The Lathe of Heaven
by David R. Loxton, Fred Barzyk
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DVD details
Actor: Bruce Davison, Kevin Conway, Niki Flacks, Peyton E. Park, Vandi ClarkDirector: David R. Loxton, Fred Barzyk
Brand: New Video
Producer: David R. Loxton
Producer: Fred Barzyk
Producer: Carol Brandenburg
Writer: Diane English
Writer: Roger Swaybill
Writer: Ursula K. Le Guin
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0
Format: Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 105 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2000-08-29
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: New Video Group
DVD Reviews of The Lathe of Heaven
DVD Review: Almost as good as you remember.
Summary: 4 Stars
"The Lathe of Heaven" was one of those shows I saw on TV in my teens which had a profound impact on my psyche. I had wanted to add it to my DVD collection for the longest time and finally did so.
The story has remained the same, in short, great! Keep in mind, though, that this is NOT a quality transfer. At the beginning, a disclaimer is shown, informing the viewer that the original film was lost and that the transfer was made from a 2" tape copy. Combine that with earlier BBC production values and you'll lose any expectation to be blown away visually.
All that being said, though, I'm glad to have it and still appreciate the thought-provoking tale.
DVD Review: Excellent story
Summary: 5 Stars
One of my favorit all time movies. It rates up there with ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST. The ending is a little confusing and even the writer was not sure what the ending meant but it is fun to discuss with your friends and try to figure out.DVD Review: Thoughtful cautionary tale
Summary: 4 Stars
Ursula K. LeGuin is among the most literary of SF writers. Her stories center on human strengths, faults, and dilemmas. Fantasy elements in her story just highlight these traits, never becoming the story in themselves.
This adaptation of her famous novel presents George Orr, a normal enough guy convicted of some minor drug infraction. When he shows up for court-ordered therapy, the reason for the drugs comes out: he takes them to sleep without dreaming. His dreams terrify him, not as nightmares would, but only after he awakens. Those bizarre images from dreamworld logic turn out to have changed the real world in their image - and changed them so completely that all of human history changes, too, in ways that let George's new world make sense. Only George remembers the old world as well as the new.
Dr. Haber takes on George's case and quickly discovers the truth of George's power. I'm sure everyone agrees, there's plenty in this world that could be improved. Haber sees it his god-given duty to make those improvements, using technological control over George's dreaming mind. A classic story of scientific hubris follows, with blind disregard for many warnings signs along the way. One can almost imagine George and Haber as two discoverers of fire: the one seeking only a way to put it out, the other determined to set the world abalze.
This 1980 movie was probably put together in the late 70s. It carries many marks of that time, including some Logan's Run visual styling, bell-bottoms, and Brutalist architecture. I doubt mere coincidence in the close fit between the Brutalist research institute that Haber creates for himself and his brutal approach to George and to the world in general. This modest movie succeeds well, despite minimal effects and total lack of guns'n'chases action. Perhaps it lacks the delicacy of LeGuin's original, but offers plenty to the thinking viewer.
-- wiredweird
DVD Review: Incoherent and dated and smells of made-for-tv
Summary: 2 Stars
There's a reason all the studio masters were lost and this movie sunk into obscurity. It was made for TV (in the classic sense of made-for-TV, which means the producers have low expectations for quality and coherence), and it was quite correctly chucked in the trash after one or two broadcasts (remember "broadcasting"? You flick on the telly, maybe something is on, maybe it isn't, then it's all over - - the show is disposable - - if you miss it, it's never coming back, and probably just as well. There's more meaningless junk on today anyway.)
Along comes [...] and fishes around in the trash, hoping to revive the Visionary Cult Classic that everyone overlooked, a heady mix of 2001, Twilight Zone, and The Day The Earth Stood Still, a prescient script that informs decades to come and that Real Movie Aficionados recognize as seminal. Sorry. This isn't it. There's a few dream sequences, a few modifying-the-past-time-travel type paradoxes, a megalomaniac, and -- oddly, out of the blue -- a bunch of stuffy aliens in turtle suits. The plot climax substitutes vintage special effects for actual coherence. Then it - - well - - just ends, without really making much sense.
DVD Review: a movie from my memory
Summary: 4 Stars
I remembered this movie from when it was on TV and have looked for it since. The quality of the movie is weak, poor lighting not much spent on props or special effects. It looks more like a play on stage being recorded. The story line however and much of the acting carries the poor cinematography. I am glad to add it to my sci fi collection.
Description of The Lathe of Heaven
For George Orr, sleep is not a respite. For Dr. William Haber, dreams are tools. For sci-fi fans, the wait is over. Praised as "rare and powerful" by The New York Times, Ursula K. Le Guin's THE LATHE OF HEAVEN is one of the most celebrated science fict"Antwerp!" For science fiction fans, the long-awaited VHS and DVD release of The Lathe of Heaven is a dream come true. This haunting adaptation of Ursula K. Le?Guin's genre-classic novel was broadcast but once on PBS in 1980 before rights and other legal snafus relegated it to the archives. Reportedly PBS's most requested program, the made-for-TV film was at last rebroadcast in 2000. Set in Portland, Oregon, in the near future, The Lathe of Heaven stars Bruce Davison as George Orr, who, to put it mildly, has a dream problem. Not only do his dreams come true, but they "change reality back to the Stone Age."
Kevin Conway costars as Dr.?Haber, a dream specialist who instantly recognizes George's gift and tries to harness it to make the whole world right. But, as George notes, "Unlimited power means unlimited danger." The increasingly megalomaniacal Haber uses George to try to cure the world's ills, from overpopulation to war, resulting in, for starters, a devastating plague and even alien invasion.
Many in this production went on to projects familiar to audiences: Cowriter Diane English went on to create TV's Murphy Brown; Scott Rudin, credited with "Principle Casting," is now one of Hollywood's most formidable producers; Margaret Avery, who costars as a skeptical lawyer who comes to believe George's incredible tale, was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in The Color Purple. For those who have only been able to see this now-legendary production on poor-quality bootleg tapes, this release will be sheer heaven. The DVD contains an interview with Le?Guin conducted by Bill Moyers. --Donald Liebenson
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