Rating: 
Summary: The Greatest Sci-Fi Movie Ever Made That Was Not As Popular
Review: What makes a great sci-fi movie ? Visual effects ? Good performances from the actors ? The answer is really simple. It takes its theme, its meaning and its content as well as its creativity. 2001: A Space Odyssey, also adapted from a classic sci-fi novel, comes first to people's minds when they think of the greatest sci-fi movie. I enjoyed the film as well and understand the fascination with audiences to the entire scientific, speculative, space-time themes, alien forces in obelisks and of course, the conniving computer HAL. But author Le Guin (Left Hand Of Darkness) wrote a book which, in my opinion, is the greatest science fiction tale ever made, yet to be surpassed. When, in 1980, it was released as a film, it was the first film broadcast on PBS, the greatest tv channel ever made. Ad a film, it is stunning, symbolic, allegorical, frightening in its intensity and beautiful in it theme of transcience and eternal struggles of good and evil. George Orr, played by an actor who talks and looks somewhat like Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), is a neurotic young man who undertakes involuntary therapy in the future, a world that has survived a great global destruction. His therapist hypnotizes him and uses a machine to tap into his mind as he discovers that his dreams affect present reality. We discover also, that it has been his dreams that has altered human history since the Stone Age all the way to the Armaggedon, nuclear Holocaust that destroyed the world "before April." The therapist, although well-meaning in his quest to vanquish racism, disease, world hunger and all the major problems in the world, only ends up destroying more than he creates. The therapist/doctor has been labeled as the film's villain, which is not what Leguin herself intended. The therapist is good, as all people are innately good. We remember the line when he tells George Orr, "we are going to make the world right." But the elemental forces of nature cannot be controlled by neither God or man, and regardless of our noble intentions, there are dark consequences every time we try do to something to better ourselves. Life, all life, in the past, now and in the future, can only be composed of creative and destructive forces, good and evil, in a yin-yang balance that is eternal and necessary for there to be existence. The interpretation I made the first time I viewed the film was this, although you may interpret any which way you'd like - the individual (George Orr), each of us, man or woman, is an instrument or sum of nature and we are as if part of a bigger dream or series of dreams that is our lifetime, the dreams ending completely when we die. In order to be truly happy, we must always do good, we must be ourselves and not sacrifice neither or individuality nor compassion and humanity- something the doctor seems to have done in a drunken pursuit of power. As for meaning in our life, yes, there is meaning, when we find a religion, belief, career, marriage, love, ANY relationship, and friendship and the meaning of every collective person makes up a beautiful dream, and the dream is over when we die. It was very obvious that the therapist doctor was a parody of religion, or God himself (He tells Orr when he abandons his clinic "You will be back! Without me there is no hope"something no person can do alone in his or her lifetime, and the patient is people altogether. The therapist/patient relationships becomes God/man relationship and the entire meaning of life. This is more profound than even the message in 2001: A Space Odyssey. This voyage into inner space, outer space and everywhere at once, is the most fascinating film ever made about science fiction and the mystery of the universe. I recommend everyone to see this film I urge teachers to read this book to college or high school level students. It's about nothing. It's about everything. It's about what is, what is not and what is to be. Like one of George Orr's dreams.
Rating: 
Summary: The Lathe of Heaven coming to video after 20 years
Review: This is a remarkable film. It was made for PBS Television back in January of 1980 and has only recently been re-aired. Now, it finally comes to home video and hopefully DVD.The film stars a young Bruce Davison as a man, George Orr, who is tormented by his dreams. He believes that his dreams become reality. He tries to get help but no one understands him. He finds a dream specialist who ends up doing quite a bit of experimenting on him with very interesting results. This movie plays out like an extended Twilight Zone episode. It's written by and adapted from the novel by Ursala K. Le Guin which I have not read. The music is kinda cheesy and electronic. Certainly of its time. But it's still very creepy and will make you think a lot about your own dreams and the world in general. I just saw this film for the first time when it re-aired on PBS so it's fresh on my mind. I'm glad to see it making its way to home video.
Rating:
Summary: another 5 star state of mind
Review: much already said,this sure deserves the five stars,the best movie I have seen in years,maybe the best sf,on a level with 2001.If that sounds like exxageration,as Yeats wrote,"prove that I lie".The acting,& I have never seen those actors,was very good,outstanding visually.I had just days before read the novel,which is a great one transcending sf limits.The interview (DVD) with Moyers is well done.After seeing,one may read Lao Tzu again.
Rating:
Summary: What have you done!?
Review: Great movie, one that I'd always heard of, but had never seen. Well, until I learned they put it on DVD! It's one of those movies that's aged well - not visually, of course, but because the strange late 70's production values (low budget, shot on video) add a certain other-wordly flavor, which is perfect for an other-wordly story like this. The video quality is fuzzy and blurry and dark, and they explain before the movie is shown that the original materials for the movie have been lost forever and they were forced to rely on a 2" video tape copy for the DVD transfer. But the muddy look truly does add a nice flavor to the story, and for me it's one of the reasons this movie is so re-watchable. I've read about others complaining about the acting, but I thought everyone was great, except for maybe the black lawyer lady - she makes a few scenes feel awkward with her laid back delivery of her lines. I also have read people complain about the electronic music they use. Again, I think this is a benefit to the atmosphere and story, since to me it's eerie and feels lonely. Which is how the character feels in this changing world of his. Anyway, I loved this movie, it's much better than the remake they did last year (talk about bad acting), and it has a big rewatchability factor. You'll never hear the word "Antwerp" the same way again!
