A Brilliant Conflict

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to remember what it was like to watch it for the first time.

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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!

This original version remains my favorite film of all time. Somehow it's much better than even its color remake. A very close tie is Forbidden Planet. Close behind are the classic BLADE RUNNER and the color version of Lathe of Heaven. The greatest series EVER for TV is, of course, Babylon 5 followed by the original PRISONER.The stark scenes, in the 1980 LATHE, contrast vividly with the dreamer's rich ability to brighten his, OUR, world. While exploring the power of our minds, it also shows the penalty for careless use and abuse of that power. This is a film to keep and show our kids and theirs and theirs......

This film was the first film contracted by PBS and it really shows, as the movie had a minuscule budget. If you adjust for inflation, the film literally cost about as much as an Ed Wood, Jr. film to make! At times this shows, such as some liberal use of stock footage, minimalistic sets and negligible special effects---yet, oddly enough, the film is a pretty good sci-fi film. And when I say SCI-FI, I mean very deep and cerebral sci-fi. If you are looking for Darth Vader and cute little androids, this film is not for you--instead, it's set in the very near future and concerns a simple man with an incredible talent. Bruce Davison dreams and what occurs in the dreams actually become reality--as if everything we know to exist is totally dependent on his thoughts. If he dreams, for example, that you no longer exist, then you never really did! Because of his unique problem, Bruce consults with a scientist adept at working on dreams. However, each time this scientist tries to use the dreams to effect positive world change, the dream somehow backfires. A good example--when he wanted his patient to end overpopulation, a plague broke out and wiped out most of the inhabitants! Again and again, these attempts only make things worse.The film is an interesting blend of philosophy, existentialism and sci-fi. While it won't appeal to everyone, I at least appreciated how unique it was and how those involved tried to make something different. A noble effort that sometimes succeeds and often time fails--mostly due to a low budget. I wonder what this MIGHT have been like with a bit more money to make the aliens and some of the other plot devices not to incredibly cheesy.