaming (a post-nuclear holocaust). This 'true' core of reality drives Haber insane. That's the bare skeleton of the story. There's so much more layering and social commentary woven throughout(everything from workman's comp to racism and nuclear war). And Bruce Davison is perfect as the passive/aggressive George Orr; almost born for the role(the original WILLARD himself!). For non-space opera/bullet-time sci-fi fans, this is right up there with SOLARIS (either version) or GATTACA (another underrated classic; a deft blend of BRAVE NEW WORLD and film noir). The only downside to this review (and no fault of the film itself) is the shaky quality of the DVD. As the DVD intro forewarns, it was mastered from the only decent tape left. This is a shame, but although this film has many haunting images (the plague sequence; the sea-turtle inspired, 'unnatural' aliens, etc.)it's the idea of dreams (for better or worse) becoming reality that matter most. The grainy, ghostly images are a little distracting at first, but soon overlooked. The story matters first and foremost. This should be a lesson to all the shlockbusters (and countless, needless sequels) that infest modern multiplexes; oh, I know--those film makers wipe their tears and blow their noses with $1000 bills, but they still make crap! And, almost not worth mentioning, there was a recent A&E remake(speaking of crap). It was an utter waste of time and whatever money it cost. Lukas Haas was a blank, boring slate as George Orr. Plot lines were seemingly dropped and added as if at random. As Ray Bradbury once said about a recently proposed FAHRENHEIT 451 remake; "Just film the book!" The original version more or less did that already! And as much as I loved James Caan in GODFATHER, he is wasted here as Haber. Just plain miscast. Stick with the PBS version and/or the book. A film of dreams for dreamers everywhere. Damn effective, too!