The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven

1980
Sci-fi
TV Movie
1h 45m
George Orr, a man whose dreams can change waking reality, tries to suppress this unpredictable gift with drugs. Dr. Haber, an assigned psychiatrist, discovers the gift to be real and hypnotically induces Mr. Orr to change reality for the benefit of mankind --- with bizarre and frightening results. (imdb)
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The Lathe of Heaven

1980
Sci-fi
TV Movie
1h 45m
Your probable score
Avg Percentile 54.81% from 96 total ratings

Ratings & Reviews

(96)
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Rated 12 Apr 2010
87
89th
It goes a little incoherent near the end, but then why shouldn't it--the established realities of the film are changing over and over again. What an interesting film! Very effective for its PBS budget and limited locations. Loved the sea turtle-aliens. I don't particularly agree with its Taoist message, but I never really liked Dr. Haber anyway. The film could have done a better job of making him sympathetic.
Rated 26 Dec 2018
40
2nd
Top badass moment? George tries to dream of a better world, but instead creates an ice-cream selling, alien invasion force. I could get to like this guy. You know you’re in for a miserable time when a film's marketing focuses on the book it’s based on. The plot's full of holes and the music, effects and aliens fully deserving of a few WTFs and OMGs. Visually it's a VHS horror. I guess they blew the budget on the ice-cream. All it gave me were nightmares. No cats, chainsaws or decapitations.
Rated 02 Aug 2010
80
84th
Awesome mind bending sci-fi flick. Its low budget, with some less than convincing effects, but this is true science fiction...it's less about lasers and explosions and more about ideas, and this flick presents excellent ideas in spades. Well worth your time.
Rated 07 Sep 2010
18
14th
Often with "sci-fi" movies you get people complaining that there's too much lasers and action and not enough ideas, which is what true science fiction is all about. Now this film is exactly the opposite: it's nothing but ideas, with all other cinematic aspects seeming amateurish and goofy, if not unambitious.
Rated 14 Jan 2011
76
54th
Unravels at the end, but the world needs more intelligent, quiet science fiction.
Rated 30 Mar 2011
75
79th
Very enjoyable and intelligent movie that would have scored higher if the ending had been better. Very much in the style of other bleak 70s sci-fi, although it does have some oddly humourous touches in the second half. My only gripe is the rather surreal ending where we're left to figure out for ourselves what happened. Sometimes this works well, but here it just seems that the writers didn't really know how to end it either. Definitely worth a look if bleak, thoughtful sci-fi is your thing.
Rated 11 Aug 2012
8
73rd
Although low budget, the Lathe of Heaven is effective in transforming a very philosophical book to a motivating film. The dual of Taoism versus positivism is mirrored in the colors, where the Taoist earth tones dual the technological grays and whites. The three leads deliver quality performances, and the story itself is captivating. While some of the FX are suspect, and the quality of the DVD is poor (the original master was lost), Lathe of Heaven is well worth a watch.
Rated 06 Sep 2012
45
44th
Good concept, but atrocious production values & visual effects make it unintentionally funny. Maybe the effects weren't bad 30+ years ago, but, for me, they took away from the flick. A pretty weak ending didn't help either
Rated 19 Oct 2021
55
39th
This sounded much better than it actually was. But if you would like to watch a terrific film with a somewhat simlar premise then maybe give this overlooked Danish sci-fi flick a shot: https://www.criticker.com/film/Manden-der-taenkte-ting/
Rated 11 Feb 2023
64
26th
Noble and valiant effort at attempting a genuinely substantive and “serious” sci-fi tale for network TV audiences; unfortunately the TV budget shows, especially in the design and effects, and the three leads are hampered by an over-exaggerated style of “TV acting” (though given the nature of his character, it mightn’t have hurt for Conroy to go a little further over-the-top). The ending is perhaps a little too elliptical and puzzling for its own good.
Rated 06 Aug 2023
75
25th
Imagine if they'd had a budget for this! It's a (very) faithful adaptation of one of Le Guin's less successful books (and it makes sense, since she consulted on this) and yet some of my favorite character bits didn't land. Heather's vibe felt all wrong to me! They still find a few interesting visuals and shots (especially near the end) and some of the dreams are well-wrought.

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