Dreamscape

I enjoy seeing many movies a second or third time, because subsequent viewings often reveal details that I may have missed previously. There are also a handful of movies that I have revisited dozens of times, simply because I love them so much.

‘Dreamscape’ is one such movie. I watched it again today, and it continues to make me smile. I was delighted to have caught a fantastic joke for the first time that for some reason has eluded me until today’s viewing. I’m not sure how I missed it until now, but noticing it today reinforced my opinion of what a great sense of humour this movie has.

Not that it’s a comedy. It’s a mash-up of a whole slew of genres, however it is predominantly a science fiction piece. However, it also contains political/psychological thriller elements, as well as horror and a bit of action/adventure, and there’s even a romance angle for good measure.

I feel that the movie’s balancing of all these genres is one reason that it’s such a pleasure to watch, but what really makes it worth returning to for me time and again is the lightness of touch it has. It’s not just the dialogue which is funny - and it is funny - but it’s the fact that the entire movie successfully treads that fine line between being too silly on one hand and too serious on the other: it finds exactly the right tone for each scene to make the entire movie convincing and that’s a big part of what makes ‘Dreamscape’ the cult gem that it is.

There are many movies that I see today - such as the similar-in-concept ‘Inception’ - that are arguably fantastic, but they have a tendency to be overly serious in tone to me. I suspect that the filmmakers are weary of their movies seeming silly to their audience, so they go too far in the opposite direction in an effort to avoid any possibility of the movie seeming slight. This tactic may succeed therein, but I posit that in so doing, they are also robbing their movie of life. Jokes and humour are vital to...anything, in my opinion. Even Shakespearean plays and movies by Ingmar Bergman feature comic moments, so if it’s OK for the Bard and the Swedish master auteur to be funny, I’d be willing to say that a dash of humour probably won’t spoil your superhero movie or 80’s horror remake. ‘Dreamscape’, in my opinion, gets this aspect just about perfect and reminds us why taking the trouble to find this precarious balance is so important.

I love Maurice Jarre’s score for this movie, especially the main theme for saxophone. One of my favourite scenes in the movie has the main character Alex Gardner (played by Dennis Quaid) checking his answering machine messages after arriving home. As the messages play, he picks up his saxophone and plays the movie’s main theme. One message says, ‘Alex, this is Maggie. I don’t want to see you, I don’t want to talk to you - we’re through!’. The very next message says, ‘Alex, it’s Maggie...call me’.

The visuals are really impressive throughout ‘Dreamscape’, especially in terms of the use of colour and the stunning set design. There’s one dream sequence involving a child’s nightmare that always springs to mind when I think of this movie. The sets for this sequence use window frames and door frames with odd angles and there’s a seemingly endless, rickety staircase that wouldn’t look out of place in a Dr. Suess book or an early German expressionist film. The final showdown dream sequence is bathed in dark red and deep shadows which lends the climactic scene an urgent, dangerous feel.

Finally, ‘Dreamscape’ is a rare, successful fusion of several genres with a unique mood, atmosphere and feel. There’s really nothing else like it! Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.