The Lathe of Heaven was initially a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin, which she wrote in 1971. It turned out to be moderately successful as soon as it was published. The subject of the novel revolved around the story of a character named George Orr. He had a psychological problem and was suffering from anxiety regarding his dreams. His dreams used to change the reality. The main character of the story was suffering from anxiety due to this as only he was the person who knew about this and who was in a condition to observe what changed the next morning due to his dreams. In order to stop his dreams, the character uses drugs and is regarded as mentally ill. He uses drugs to suppress his dreams and considers himself a guilty person who is responsible for all the bad things that happened after he dreamed about them (Guin).
The story reaches the climax when the doctor treating George realizes that his dreams change reality, and he tries to use his dreaming power in order to solve the problems of the earth, such as overpopulation, and bring peace to the world. Further, he also uses that his dreaming power for himself too, for instance, he suggests him to dream that he is successful and famous. There is also a wonderful sequence where the moon is invaded by the aliens, and when the lawyer -who is a friend of George and who also helped her in getting rid of the doctor when George realizes that the doctor might use his gift of this power that turns his dreams into reality- that tells him to dream that there is peace on the moon and as a result, those aliens come to the earth. After a variety of happenings in the film and the experimentation by Doctor Haber, he finally takes the burden of the power possessed by George Orr on his own shoulders and loses control of his dreams, causing further destruction loses his control, and he becomes mentally ill. The role of the lawyer friend of the main character of the film, George Orr, is very important as she helps him get out of the trap caused to him by Doctor Haber (“Lathe of Heaven 1980 Full”, 2018).
The novel was first used as a story in a film in 1980 and achieved a cult status since then. The third broadcast of the same 1980 version came in 2000, starring Bruce Davison, who starred as George Orr in it. When we compare the two versions of the movie, the first thing that creates a huge difference between the two is the image quality. The first version is more like made for the television version. Moreover, as the recording was made with the help of an analog videotape, the quality of the earlier version was not very good. Further, the interiors that were used in the film were real, and the costumes in the first half of the film are mostly tailored raincoats (“Lathe of Heaven 1980 Full”, 2018).
On the other hand, version 2002, the remake of the film, underlies one of the optimistic things, that is, the high budget, which was not the case with the previous version. Secondly, the quality of the images was much better than that of the older version. However, the script of this version was a bit altered. This version of the film did not include the alien invasion as was done in the earlier version. Certain special effects were also used in some instances. Lukas Haas played the role of George Orr, and James Caan played the role of Doctor Haber (“Lathe of Heaven 2002 Full”, 2018).
References
“The Lathe Of Heaven.” YouTube. N. p., 2018. Web. 21 Apr. 2018.
“Lathe Of Heaven 2002 Full.” YouTube. N. p., 2018. Web. 21 Apr. 2018.
Guin, U. K. L. The Lathe Of Heaven: A Novel. Scribner, 2008, https://books.google.com.pk/books?id=sZZ7xHC3-JIC.
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