Brainstorm [Blu-ray]

It is as classic 80's science fiction movie, well ahead of its time. It fell off the radar, so you really do not see it playing on any of the movie stations or services. It was the last movie that Natalie Wood was in, and features a good performance from co-star Christopher Walken.

Thx

Lovely Natalie Wood's last movie. She died (drowned, google it) near the end of principal photography.And Christopher Walken, always good! Watch "Dead Zone" -- wow.I dinged a star because the transfer from film to digital is awful. Who the heck was in charge of that?

I was privileged to see 'Brainstorm' a few times in the theater. What one forgot about this film in it's initial run, is that it went from regular screen width to 32mm (with a very subtle fish-eye lens effect)during viewing the virtual reality/recorded memory scenes. This was to emphasize having your senses getting 'better' when using this memory recording device. Unfortunately, this only works in a theater, and is lost even on a wide screen TV. Although the acting was a little cerebral, it worked as it gave the film a grittiness to science fiction where camp was common for a film like this in 1984. That is where the acting becomes astounding. Louise Fletcher won a People's Choice award for her role in this film. Yes, Natalie Wood died during the filming and I have heard people say, 'the stand-in for her absence is noticeable', I have yet to see it. I don't see Ms. Wood's tragic death as a stigma on the film but simply, is what it is, separate from the movie. The special effects are dazzling and I challenge anyone to do better even in this CG age. This is Academy Award winning composer James Horner's best work as well. This was my first exposure to Christopher Walken, and I followed his career earnestly. I cannot leave out the great performances of Cliff Robertson, as the project manager, and Donald Hutton as the science rep from the Department of Defense.The film begins with a breakthrough in research in recording memories (complete with enhancements in all senses) that not only allows one to learn to play the piano and finish the fifth grade in 5 minutes, but remember lost passions for a troubled marriage between the marketing researcher (Wood) and lead scientist (Walken). But it doesn't take long for the Department of Defense to want to exploit it, much to the ire of the other lead scientist (Fletcher). During a lone night in her lab, Fletcher's character suffers a fatal heart attack...and records the event on the groundbreaking device! Knowing his fellow scientist would have wanted him to see the recording, Walken's character must hack and trick his way into the area where it is now tightly secured. With the help of his wife and friends, he succeeds and sees 'memory bubbles'(a nice twist to 'life flashing before your eyes'), 'Cancer Hell (Fletcher's character smoked a lot)', the galaxy, and finally, the white light that beckons to many arriving departed.I wished the DVD had extras, such as deleted scenes and such. I do know that there are a few other 'crossing over' scenes that didn't make it to the final cut of the movie (I recall vividly reading in a magazine).'Brainstorm' is a forgotten classic that's virtual reality concept may be debated as dated in sci-fi-becoming reality-age concepts of 3D holograms and virtual computers, but we have yet to record memories straight from someone's cerebral perceptions and play them in another's mind. Let's not forget that the film was made when CG effects were either non-existent or in their experimental stage and doesn't show thanks to the skills of Douglas Trumbul. 'Brainstorm' still is a 27 year old movie that's way ahead of it's time.

This is a great 1980's science fiction movie that has roots in the real world that make the film believable.

Not too many people have seen Showscan movies. For some reason, they were released in (I think) selected Chucky Cheese's pizza shops.Some friends and I drove 2 hours across Missouri to see Showscan and it was the most realistic picture we had ever seen.Showscan was a 65mm film presented at 60 frames per second (fps). Studies had shown this to be the frame repetition rate at which the brain would integrate the frames seamlessly and accept it as true motion. Most movies are 24 fps, although each frame is shown multiple times to reduce flicker.But you can tell that it's not real. US TV, which operates at 60 fields per second approximates the Showscan presentation. The difference between this and normal films is obvious - most people can tell a video source from a film source. They may not know why the video seems to have more presence, but the frame rate is the answer.Brainstorm was originally produced to use Showscan projectors for the times when people were experiencing "reality" with their headsets. This would have clearly stood out from the rest of the film, and would have seemed much more real.Perhaps only Doug T. saw the project in the 24/60 fps version. I know I didn't. However, from my experience with Showscan, I can state without reservation that this would have been one hell of a film as originally conceived. The "reality" changes would have more than made up for any other problems with acting or scripting. The "WOW" factor would have overridden all other criticism.As for the dialog and acting being a little clunky - well, have you ever seen early stereo or 3D movies? They tended to concentrate on exploring the technology instead of the picture. Perhaps Showscan could have evolved to the state that 3D did with Hitchcock's "Dial M for Murder." Or perhaps not.In any event, this would be an excellent roadshow movie (like the restored version of "Lawrence of Arabia") to show what the movie should have been.And perhaps on a future DVD we'll have the helmet versions of reality replaced with 60 fields per second video. The difference should be obvious.Thanks, Doug, for trying to pull this off. If you ever want to invite me to see your master copy with Showscan, I'll be out in California in an instant!Rick

La película es genial. Marca un antes y un después en el cine fantástico. La edición en BR respeta su proyeccion original . Natalie Wood, que realiza su última aparición en pantalla en este largometraje. "Proyecto Brainstorm" es una cinta precursora de muchas otras que han llegado a ser grandes exitos en los 80 y 90.

BRAINSTORM [1983 / 2012] [Blu-ray] [US Release] The Door to the Mind is Open. . . The Ultimate Experience! A Virtual Storm of Sci-Fi Excitement!Imagine a machine that downloads one person’s thoughts and sensations to another individual. Any person. Any experience. Now imagine how the breakthrough technology might be corrupted in the wrong hands.Christopher Walkern, Natalie Wood (in her final film) and Louise Fletcher play virtual reality researchers determined to keep their high-tech invention from lowdown tampering in ‘BRAINSTORM.’ Bruce Joel Rubin [‘GHOST’ and ‘Jacobs Ladder’] provides the tantalising “what if?” story, and Douglas Trumball (inventor of the first simulation theatre and a special-effects trailblazer on ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’) produces and directs this dazzling adventure. Wire up.FILM FACT: To prepare for the film, