10/27/06: The Lathe of Heaven (1980)The DVD for
The Lathe of Heaven opens with a title card explaining the quality of the transfer: “The original film materials have been lost forever…” Yeah, there’s your tax dollars at work. What else could’ve happened with the first made-for-TV film ever produced for PBS?
But we can’t be too snide, since
The Lathe of Heaven—based on Ursula K. Le Guin’s novel—manages to goof on good Leftists in a style that PBS would never allow today. The movie was aired with enough hype to get even us tuning in for its initial showing. Then
Lathe promptly became a lost film, supposedly due to a copyright issue over the use of a Beatles song.
Bruce Davison—last seen here channeling Burgess Meredith in
Hate Crime—stars as George Orr, a citizen of Portland, Oregon in 2002. He’s been busted for drug possession, and explains to his court-mandated psychiatrist that he was just seeking medication to cease his dreaming. Dr. Haber (Kevin Conway) soon gets Orr to reveal his big secret: Orr’s dreams actually shape reality, with only the dreamer able to remember how things used to be.
Thanks to a plot hole, Dr. Haber soon becomes the only person who can see that Orr isn’t kidding. The psychiatrist’s first experiment is to have Orr end the constant rain. That leads to a drought, but Haber doesn’t notice. He’s too excited about how he can use Orr to create a Leftist utopia.
In a perfect take on liberal priorities, Dr. Haber begins his quest by having Orr dream up a huge dream-research institute (named after Haber, of course). Orr is hypnotized before sleeping, and follows Dr. Haber’s instruction to cure overpopulation. Orr does this by dreaming of a plague that kills millions.
Dr. Haber considers that to be a mere glitch. The next session has Orr being instructed to create peace on Earth. The patient responds by dreaming up an invading alien race that all countries must fight together.
At this point, you almost sympathize with the doctor. Orr really does go about things in a convoluted manner. To be fair, though, Orr is miserable. He hates how Dr. Haber is getting him to screw up the entire planet, but he can’t quit the sessions because they’re court-mandated. Besides, simplicity’s no help when Haber instructs Orr to eliminate racism. Everyone's turned into the same shade of gray. It’s a horrific image, but Haber praises Orr for finally coming up with a rational answer.
There’s a neat twist at the end that qualifies
Lathe for this week of horror movies. It comes courtesy of a tired Leftist fantasy, but that’s no big deal—which is surprising, since we’re watching an adaptation scripted by the woman who’d go on to create
Murphy Brown. This film’s mere existence shows that the Left used to be a lot less hysterical and a little more self-aware. To further stress the point, the DVD comes with bonus footage of Bill Moyers interviewing Le Guin.
Make it your own: Did we mention
there’s a DVD? There’s also
a remake from 2002, but it lacks the fun of alien invasions and spray-painted extras.
