1980 or so Sci Fi Movie Title?

cjones

Cadet
Can you help? I cannot remember the name of a pretty good movie that I saw on television a little before or after 1980. It started out with a young man waking up in Portland, Oregon, after dreaming that Portland was very hot and without much rain- and NOW it was exactly that way. He left home and found out that now he was the only one that had any idea that Portland was not that way. After a couple more such experiences with his dreams, he tried schemes to prevent himself from sleeping or dreaming, to avoid changing the world so radically, or even destroying it. Google searches did not help me, so can you help? Thanks a lot.
 
In This Year ... 1980

Your IMDb guide for 1980. This area contains a list of interesting reports based around the 5629 titles in the IMDb for 1980. Visit the links in the left hand area of this page to access the different reports. The form below allows you to search the database for titles from 1980 only. The A-Z index enables you to browse the titles alphabetically.
 
Can you help? I cannot remember the name of a pretty good movie that I saw on television a little before or after 1980. It started out with a young man waking up in Portland, Oregon, after dreaming that Portland was very hot and without much rain- and NOW it was exactly that way. He left home and found out that now he was the only one that had any idea that Portland was not that way. After a couple more such experiences with his dreams, he tried schemes to prevent himself from sleeping or dreaming, to avoid changing the world so radically, or even destroying it. Google searches did not help me, so can you help? Thanks a lot.
cjones, welcome to Cool Sci-Fi! (y)

Any chance you're thinking of Lathe of Heaven?
 
Got to be the wonderful PBS production of The Lathe of Heaven, based on the novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. After many years in limbo, it's available on video.

From the Wiki:

An adaptation entitled The Lathe of Heaven produced by the public television station WNET, and directed by David Loxton and Fred Barzyk, was released in 1980. It was PBS first direct-to-TV film production and was produced with a budget of $ 250 000. Generally faithful to the novel, it stars Bruce Davison as George Orr, Kevin Conway as William Haber, and Margaret Avery as Heather LeLache. Ursula K. Le Guin herself was heavily involved in the production of the 1980 adaptation, and has several times expressed her satisfaction with it.

PBS' rights to rebroadcast the film expired in 1988, and it became the most-requested program in PBS history. Fans were extremely critical of WNET's supposed "warehousing" of the film, but the budgetary barriers to rebroadcast were high: the station needed to pay for and clear rights with all participants in the original program; negotiate a special agreement with the composer of the film's score; and deal with the Beatles recording excerpted in the original soundtrack, 'With A Little Help from My Friends', which is integral to a plot point in both the novel and the film. A cover version replaces the Beatles' own recording.

(In fact, the home video release is remastered from a tape someone recorded from the original broadcast; PBS, thinking the rights issues would dog the production forever, did not save a copy of the production in their archives).

A second adaptation, retitled Lathe of Heaven, was produced for the A&E network in 2002 and directed by Philip Haas. It starred James Caan, Lukas Haas, and Lisa Bonet. This adaptation discards a significant portion of the plot, some essential characters, and much of the philosophical underpinnings of the book and the original PBS production. Ursula K. Le Guin's view of this adaptation was: "I found it misguided and uninteresting"
 
Thank you, thank you, thank you, Kevin and Viktor. Every few years this comes to mind and I end up thinking "how am I going to find out?" This time I thought to search out a forum. That it was a PBS production clinches it. Back in 1980, I did not know it was their first "direct to TV" production, but I do remember my reaction- how did this get on PBS?

The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin. I will get the book and not forget this one again.
 
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