What Do You Like Best About The Lathe of Heaven

What do you like best about THE LATHE OF HEAVEN (1979)? Yes, the movie was filmed in 1979. Forget about the awful remake in the early 2000s.

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1) The Lathe of Heaven was low budget and low-tech of its time. But this gives a certain quaint charm and uniqueness that has proven enduring. The movie predated CGI and the special effects were obviously analog, lights, and prisms.

2) The funky aliens look like a cross between a turtle and a robot. The aliens have superior technology but George Orr dreams the invading aliens into peaceful visitors. The alien spaceships are charmingly low budget low-tech. They appear as superimposed light shapes, looking like hamburgers, on the screen.

3) George Orr dreams away racism. But everyone has grey skin and grey white hair. Later on George dreams everyone back to their normal skin tone.

4) George manages to stop Dr. Haber from accidentally dreaming the world into cataclysmic destruction and restores some previous order, like everyone's original skin color; Portland, Oregon back to its colder, cloudy self; but not all can be restored. The world is still depopulated. George meets lawyer, Miss Lelache again but this time she has never met him, although George retains the ability to 'remember' everything. George invites Miss Lalash out to lunch. I found it somewhat amusing. The once mighty aliens who visited Earth in their spaceships have now settled, albeit in very small numbers, on our planet and have taken mundane jobs like shopkeepers. During the ending credits, George buys hotdogs for himself and Miss Lelache from one of those turtle-like aliens who is operating an outdoor hotdog stand. LOL. Makes you laugh at the aliens. They've come all this way to settle on Earth just to run a hotdog stand? I just loved it all.

5) What is apparent at the movie's beginning is confirmed towards the end. A nuclear World War III has devastated Portland, Oregon. George lies dying in the still burning, smoking ruins from radiation sickness. That's when his nascent power awakens. He dreams the nuclear war never happened. Once during the movie, one of George's comments reveals that the danger of world war is still close.