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nTitle: Brainstorm (1983)
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nDirector: Douglas Trumbull
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nCast: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher,nCliff Robertson, Jason Lively
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nReview:
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nTroubled productions, they always have an interesting storynbehind them. Reading about these fiascos lets us see the nature of Hollywoodnfilmmaking, and how frustrating and money oriented it can all be. I’ve readnvarious books on filmmaking, and trust me; all of them have a very acid outlooknon Hollywood. Take for example David Mamet’s book on his experiences in Hollywoodnfilmmaking called Bambi vs. Godzilla. The title alone let’s you see the kind ofnbattle you can expect while making a Hollywood production. You are Bambi andnthe Hollywood system is Godzilla. I’ve never read a book with a more acidnhatred for Hollywood then that one. And it was written by a writer experiencednin both writing and directing various big budget Hollywood films! These booksnwill always tell you how frustrating making a full length multi-million dollarnfeature film can be, if you want to get into that game, you gotta really wantnto be in that game because it can swallow you whole and then spit you’re punynlittle Bambi carcass out. Yes my friends, Hollywood can be one cruel mother fornthose working behind the scenes. Case in point: Douglas Trumbull and Brainstorm,na film with an original concept that half way through completion was shut downnby the studio. Why did the studio want to shut down Trumbull’s film?
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nIn Brainstorm we meet a group of scientists that arenexperimenting with a new kind of machine, a helmet that can record whatevernyour experience. The innovative part of the whole thing is that someone elsencan later watch the recording and relive the experience, all sensory inputnincluded. This means that you can smell, see, hear and feel anything thenoriginal person recorded! Commercial and military applications immediatelynabound for an invention like this one. But like any new invention, there’snalways a dark side, for example, what happens when someone decides to record theirndeath? And what happens when someone wants to play that recording? Would younwant to experience what it feels like to have a heart attack, or to die? Well,nthese are some of the questions that arise when one of the scientists decidesnto record her death. The inevitable question pops up: can this new invention recordnwhat happens after death?
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nWhen Brainstorm was made it was an extremely original concept,nthere had been nothing like it before. Correct me if I’m wrong my dear readers,nbut I can’t remember anything like Brainstorm before it was made. After Brainstormnis another story, after it various films have copied it’s premise, whichnreveals Brainstorms influential nature. For example we have Kathryn Bigelow’s StrangenDays (1995) the first one that pops to mind. I’ve always seen Strange Days as anremake of Brainstorm because it plays with some of the same ideas andnsituations, but takes things a bit further and is a more complete film in mynopinion, I highly recommend that one. There have been other films aboutnmachines that explore the human mind, for example, Dreamscape (1984), The Celln(2000), Videodrome (1983) and The Lawnmower Man (1992), but Brainstorm isnunique because it presents us with the idea of a head piece that can recordnyour experience. But what if someone decides to record a murder, or a torture?nWhat if someone forces you to watch these recordings? Brainstorm explores thesenpossibilities, especially the possibility of having to experience someone’sndeath. Strange Days explores that idea, but is a bit more intense, it goes moreninto the dark side of the techonology. In fact, Strange Days can be seen as ansequel because it shows us a world in which this technology has become common; there’sneven a black market for recordings with highly sexual and violent content!
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nIn Brainstorm the technology hasn’t gone to the mass marketnyet, it’s still on its experimental phase. Scientists are still trying tonfigure the invention out, work out the bugs; they still don’t know what theyngot in their hands. But Brainstorm does go into this tangent that I liked. Innthe film, Christopher Walken’s character is going through a divorce, but innorder to save his marriage, he makes a recording of these beautiful memories henconjures up in his mind of him and his wife falling in love for the first time,nwhich helps them fall in love all over again. Reminded of what they once had,nthey reunite, really tender moments there, loved that about it. Walken andnNatlie Wood (the actress who played Walken’s wife in the film) really achievednan onscreen chemistry that worked; their moments are some of the sweetest innthe whole film. So the film is not only about technology and its possiblenapplications, but also about saving a marriage and rekindling a love that was oncenalive.
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nThere is this moment in Brainstorm where the scientists performna show for the investors to try and “knock their socks off”, so they can reallynget a taste of what the technology can do. Those scenes felt like I wasnvisiting the website for Google Glass. Yes my friends, it looks like technologynis once again catching up with our imaginations! You don’t know what GooglenGlass is? Well, look it up, it’s this new thing that they are cooking up,nbasically, it’s these glasses you wear that can record anything you are seeingnin an extremely similar fashion to the technology presented in Brainstorm. Thenonly difference between Google Glass and the technology presented in Brainstormnis that while in Brainstorm you can relive all of the sensory input includingnsmell, touch and feel, with Google Glass we can only relive the visual andnauditory aspects of someone else’s experience. But I’m wondering if it’s only anmanner of time before that happens! So anyhow, Brainstorm was kind of propheticnin that way. Anyways, the Google Glass thing (same as the technology in thenfilm) is still on its prototype phase, only a few people in the world wherenchosen to use it to test them out and see how they perform in the real world. If it all works out,nIm sure we’ll be seeing a lot more of these glasses soon. Somethingnsimilar to Google Glass also showed up in Iron Man 3 (2013), there’s a couple of scenes in which Iron Mannactually controls his suits with the help of these ultra technological glasses.
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nBut going back to why Brainstorm was such a fiasco, wellnwhat happened was that Natalie Wood (one of the main actresses in the film) diednduring filming, MGM seeing an opportunity to make some money shut down the filmnand filed an insurance claim, hoping to get some of that insurance money. Atnthe time, the guys running MGM though it would be more of a benefit to them to claimntheir insurance money then finish a film that was already midway through completion!nMGM claimed that because of the death of one of its main stars, it wasnimpossible to finish the film; which was a flat out lie, because most of thenfilm had already been shot, MGM just wanted to get their insurance money. So whatever,ntheir claim was denied and Douglas Trumbull managed to finish his movie bynusing a body double and rewriting parts of the script. But the film was destinednto be a failure, MGM didn’t promote it enough and only released it in a minimumnamount of screens, so we can chalk up this films failure to a vengeful movie studio.nBut the film still lives on, it’s been released on various formats and hasncurrently been released on Blue Ray and DVD, as it deserves to. This film wasndirected by Douglas Trumbull, the effects genius who was responsible for somenof the brilliant photographic effects work in films like 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968),nClose Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and Blade Runner (1982). Sadly, hisnsour experience with making Brainstorm made Trumbull give his back tonHollywood, he vowed never to make a huge Hollywood film ever again. And he’snkept his promise. In the end, Brainstorm is a movie that explores someninteresting themes and philosophical ideas, my only gripe with it is that thenending felt a little inconclusive, probably due to Natalie Woods death, but asnit is, you want to know what was going to happen to these characters after thenshit storm they created, the films abrupt end leaves us wanting more. I guessnthe best thing you can do is watch Brainstorm and Strange Days back to back,nyou’ll feel like you’re watching more or less two films that take place innsimilar worlds
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nRating: 4 out of 5
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