The Lathe of Heaven (1980)

Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

A lot of fun.

There are moments that feel comical, some horrific, and some downright inspiring but the tonal shifts hardly matter as the end results come to a film that's perfect for this time.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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!

The idea is interesting, a man can change reality with his dreams but these changes are at the mercy of his subconscious so we get an easy excuse for disasters and surprises.The special effects are awful, really cheap and comical at time.The acting is good, only a small cast who are fairly convincing in their roles.The plot is also good, the characters are believable in their reactions, some trying to control things others to escape.The film is let down by a poor ending, it is weak and silly and makes the film pointless.

I first saw this film on PBS when I was 15 and was totally engrossed as it was one of the most unique and compelling movies I'd ever seen. I recently found it at my library and checked it out mostly for nostalgia. I was surprised to find that it was still as absorbing as it was in 1980.The story revolves around George Orr (played very well by Bruce Davison of X-Men) , a simple, ordinary and good-hearted guy who feels cursed with the ability to dream "effective dreams" or dreams that change the face of reality. He starts to see an Oneirologist, (a therapist who studies dreams) in the hopes of making it stop. Unfortunately, the doctor upon becoming aware that George's story is true starts to use George and manipulate him into using his dream-state to create a world the doctor envisions. Of course, chaos ensues as it's not possible to control the construct of dreams. Dr. Haber doesn't ever seem to get that and isn't able to take responsibility for the destruction that he helps cause. The movie is almost 30 years old. It was a low-budget flick even by today's standards, the visual quality is sort of grainy but I liked that. It seemed to add to the character of the piece. The special effects were very simple but effective enough. The aliens were unique in design and while I expected them to be kind of corny, they weren't. The style in which it is filmed runs along the lines of "simple is best" and it is. Don't miss this one.

I absolutely loved this movie when I first saw in on TV in the 70's and looked for it for years before I finally found and bought a VHS copy.In many ways, I think this is the finest bit of SF ever to be put on TV. Forget about special effects and fancy sets. This eschewed all of them and instead provided a thought-provoking and sometimes funny look at man's relation to reality.Its difficult to say more without spoiling some of the more wonderful moments of the film, but I very much enjoyed seeing how the various characters interacted with each other throughout the film as the circumstances changed.