Review of Brainstorm (1983) by Gordon T — 26 Feb 2010

LOUISE FLETCHER . . .

(well, I guess that's all I have to say).

LOUISE FLETCHER is WONDERFUL in every role she plays--the just has the big "C" for CHARISMA!!!!

Even though its made 27 years ago, BRAINSTORM doesn't look too dated to me because "those" "washed-out" looking movies look normal to me because that's how all movies looked back then: washed-out.

BRAINSTORM was advertised as the "trip of a lifetime" (back then) because one of the characters actually records their own death.

The premise is that digital tape equipment has been designed that can record Dreams, Thoughts, and Feelings.

(if a person suffers a stroke, the person watching the tape of the stroke-victim will suffer a stroke as well).

NATURALLY, like ALL the movies "back then" that were "new" to me, the state-of-the-art technology is OUT OF THIS WORLD FUNNY;.

a laptop computer sits in a large metal suitcase and takes-up an entire dinner-table.

And the modems (which were state-of-the-art 27 years ago) are devices where you have to lay the telephone receiver atop an large MODULATOR/DEMODULATOR connected to the telephone lines.

NATURALLY (again) the "Evil Feds" want to use LOUISE FLETCHER'S invention to drop bombs on people more effectively and LOUISE FLETCHER is sore-mad at her project being exploited by the "evil Feds.".

BRAINSTORM is filmed in SUPER PANAVISION (Super 70mm) and the source I saw last night had most of the image in 1.85:1 aspect ratio and when the people would "look into the thoughts" of others the screen would change into 2.35:1.

CHRISTOPHER WALKEN is sooo young in this movie.

And Natalie Wood is truly a beautiful-looking actress (her close-ups are very staged and in soft-focus, because, "back then" NATALIE WOOD was a star who could DEMAND how her "close-ups" would be filmed).

NATALIE WOOD was afraid of the water because she'd almost drowned while filming DRIFTWOOD yet, during the filming of BRAINSTORM fell overboard from a yacht and drowned.

They say a double was used for NATALIE WOOD in BRAINSTORM because all of her shots weren't complete at the time of her death but its impossible to tell in what scenes the body-double appears in; yet her back is turned towards the camera when "they're" selling the house.

And also, during a luncheon-scene a few characters have their backs to the camera which seems uncommon and bad cinematography.

The guy who wrote the screenplay for JACOB'S LADDER also wrote BRAINSTORM and, during his introduction to the print-version of JACOB'S LADDER'S script describes how.

HOLLYWOOD totally wrecked his BRAINSTORM script.

To avoid the chance of HOLLYWOOD doing same SKEWERING of his script for JACOB'S LADDER, he (BRUCE RUBIN) actually moved-out to Los Angeles to oversee the production and actually appears as a GROUP THERAPIST and admonishes his readers that the movie people see on screen is your movie and if you wrote a great movie and HOLLYWOOD wrecks-up the production the movie is still your movie.

I love finally being able to see BRAINSTORM in WIDE-SCREEN and its premise has provoked be to "look into" investigating the science behind recording dreams.

Figure this; if a film provokes you to do something or makes you want to see it again in the future, its a 100% EFFECTIVE (or FRESH).

Update for BRAINSTORM review.

ALAN SILVESTRIE'S score for THE ABYSS sounds an awful-lot like JAMES HORNER'S score for BRAINSTORM (with the "strangely-ethereal" voices).

JAMES HORNER had a HUGE "BLOW-OUT" with JAMES CAMERON and GALE ANN HURD over ALIENS and it feels like JAMES CAMERON may have wanted a "JAMES HORNER SCORE" for THE ABYSS without having to actually use James Horner, the man, to do so: A little like Mel Brooks' wanting to use RICHARD PRYOR in BLAZING SADDLES because he wanted a "RICHARD PRYOR-Type personality" for the Sheriff yet felt he had to "settle-on" CLEVON LITTLE for the Sheriff because RICHARD PRYOR'S "comedic-latitude" would seem either "too-gelded" or "too-castrated" if RICHARD PRYOR'S sense of humor were to be shoe-horned in a PG-movie.