Brainstorm (1983)

the audience applauded

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

Best movie of this year hands down!

best movie i've ever seen.

Natale Wood's last film and released 2 years after her untimely death with a few scenes shot (perhaps) using a stand-in (no film credit). Also staring Christopher Walken and Cliff Robertson. They are part of a team of research scientists that create a remarkable tool that records virtually all of a real-life experience through brainwaves. That includes every nuance of vision, touch, smell, emotion, and (as we learn later) pain and suffering. It's remarkable that it was even finished, and producer-directer Douglas Trumble spent almost 5 million dollars to finish the film after a production "grant" from Lloyd's of London, who insured it's completion. Almost not released by MGM at all. It's unsettling and the "recorded" brainwaves are quite intense and may be disturbing to some. Minor nudity, sexual content, torture, and a vivid "Heart Attack" death experience are all part of the brainstorms! The equipment looks quite real with the record and playback mechanisms using golden "foil" tape. The government intends to produce it on a mass-production scale. The ending is an amazing testament to the genius and artistry of Douglas Trumbull. Both Hell and Heaven are "realistically" portrayed. The devise is corrupted into a diabolical mind control, torture-brainwashing tool, the research scientists attempt to sabotage and destroy it. A 2001 "psychedelic" ending with visions of the afterlife? This haunting film was not a moneymaker for MGM and "feels" unfinished. The music starts and stops in fits although the storyline remains remarkably understandable, with a few minor exceptions. A bit slow at the beginning.The idea of "mind control thru a headset devise" is not original and was used in the original "Star Trek" series, at least twice in the 1960's. I saw this on a big screen and it was a far superior experience, with all the format-size changes on the screen. Viewing it once every few years is enough for me. Both exhilarating and incredibly disturbing at the same time, even on a small(er) home screen.

Cutting edge sci-fi film is interesting and absorbing enough to make it good entertainment. It's not so much about story. There really isn't much of one, and we don't ever get to know the characters *that* well. This is more a film about concepts - and imagery, of course. Marking a directorial effort for visual effects specialist Douglas Trumbull ("2001: A Space Odyssey", "Silent Running"), it definitely has the right look to it. Trumbull uses multiple aspect ratios in order to maximize the experience. Fortunately, he does give the proceedings a level of humanity, particularly as they pertain to a shaky marriage, and there are moments of poignancy during the narrative.Christopher Walken and Louise Fletcher star as Michael Brace and Lillian Reynolds, two old- fashioned mad scientists working to perfect a virtual reality device that records human experiences. It can allow you to taste what somebody else is eating, for example, or feel what it was like for them as they rode a roller coaster. The people funding and backing Brace & Reynolds ultimately don't like the way they do things, and try to alter the course of the research. Michael becomes obsessed with checking out a tape made by Lillian, and figures out a way to sneak past the defenses of the computer program running the show.Overall, this is an amusing show, with solid acting by all concerned. Fletcher is indeed a standout. "Brainstorm" is notable for being the last credit for co-star Natalie Wood (who isn't given very much to do), whose untimely death occurred during production. Supporting cast members include Cliff Robertson, a likable Joe Dorsey ("Grizzly"), and a young Jason Lively ("Night of the Creeps") as Walken and Woods' son. (Walkens' real-life spouse Georgianne, who usually works as a casting director, appears on screen here as Dorseys' wife.) The technical work on the film is of course first rate, with eye popping visual effects, effective production design, and a thunderous music score by James Horner.Worth a look for fans of this genre.Seven out of 10.

the last role of Natalie Wood. the splendid performance of Christopher Walken. a seductive idea. and the brutal intervention as seed of evil. a different film for images and for its challenge/warning. a wise manner to drive the action and to explore each nuance of story. A S.F. who becomes slice from reality, mixture of its period anxiety and everyday realities of our time. it is not a great movie. only instrument of a message who, using the tradition of another films of same genre, desires be more than skin for common fears. after years after first view, it seems be one of admirable serious and thorough work products. that is its basic virtue. and source of strong emotions of its viewers.

Brainstorm is an indecently beautiful and deliciously scary slice of 80s aspirational cinema. Chris Walken and Natalie Wood co-star as married scientists Michael and Karen Brace, who are part of a team that invent a device that records and can re-transmit experiences. The film is maybe an American example of the 80s cinema du look, every shot is framed, for every shot an effort is made. When Michael is in hospital, he has bright red jello on his lunch tray, there's a Vasarely serigraph and some great abstract sculpture in the corporate environment. Everything is controlled. I would love to know how they got some of the shots they did.Even though it's such a beautiful movie, there's some nice messages there. One of which is about seeing yourself through the eyes of others, and rekindling lost love. I actually felt lucky to be alive watching the movie - it's been a long time since I felt any such thing.It's quite a reflexive movie in that the initial corporate use of the technology is to get someone to do a grand prix, and then peddle the sensorium of that, but the movie is also in many ways about experiencing something beautiful yourself, what it's like to live the life of a genius and feel true love.Brainstorm is one of those rare movies which mention a force that could be used for good or bad, without seeming trite. The story could be tighter, and isn't helped by Nathalie Woods dying in mysterious circumstances before the film was totally wrapped. I just absolutely love it though, the movie came on me as a revelation. I had suspected when watching Silent Running, particularly the opening glide over a quite artificial forest, that Trumbull loved fetishised imagery, but I still wasn't prepared for Brainstorm.