The Lathe of Heaven

The world of literature lost one of its finest writers with the death of Ursula Le Guin this year (2018) at the age of 88. She was one of my heroes. Her writing is humane, wise, and penetrating, and she followed no 'school', no ideology, no fashion. I write for a living too (though it's writing of a very different kind), and if I could write just one page, even one paragraph that would live up to her standards, I'd be proud of it the rest of my life.

Well, anyway: The Lathe of Heaven is one of her SF novels and probably my favorite among them. It's a singular vision that stands alone in her own work, and in fact I can't think of any other novel to easily compare it with by anything else in SF either. It belongs vaguely to an alternate-worlds genre, but with differences. Not all that long after it was written, this movie adaptation was done for original TV broadcast, so it has a low-budget feel to it, and the lead actors (Bruce Davison, Kevin Conway, Margaret Avery) weren't all that well known at the time. It's even in black and white format. But put all that aside: it actually stays pretty close to the Le Guin storyline, unlike the inferior 2002 adaptation that strayed off the path. It's such a great story and so easily translatable to the screen for today's SF-familiar audiences that you can easily imagine a much bigger-budget superb production being done now complete with advanced CGI that would do justice to the hero George Orr's world-changing visions.

George Orr (Davison) is a perfectly ordinary, nice, low-key guy except for one thing: when pressed into it, he has "effective dreams" that change reality and rewrite history. He doesn't want to do this, but gets taken advantage of by psychiatrist William Haber (Conway) who uses George to enable his own altruistic but power-hungry goals. George's torturous journey through one history after another and eventual resolution are the substance of the movie.

This production disappeared for a long time after its original airing, but finally now you can see it on YouTube. Well worth it.

Le Guin's stories haven't generally been served well on movies and TV but so much better could be done with them. The Earthsea fantasy books are on a level with Narnia and Tolkien and they would work brilliantly if well produced. The recent TV production of them turned out to be a travesty. So would others of her SF novels like City of Illusions, Planet of Exile, or The Left Hand of Darkness (well, maybe that last one would be best as an indie film.) Hollywood is missing a bet.

I found this during late-night channel surfing. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The effects were sometimes cheesy but often cool. The direction was creative and quite effective in bringing Ursula K. LeGuin's classic story to life. But BE WARNED: this is a WEIRD MOVIE. You have to be wanting a weird movie in order to really enjoy it. It takes quite a bit of thought to really follow the plot if you haven't read the book, but it's worth watching several times. It is not an action flick (there is very little action, and some people find it boring, possibly with good reason) but it brings up all kinds of interesting ideas and possibilities that sent my mind racing. Every situation is presented in a way that makes you really look at it and ponder it. And the emotional aspect is powerful at times and made me smile more than once. The camerawork, acting, and electronic background music are artistic and place the viewer in another world, one which I personally found beautiful, exciting, and awe-inspiring. If you like artsy, strange, contemplative film, you might want to check this out.

The Lathe of Heaven has just been re-released. It's being shown on many PBS stations, and is also now on video. This was all due to high fan demand.

This is a dreamy, scary sci-fi flick with strong moral lessons. It's almost like a play: set mostly in one place, with only three characters involved. The special effects aren't stunning, but they're perfectly effective. The story is wildly original: what would the world be like if your dreams all came true- not your daydreams, but the uncontrollable ones at night?

I thought this was one of the best science fiction movies of all time. I thought the story was thoughtful, inventive and very, very interesting. I have since thought that this might be some sort of collective unconscience view of how the world is created and maintained by God and that mankind being a part of God is aware of this concept. (Or maybe I'm just reading too much into the movie.) In any case, I would very much like to see this movie come out on video tape so that I might buy a copy. I've got my fingers crossed. My review of the movie is "WAY TO GO!!"

As the die-hard science fiction fans know, special effects are great, but without a great story, it won't stand the test of time.

Based on Ursula K. Leguin's book, this is (I hear) a very faithful adaptation. And easily one of the very best made for t.v. movies ever.

The effects are low budget, but that's not important, the story is amazing. Great science fiction takes us away from the familiar structure of life we understand, and stands reason and convention on it's head. It makes us see the things that are so close to us they are invisible. Great science fiction frames the familiar, in a new context and sheds truth on things we were unable to recognize in their mundane form.

This story moved me, in the way the book Stranger in a Strange Land did. Like the first time I read 2001 (The movie is meaningless without the book).

It is a story about reality, how we perceive it, how we shape it. How we are important to everyone and every thing, as our actions shape not only our own sphere of existence, but ripple outward effecting everything. This is of course told in an abstracted way, but the message is clear.

If you are looking for crazy robots and sleek starships, move on.

If you are looking for a thought provoking story, that will stick with you for days, or as I see with myself and others here, decades, then this is a cult classic that you simply can not miss.

I would have given it a 10, but the effects are low budget, though that does not make it any less amazing.