Brainstorm (1983)

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

.Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

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.

Sadly, Brainstorm is best remembered as Natalie Wood's last film, and unfortunately there is little to recommend the film itself. Despite an interesting premise, the film's focus is scattered and the film never follows through on many plot points. Brainstorm was a box office disappointment and Douglas Trumball's last feature film. The special effects, direction, dialog and acting are never more than mediocre and the result is a film that is both disappointing and forgettable. Brainstorm is derailed by trite domestic drama involving a miscast Christopher Walken and Wood while a clash between science and government intervention is played out by a pointless Cliff Robertson and Louise Fletcher who's no Bette Davis when it comes to smoking. Fletcher's smoking is so constant, and unconvincing, that one wonders whether the tobacco industry financed the film.

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.

This is not so much a review as it is an observation of some co-incidences relating to this film and Bertrand Tavernier's 'La Mort en Direct' (1980). I would be surprised if Trumbull had not seen Tavernier's effort as both films do seem to share a common fixation on death and the brain. Anyway, to get to the point, both lead actresses, Wood in Brainstorm and Romy Schneider in La Mort en Direct died in the year they made their last films, at the same age of 43, rather unexpectedly it has to be said. I find all this goes quite beyond 'coincidence' and delves into the realm of what Freud called the 'uncanny'. The fact that both films are about the nature of consciousness (in some small way) and death further provokes the mystery. It could be said that there was something of a self-fulfilling prophesy going on.... maybe. At any rate, the mere thought is capable perhaps of shiver-deliverance.....