Dreamscape (1984)

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nTitle: Dreamscape (1984)

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nDirector: Joseph Ruben

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nCast: Dennis Quaid, Kate Capshaw, Max Von Sydow, ChristophernPlummer, David Patrick Kelly

nReview:

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nDream movies are a special bunch of films; they offer thingsnthat no other kind of movie can offer us:  ndream sequences that explore the surreal landscapes of the mind. InnDreamscape we meet Alex Gardner, a young man who can transport himself ontonother people’s dreams. He is psychic, something we find out early on, when henwins a bunch of money at the horse track. His psychic abilities are what augmentnhis dream traveling abilities. Once the government gets a whiff of Alex’s abilities,nthey kidnap him and convince him to help them with their new project; a projectnwhich consists of using a machine to enter other people’s minds. At first wenare introduced to the benevolent side of the project, which is to help peoplenconfront their fears, but then we go into the negative applications of thentechnique, mainly, if you kill a person in the dream world, you can kill themnin real life!

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nDreamscape is a filmnthat explores the fascinating world of dreams. I’ve always found dreams to be incrediblyninteresting and the idea that we can consciously control what happens in dreams?nMind blowing! These types of dreams are called ‘Lucid Dreams’ and in them you becomenaware that you are dreaming and attempt to control what happens in the dream. Thisnis not fantasy, and it’s something you can look into and learn how to achieve.nI read up on it and tried some of the techniques, and I gotta tell you guys,nLucid Dreaming actually works! I was personally successful in my attempt; I actuallynbecame aware that I was dreaming, while dreaming! The bitch of the thing isntrying to stay asleep once you become conscious in the dream, because the mindsnnatural reaction is to wake you up when you become conscious. But the fewnseconds that I managed to be conscious within my dream was actually kind ofnfrightening and intense, but also strangely exhilarating. Dreams are somethingnwe can all identify with because it’s something we all experience; we allndream. We all confront our fears in those wee hours of the night, which isnprobably the reason why dream movies are big hits with audiences. I mean, looknat the success of the  Nightmare on ElmnStreet franchise, or Tarsem’s The Cell (2000), two films that have a whole lotnin common with Dreamscape, the film that explored these themes first.
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nI see Tarsem’s The Cell as an update on the ideas presentednin Dreamscape, but done in a far more stylish manner because of Tarsem Singh’sninvolvement in directing the picture. The Cell is a superior film in many ways,nbut that’s due to the fact that it had a bigger budgetthan Dreamscape, whichnwas made with a measly 6 million dollars, mere pocket change in Hollywoodnterms. The Cell on the other hand had 33 million dollars to play with. Still,neven with its meager budget, Dreamscape is a film big on ideas. I love it whennthese films get made in spite of their small budgets. The filmmakers say:  “screw it, we’ll make do with what we got!”nThe amazing thing is that most of the time, something cool comes forth none thenless, which was the case with Dreamscape. The ideas presented are prettynoutlandish! The president of the United States is having nightmares because ofnthe Cold War. He has nightmares of people dying in a nuclear blast! He can’tntake the pressure of being the president and having to be responsible fornpressing the proverbial button that can kill millions. Once again, same as manynfilms from the 80’s fear of nuclear holocaust is present because this is whatnpeople were living through at the time. So the film not only explores the dreamnworld and all the possibilities therein, it also deals with political and moralnissues.
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nAn interesting aspect of Dreamscape, and I mentioned a bitnof this earlier, is how many similarities it shares with the Nightmare on ElmnStreet franchise. We got characters going in and out of dreams; we have an evilndream demon type of guy who even has claws, just like Freddy Krueger does!nPlus, there’s the idea that if you die in your dreams, you can die in realnlife! Even more interesting is that both A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984) andnDreamscape were being made at the same time, and released mere months apart.nThere’s a possibility that one studio was trying to copy the other studiosndream film and so, we get two extremely similar films being released. ButnDreamscape was released first in August 1984, while A Nightmare on Elm Streetnwas released in November of the same year, so Dreamscape did it all first.nAnother connection that Dreamscape has with A Nightmare on Elm Street is thatnDreamscape was partially written by Chuck Russell, the very same writer/directornwho ended up writing and directing A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriorsn(1987), a film that shares many similarities with Dreamscape. On thatnparticular Elm Street film we meet Kirsten and Nancy, two characters with thenability to enter other people’s dreams, they can even bring people into their ownndreams. So I’m guessing that Chuck Russell’s experience with writing aboutndreams in Dreamscape landed him the gig to write and direct the third entry innthe original Nightmare on Elm Street franchise.
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nThe only problem for me with Dreamscape is that sometimes the specialneffects look pretty outdated. There’s this one scene where we meet a half man,nhalf snake creature, and the stop motion animation leaves a lot to be desired,nI mean, not only is it stop motion animation, it’s bad stop motion animation.nBut aside from that, we get some trippy visuals every time we go into dreamnworld, I sometimes got the feeling that the film was made for 3-D but never gotnaround to getting converted. On the plus side of things, the film has annexcellent cast, we get Dennis Quaid in the prime of his youth, actually, itnmight take you some time to get over how young he looks.  Christopher Plummer plays a political douchenbag and Max Von Sydow his counterpart, the good natured scientist. Kate Capshawn(aka Spielberg’s wife) plays one of the heads of the dream project. And finallynwe get David “Warriors, come out and play” Patrick Kelly, playing the FreddynKrueger like villain of the piece. Final words on Dreamscape is that it’s anfilm with an interesting premise that did a lot with very little. Its budgetarynlimitations didn’t stop it from exploring its themes thoroughly; recommendednto those who love movies that explore the fascinating world of dreams.

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nRating: 3 ½ out of 5  
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