#68, 9/3 – Brainstorm (1983) (dvd)
So I’ve probably mentioned on more than one occasion that I believe when I see a movie sometimes affects my enjoyment of it more than any other factor. It’s a simple enough thing: Sometimes I’m willing to take a movie for what it is, and sometimes I’m not. And I think it can take me years and years to be at place where I can appreciate particular movies.
Brainstom is a perfect example. I’ve wanted to see Brainstorm now for 23 years (i.e. since I was 12…), but I’ve only just now gotten around to it. And that’s a blessing, really, because I’m pretty sure I would have hated it if I’d seen it, say, before 2000.
Frankly, as a scifi thriller it doesn’t work out that well. The hokey computer hacking sequences which make up a fair portion of the film’s climax aren’t at all like a fine wine. A haywire automated assembly line part, especially, was supposed to be funny, but really it was just kinda dumb. And the Wright Brothers symbolism they hit us over the head with may or may not work (I’m still not sure about that). But I wouldn’t suggest watching it as a scifi thriller anyway, since I think it’s much better seen as a romance.
Or, if you’d like, consider it a movie about communication. Two brilliant scientists, Lillian and Mike, have created a breakthrough in virtual reality technology and their community is all abuzz with the possibilities. After trying out a demo, their ebullient boss says: “You’ve blown communication as we’ve known it right out of the water. You know that, don’t you?” And the whole core of the movie, if you ask me, is how those two people then turn around and use this tool to communicate. First Mike (Christopher Walken) reaches out to his wife Karen (Natalie Wood) with it. And then Lillian (Louise Fletcher) sends a message to Mike.
As I was watching the wonderful sequence with Karen and Mike, I thought “this is what I’m always gonna remember about this movie”. In particular, there’s a few seconds in a flashback montage where Karen is slung over Mike’s shoulder and she has her arms outstretched (one of those many references to the feeling of being first in flight). It’s the kind of thing we’ve seen in montages a million times before. But coming when it did, as it did, it’s a gorgeous few seconds. In fact, I paused the movie just to rewind it and watch that scene again. And it’s only in the second viewing that I heard Karen say to Mike, after the communique was finished, “I didn’t understand”. As in, she hadn’t understood where he was coming from or how he saw her before that crucial scene. Like I said, it’s about communication.
I think it’s such a simple and beautiful movie. Sure, it’s got things to make the eyes roll and other things which leave someone like me to ask “did anyone laugh at that in the theatres?”. But if you look at it from a certain angle, they got all the parts which matter very, very right.