The Lathe of Heaven (1980)

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

This adaptation of Le Guin's best book tells the intriguing story of a man whos dreams change reality and a psychiatrist who uses that gift/curse for his own ends.It's not a slick production, being mainly 2 or 3 people having conversations and some dream sequences that attempt to tell large stories with small special effects, but it's still very effective. The cast is solid, with the dreamer harried and the shrink increasingly monstrous as a man whose belief in his greatness is constantly belied by his actions and statements.I really like the overarching and philosophical take on grand solutions as well as small things like the way the future contains a benevolent-yet-uncaring bureaucracy.The biggest issue with the movie is the big end scene. It's not in any way clear what's going on. I first watched this movie with my dad on its original broadcast, and the only reason I understand the scene is because he, having read the book several times (he taught a class in sci-fi literature), knew exactly what was going on. I just watched the movie with my girlfriend, and even though she'd read the book a few months ago she found the scene as perplexing as I had. It's an unfortunate flaw in what is otherwise a very solid and thoughtful sci-fi flick. Still worth watching.

This fairly low-budgeted PBS film from 1980 shows why a real story, with real ideas, runs rings around the multi-million dollar CGI-fests that overrun theaters today. A sensitive, thoughtful adaptation of the Ursula LeGuin classic about dreams, power, responsibility, Taoism, reality, unreality, and being in & at one with the world, it's blessed with three strong & subtle performances. Bruce Davison, still one of our most underrated actors, is especially fine in conveying the uncertainties & initial confusion of George Orr, as well as his basic human decency & his emerging moral strength as the world continues to shift around him. Yes, the special effects are simple even for 1980 ... but that doesn't matter in the least. The film knows that real science-fiction isn't about special effects; it's about people & ideas. A thoroughly entertaining, gripping story, it brings those ideas to life without lecturing, but by letting the characters live them out & react as real human beings. It's a film I've watched many times over the decades since it first aired, and it remains as fresh & vivid as ever, always revealing something new. How many films can do that? This one does, effortlessly. It needs to be available on DVD again!

If you see only 1 science fiction movie in your lifetime, let it be the 1980 The Lathe of Heaven based on Ursula K. Le Guin's classic 1971 scifi novel. Character of meek George Orr dreams reality and begins to question his existence. He can remember yesterday construct. Enter The Therapist, arrogant Dr. Haber. Brilliant @Bruce_Davison performance.Quoting (From couch to moon) "In the notes of her demystified translation of the Tao Te Ching (2009), Le Guin expounds on that "block of wood":Uncut wood—here likened to the human soul—the uncut, unearned, unshaped, unpolished, native, natural stuff is better than anything that can be made out of it. Anything done to it deforms and lessens it. Its potentiality is infinite. Its uses are trivial." end of double quoteyThe 1964 LBJ - Daisy TV Commercial Campaign AD shown only 1x. 1980's The Lathe of Heaven became the most-requested program in @PBS history. Both incredible and UNforgettable. Both now gadget ready.👀 "Reality What a Concept" ~Robin Willims 👄 Doctor Who and reflected realism. Hmmm!? Humans as provocative interactive cosmology. What's not to like!

For those who saw it on PBS (aired 12 times, I think), there was nothing like the scene when George runs up on the roof to see the clouds clearing with the original "with a little help from my friends" playing in the background. I think this was one of a few battles the film incurred since the remastered copy has a horrible cover of the song.I bought the DVD and I'm going to edit in the original. Gave me chills.The book was not easy to find. Most of the movie was pulled from the book but the story is a bit different.Do NOT waste your time on the remake, it is terrible. You would think that with the technology available now that a better job could have been done. Too bad.