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THE STAR: SUNDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1983 Movies By KEN McMILLAN “Brainstorm” is drawing two kinds of moviegoers to the theater. The first is the science fiction fan who hungers for another dose of a “2001” flavored story that probes inner, not outer, space and is brought to the screen by the man responsible for Stanley Kubrick's special effects in his famous 1968 “2001: A Space Odyssey.” The second is the mourning Natalie Wood fan curious to see whether or not the star’s death by drowning on November 29, 1981 — before shooting of “Brainstorm” was completed — flawed the finished product. THE SCIENCE FICTION fans aren't likely to be dis appointed, unless they hope for a single scene that will top the Star Gate sequence, in which Arthur C. Clarke’s space traveler took his mind expanding, psychedelic jour ney to Jupiter. “Brainstorm” has some marvelously flashy visual se quences, but “2001” producer-director Douglas Trumbull's cinematic artistry is a nearly impossible act to follow. If one can pardon this currently overused word, “Brainstorm’s” out-of-body experiences can certainly be called “awesome,” but they are unlikely to set cinematic standards for decades to come, as did Trumbull’s 1968 work for director Kubrick. As for this viewer, however, “Brainstorm” hit several points at which its emotional content (a love story, mixed with a dangerous life-and-death conflict) and its intellec tual content (the meaning of love, the search for scientific knowledge, and the question of life after death) merged with such force that I was, literally, swept with goosebumps, completely lost in the wonders and dangers that unfolded upon the screen. “BRAINSTORM” tells the story of a pair of scientists played by Oscar winners Louise Fletcher (“One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest”) and Christopher Walken (“The Deer Hunter's”) — who have created a machine to record the emotional, sensual, and intellectual feelings and re sponses of any human experience. The experience, as a whole, is present on a complex recording that resembles a cross between a videotape and a cassette tape, and it can be replayed and re-experienced by someone who is wearing what would be the 21st century version of a set of Walkman headphones. At first, Cliff Robertson, who plays the chief executive of a large American corporation, appears to be 100 per cent behind the team of Fletcher and Walken, backing them throughout their years of painstaking experiments and protecting them from outside influences that might harm their scientific endeavors. (Continued on Page 10) Oscar winners Christopher Walken and Louise Fletcher (above) portray scientists who make a startling scientific breakthrough in “Brainstorm.” Below, director Douglas Trumbull outlines an upcoming scene to Natalie Wood.
Newspaper Details
Midlothian Star Herald
Midlothian, Illinois, US
Sun, Oct 16, 1983
Page 27
Full Page
Clipped by
Miss T.
GB 13 Nov 2025
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