Greetings gentle readers and welcome to another installment of the Sunday Morning Movie. Today it’s a made for TV adaptation of a sci-fi classic, The Lathe of Heaven:
and next week’s film, White Sun of the Desert:
Reviews of The Lathe of Heaven:
Letterboxd says:
Adapted from Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel of the same name, The Lathe of Heaven is a dated PBS TV movie that feels marred by its clear lack of high production value (the effects can be outright amateurish at times), yet is still solidly carried by its intriguing premise. As someone only familiar with Guin’s original story through this particular adaptation, it seems to have many elements that aren’t properly translated to screen here at such a low budget. Even so, the story is a pretty fascinating one all the same, unfolding as a surreal sci-fi “Monkey’s Paw” tale gradually pushed to its very furthest limits. It’s just a shame this isn’t a more polished retelling of that particular story, but by the standards of cheaply-made PBS schlock, much of it is relatively well put-together enough to capture Guin’s vision in all its strange glory.
The Unapologetic Geek says:
It’s insane enough that this happened at all, but what’s even crazier is that it actually worked. 1980’s The Lathe of Heaven is a good movie, despite pretty much everything working against it. It’s a faithful adaptation with earnest performances that manages to get across many of Le Guin’s concepts and ideas without needing to dumb them down. Naturally, compared to a big budget film, the production values are severely lacking, but as a made-for-TV production in 1980, it’s absolutely incredible.
Moria Reviews says:
The film has a creepy fascination every time Bruce Davison wakes up from one of his dreams. The first dream when the painting of the mountain is changed to that of a horse is effective, although the effect is ruined somewhat by the placement of the painting in such an obvious and dominating place inside the office. However, there is a terrifying chill that comes not long after when Davison wakes up and it is suddenly announced that six billion people have been wiped out. During the subsequent twists – where Bruce Davison solves the problem of stopping war by creating an alien invasion to unite humanity and especially where he brings an end to racial prejudice by making everyone’s skin grey (a creepy effect let down by the pasty makeup on the actors) – The Lathe of Heaven hums along with a genuine conceptual dazzle.
There is an exceedingly spooky scene near the end where Bruce Davison tells how he has dim memories of the world ending in nuclear war and thinks that he managed to dream this entire reality into existence in those moments. The only negative point is a confusing ending [PLOT SPOILERS], which involves much now cliched laser and mist effect, where Dr Haber is reduced to a mental vegetable, the city is left in partial ruins and there is the charming final image of the aliens still around, one in the background tending an ice cream stand. It is clearly an ending where both the film’s writer and Ursula Le Guin were unsure how to bring the story to a conclusion.
My take: A decent film if you can ignore the low production values. I have not read the book, so I’ll leave it up to the readers to decide if the film does it justice. As noted in the reviews above, it is nice to see an intelligent sci-fi film, especially in an age of endless Star Wars spin-offs and superhero crap. I’m awarding it ⭐, it’s worth watching but not more than once.
Directors: David Loxton, Fred Barzyk
Notable Actors: Bruce Davison, Kevin Conway, Margaret Avery
Plot (Spoilers!):
George Orr has a unique ability: his dreams come true. This may sound like a gift but to him it’s a curse that he seeks to suppress with drugs. This brings him to the attention of the authorities. They send him to see a psychiatrist, Dr. Haber.
Dr. Haber has a machine called the Augmenter, which enhances and strengthens one’s dreams. Upon realizing that George is telling the truth, he begins to use the machine to try to improve the world. But things don’t work out as he wishes, the dreams come true but with dire consequences.
George has had enough and he rebels against Dr. Haber. But the doctor has invented a machine that allows him to realize his own dreams. There is a price to pay, however, and the doctor is driven mad by the realization that he is only making the world worse. A final dream leaves the world in a stable state of multiple realities that have come true, and George has lost the woman he loves.
Now George works as a shop keeper. His lost love comes into the store one afternoon and they are reunited, although she barely remembers him. He asks her out to lunch and she agrees. Will love prevail?
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Ursula Le Guin is one of my favorite authors. I recommend reading “The Lathe of Heaven”.
I remember seeing this on television when it first came out. It struck me then as a classic ‘idea’ driven sci-fi photoplay. Even then the ‘effects’ looked ropy but passed muster simply because the ideas they were envisioning were so interesting. Also worth a look for the insight it gives into the zeitgeist of the mid Twentieth Century.
Stay safe.
“The Lathe of Heaven” was, I think, my favorite Le Guin novel. I thought the movie was an adequate adaptation. Not great, but good enough.
Chris Heinz: “The Lathe of Heaven” was, I think, my favorite Le Guin novel.
It’s not a typical Le Guin novel.
