George Orr (Bruce Davison) has a problem. Whatever he dreams comes true. After an issue involving an overdose George is sent to see Dr. William Haber (Kevin Conway). Haber is an Oneirologist. Haber studies dreams. George tells Haber that he has been having his problem since he was seventeen and all he wants is to stop dreaming. Haber thinks that George is just suffering from nightmares and could be a form of schizophrenia. George has a hard time trying to convince the doctor that it is much more than that. What he dreams has an effect on the real world.
Haber connects George to a machine he calls an “Augmentor” and puts him into a hypnotic state. He then suggests an effective dream to George so he can watch his brain waves during REM sleep. What Haber sees is an unusual brain pattern. After the second session Haber sees that the world has changed and that George is telling the truth. Whatever George dreams effects not only the present but the past.
Haber begins to use George to manipulate his surroundings. Instead of being a poor doctor in a cramped office he now has a large building that he owns and nice suits to wear. George realizes what Haber is doing and confronts him. Haber, being very manipulative, gives George some double talk.
George goes to a lawyer, Heather LeLache (Margaret Avery) for advice. She tells him that if he doesn’t go for therapy he will be prosecuted for his suicide attempt, unless he is being experimented on in his sessions. Heather goes to one of his sessions on the premise of investigating the appropriateness of using his Augmentor. During the session Haber tells George to dream about solving the problem of the over populated world. When he wakes up a plague that happened five years ago has wiped out three quarters of the population.
The dream puts a big dent in Haber’s hubris. Whenever Haber tires to handle George’s dreams things seem to go badly. The suggestion that there is no more war on Earth results in war being waged on the moon. The suggestion to unite the world results in an alien invasion forcing the world to come together against a common enemy. Haber believes that the problem is George. He creates a machine that will allow him to have his own effective dreams so he can have full control of remaking reality without George.
“The Lathe of Heaven” was released in 1980 and was directed by David Loxton and Fred Barzyk. It is a made for TV science fiction story distributed by PBS, the Public Broadcasting Service. The film is based on the novel “The Lathe of Heaven” written in 1971 by Ursula K. Le Guin. The film was considered an experimental project by PBS exploring science fiction literature. The producers anticipated a series of films, however, only one more film was produced. The other film was “Overdrawn at the Memory Bank” 1984 based on a short story written in 1976 by John Varley. A re-make of Le Guin’s book, titled “Lathe of Heaven”, was done in 2002 by A&E Network. The book was also serialized for the science fiction magazine “Amazing Stories”.
At one time the film was only available on PBS broadcasts. Their rights to the film expired in 1988. Issues with the rights to the Beatle’s song “With a Little Help from My Friends”, which is an important part of the film, meant that the film was unavailable for years. In addition the movie had been filmed on 2” Quadruplex tapes which can degrade over time. Eventually the rights were worked out, the film was cleaned and a new digital master was created. The movie was then released to video and DVD, potentially saving it from being a lost film.
The title of the film comes from the writings of the Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu who lived in the 4th century BC. Le Guin took the title of her book from one of Chuang Tzu’s quotes. An interpretation of the quote, by James Legge, is “To let understanding stop at what cannot be understood is a high attainment. Those who cannot do it will be destroyed on the lathe of heaven.” Le Guin found out later that Legge’s interpretation of the quote was incorrect. At the time Chuang Tzu wrote his text the lathe had not been invented. It’s still a cool title. Actually the whole movie was cool. It’s sort of an alternate universe retroactive time displacement dream machine movie, and is well worth the hundred and twenty minutes it takes to watch it.
Although the film is set in Portland, Oregon it was filmed in Texas. Many of the locations used are noted Dallas and Fort Worth sights such as the Tandy Center in Fort Worth, the Fort Worth Water Gardens and Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport. Author Ursula Le Guin died in 2018. She was 89.