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The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven

The Lathe of Heaven (1980)

Ursula K. Le Guin's Science Fiction Masterpiece

Fred Barzyk, David R. Loxton · 104 min · Science Fiction, Fantasy, Drama, Thriller, TV Movie

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About the film

Directed by
Fred Barzyk, David R. Loxton
Released
January 9, 1980
Country
United States of America
Starring
Bruce Davison, Peyton E. Park, Niki Flacks, Kevin Conway, Vandi Clark
More credits
Language
English
Origin
US
Studios
Thirteen, Taurus Film, PBS
Written by
Roger Swaybill, Diane English, Ursula K. Le Guin
Produced by
Fred Barzyk, David R. Loxton
Cinematography
Robbie Greenberg
Music
Michael Small
Also starring
Bernedette Whitehead, Jo Livingston, Jane Roberts, Tom Matts, Frank Miller

For more than a decade, the most requested program in American public television history was one almost no one could see. Its broadcast rights had lapsed, and it survived only on fading tapes people had recorded off their own televisions.

The problem was a song. The film used the Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" as a turning point in its plot, and clearing it had become ruinously expensive, especially after Michael Jackson bought the Beatles catalog. So THE LATHE OF HEAVEN (1980), the first movie PBS ever produced, sat locked away.

When fans finally forced a rebroadcast in 2000, a worse surprise was waiting. PBS had not kept the original. The only way to bring it back was to rebuild it from a single surviving broadcast tape, with a cover version standing in for the Beatles. A film about a man who dreams things out of existence had itself nearly been dreamed out of existence.

That man is George Orr, whose dreams rewrite reality while only he remembers the world that was. His psychiatrist learns the power is real and starts steering those dreams to repair the world, and every fix detonates. Cure overpopulation, and a plague has already killed billions. Dream up peace on Earth, and aliens invade to unite us against them.

Ursula K. Le Guin called it the only one of her books she ever enjoyed imagining as a film.

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Additional detail from Terry Dugas:
The film was produced by Taurus Film in association with WNET in New York. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provided some funding, administered through PBS. While PBS was the distributor of the program, the masters were in control of WNET. When distribution rights expired in 1988, the masters were probably erased and the tape reused. This was a common industry practice. Since the production was shot on video tape and not film, no film masters exist.

How to see The Lathe of Heaven (1980)

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Source: JustWatch

Physical media

DVDNew Video GroupUnited StatesRegion 12000UPC 0767685946732

DVDUnited StatesRegion 12000

More editions

VHSUnited States2000

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  4. One of my “best buys” in any media is that movie on DVD at the price of a used DVD (back when they weren’t given away) because it’s one of my all-time favorite sci-fi movies.

  7. Saw it when it first aired as well way back when. Absolutely awesome movie/adaptation. Have it now on my Jellyfin server and introduced my wife to it about a year ago. She too found it awesome.

  21. Saw it when it first ran. I was in high school. I’m sorry. I hated it. I could not follow it. Things kept changing even after he supposedly lost the ability to have “effective dreams”.

  22. I had an Audio Visual class in high school 1983 and we had a 3/4” tape version of this that we would set up and play for a class. It had the original song and it still haunts me.
    I think they added some delay and reverb to the song which makes it that much more memorable.

  23. It’s common knowledge what happened to the “A Little Help-.” That’s what happened to tv shows with copyrighted music like “Wiseguy.” The arc in the music industry? Fuhgeddaboudit!

  35. I remember being blown away by it when it first aired, then wondering what had happened to it, as it was never shown again or released on home video. Finally got the DVD when that came along and saw it with new eyes. It the interim, I had discovered Philip K. DIck. THe book and movie are full of references to him and his writings and the overall story was LeGuin’s homage to him.

    PKD fans may also enjoy “Man Facing Southeast” (just don’t get the dubbed version). It was more or less stolen and served as the basis for “K-Pax”, but the original is extremely thought-provoking and worthy of more than one watch.

  40. I saw that with my mom when it was originally broadcast… I’ve got a version of it in my Plex but I’m not sure where I got it from. Sometimes Torrent sites have versions of it, Fanedits and other versions. Someone took a 35mm version of The Keep and posted it, it’s not available elsewhere…

  42. The erasing and re-using of tapes between the 60’s-80’s was an awful thing. So many shows were lost. The most famous example of a show being SAVED from erasure was “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”. The BBC was going to erase – *forever* – the ENTIRE 4 seasons of the series. Terry Jones heard, by mere chance, from a friend, that the BBC was literally about to do it THAT DAY – and he rushed over to the BBC and saved “Flying Circus” barely in time by arguing with the studio. Jones is pretty much responsible for “Circus” surviving. At the time, in the 70’s and early 80’s, even, still, the idea that broadcast TV shows could be put onto cassette tapes and sold commercially, was still just not something being done, at least on a mass scale. Most TV was just considered disposable, apart from re-runs and wasn’t thought of as art to preserve, even culturally. Honestly, it’s kind of a miracle that the early “Doctor Who” series survived mostly intact.

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