Ursula Le Guin on The Lathe of Heaven and the influence of Philip K. Dick —
https://www.ursulakleguin.com/bvc-art-information-theft-and-confusion-part-two
‘A long time ago now, discussing my book The Lathe of Heaven, I called it “a homage to Philip K. Dick” (who was then not the culture hero he has become, but a science fiction writer scorned as such by the American literary establishment, and honored mostly within the genre and in France). I said that when an art was healthy, a lot of borrowing usually went on in it, citing the period when musical invention fizzed through Europe from Handel to Haydn to Boccherini to Mozart, with composers freely emulating, borrowing, and improving on one another’s styles and technical inventions, even alluding to one another’s tunes, though not copying any actual composition. I took it as a sign of the health of science fiction that there was the same kind of interchange of techniques and subjects going on it, a lively, open, conscious exchange of artistic and intellectual ideas, everybody learning from everybody else.
‘I learned a lot from Phil Dick. I own the debt freely and with some pride. I told him about it, too. We were aware that we were influencing each other in some ways, aware of an area of similarity in what we were trying to do, and exchanged ideas about that, and about writing, in our letters ….’
Interesting. I’ve read it and I agree it’s not typical, although I can definitely see the Philip K. Dick influence now that it’s pointed out. The part that is typical is her avoidance of easy answers or clear-cut moral conclusions, like happy endings. It’s probably also one of the earlier literary examples of gaslighting, although I suspect that concept long predates the modern name for it.
They’re both hugely respected authors in the field, but Dick tends toward the dystopian, gritty and sometimes visceral. The world is a cruel place, bad people are in charge, unintended consequences rule, and characters are just trying to make their way as best they can. Although Le Guin can be nearly as dark at times, she’s more optimistic overall. Unintended consequences still rule a lot of the time and things don’t always work out as planned, but the struggle has value, and life is to be celebrated in its entirety, the pain and fear inseparable from the joy and wonder. (‘The dance is always danced above the hollow place, above the terrible abyss.’) This particular one is more like Dick than typical Le Guin in that regard.
great selection Yves! – all of LeGuin”s books are outstanding – my favorites first suggested by an old girlfriend in the late 70’s are “The Dispossessed” and “The Left Hand of Darkness” – they both sit on my bookshelf waiting for another reread – also “The Word for World is Forest” is a strong work that takes direct aim and succeeds in indicting imperialism and the force used to implement – have read “The Left Hand of Darkness” 2X –
Hey, I make the selections! :)
Sincere thanks, indeed, semper. I’ve found some great gems through this (and some others to broaden my palette). My one, personal, issue is getting together to go through them. One friend has been arranging to watch Paprika for months! Still, I very much appreciate the opportunity to go through film history.
my mistake – please accept my humble apology for my nearsightedness – great selection!!!
From LeGuin’s comments on her website:
As for not knowing how to end the story, there’s a great interview on the DVD with Bill Moyers (well, it’s a great interview because of LeGuin, not Moyers) where she says she had no idea where the story was going as she wrote it because she had to wait for the characters to tell her.
Ha, watched this just last week on YouTube. Lathe of Heaven might be the only LeGuin book that I’ve never actually read! Bought a copy a decade or two ago (at that great bookstore in downtown Portland, OR), and I’ve started to read it several times, but something (some weird fear? dunno) has always kept me from finishing it.
Yes, the special effects aren’t at all special, but I’m old enough to be able to laugh that off. At least the budgetary constraints that forced them to use cheap FX also forced them to minimize their use, so there’s only a minute or two in total of frisbees wobbling around like something from B&W Buck Rogers episodes. I thought the Aliens were fine, because they acted truly alien (and again, minimal screen time disguised the cheepnis).
The relationship between George & Heather Lelache might have been the weakest aspect. Heather’s main place in the story – helping George escape from Dr. Haber – works, but the Love Interest aspect didn’t work that well. Maybe it was lack of chemistry between the actors, maybe the screenplay just didn’t give the relationship enough time, who knows.
But LeGuin’s core idea – “effective dreaming” – was very convincing, and the tension between George and Haber was developed well, too.
So, yeah, dated, but darn good.
Since I watched that, a later version (2002?) has popped up on my YT feed. Anybody know anything about that one?
I remember seeing a comment from her about that later version to the effect that it had entirely missed the point of the book, but now when I look for it at her webpage it isn’t there. Maybe I’m hallucinating the memory, maybe she decided it was better to say nothing at all.
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That’s an oversimplification of the comment I remember: “missing the point” implies that she thought it had one and knew what it was, and would be a very un-LeGuin thing to say. It was more that she’d had nothing to do with it and the filmmaker’s conception of the point of the book was nothing like the book she thought she had written.