Rating:
Summary: Truly Sublime - Excellent Adaptation of LeGuinn's Gem
Review: This film, I believe, originally aired on public television in the early '80's. It is based on the Ursula K. LeGuinn novel of the same name (in retrospect, perhaps her best novel). The movie concerns George Orr, a man who, unwittingly, has developed the power to alter physical reality while dreaming. At first, the changes are subtle and unimportant. Things change, however, when George encounters a psychiatrist who, by studying George's brainwaves, construsts a machine (the "Augmentor") which permits the user to change reality (everyone's reality) at will. From this point, the movie takes off into a world where everyone's skin is gray (the psychiatrisst wanted to eliminate racisim but instead created a grim underpopulated human race with no diversity and, more importantly, no love interest for George who in a previous reality fell in love with a black woman), a world populated by terse, very deep thinking space aliens resembling giant turtles who run curiousity shops, and, finally, a hellish, bad acid trip type world created when our evil psychiatrist experiences a nightmare while his brain is attached to the Augmentor. The performances are excellent and heartfelt. The love story involving George Orr (the alien turtles call him "Jor Jor") is also touching. It is easy to empathize with Jor Jor whose life is complicated enough as it is; falling in love, on top of everything else, almost overwhelms him. The special effects are also pretty decent, especially toward the end. I strongly recommend this movie to any connoisseur of Sci-Fi. Normal people may find this one a little weird.
Rating:
Summary: Classic story, well done tv version!
Review: This was the first movie commissioned by PBS, one of the many interesting facts that the DVD interview reveals. In fact the interview on the DVD is almost as good as the movie itself - did you know Ursula wanted to do the Left Hand of Darkness instead but that they talked her out of it? The movie is excellent. Although you can tell at the beginning of the DVD that the master wasn't of the best quality, you quickly get sucked into the storyline, accepting some of the shoddy special effects because the plot and acting are so stellar. I was lucky enough to do a 3 hour phone interview with Kevin Conway, and we talked a lot about how much this movie meant to him and what he was thinking about while filming. The movie has had a big impact on both the actors and viewers - most sci fi fans I know remember vividly when this came out, and have been waiting anxiously for its return. I already have a line of friends who want to come watch this with me! The basic story is that George Orr has dreams which change reality, and simply wants them to stop. His doctor, Dr. Haber, instead decides to use them to change the world and rid it of evil. Ursula explains in the interview that this pits the tao of 'go with the flow' in George vs the progress and change mentality of Dr. Haber. It's definitely a movie that you can watch many times and really think about, and also a movie that is fun just as an interesting story. Perhaps my favorite part is when George wonders if *everyone* has this ability, to change reality with dreams, and that maybe the 'rug is being pulled out from under us' over and over again without anyone noticing. See this with friends or family, and be prepared for lively discussions afterwards!
Rating: 
Summary: Review.
Review: We watched 'The Lathe in Heaven' for a science fiction class I took in high school. I remember it being really weird and the movie made less sense towards the ending.
Rating:
Summary: another 5 star state of mind
Review: much already said,this sure deserves the five stars,the best movie I have seen in years,maybe the best sf,on a level with 2001.If that sounds like exxageration,as Yeats wrote,"prove that I lie".The acting,& I have never seen those actors,was very good,outstanding visually.I had just days before read the novel,which is a great one transcending sf limits.The interview (DVD) with Moyers is well done.After seeing,one may read Lao Tzu again.
Rating:
Summary: I'm in Heaven.finally seeing masterpiece
Review: tho' I quit reading S-F except for Ellison,Bradbury,this revived my interest.This ranks in the company of 2001.I mean it.The actors I didn't know,but Haber was near perfection,as Haber would like.The questions raised by a classic and how it came into existence the always informed Bill Moyers interviews Ms. LeGuin(on DVD)about.Brilliant,one of my top ten movies of any kind.Enough,or too much!as Blake says.
Rating: 
Summary: Very overrated
Review: I have to go against the grain here and give this movie the thumbs down. The special effects were cheesy even for the time, especially the ones that looked like they came from an even lower-budget version of the 60s sci-fi TV series, "The Time Tunnel." The science-fictional plot of someone with effective dreams is truly absurd. Even as a fantasy theme it just doesn't get off the ground. The movie isn't helped by some weak dialog writing although the backdrop of an overpopulated world suffering from unpredictable and severe weather changes makes for a somewhat interesting and appropriately bleak and dark future. I give the film 3 stars, although it really deserves 2, just because I hate giving anything connected with Le Guin such a low rating. On a personal note, I knew Le Guin's brother, Ted Kroeber, who was my statistics prof in college, and Ted was really a pretty cool prof. (I had to throw that in--since I'm dissing his famous sister's book/movie). :-)
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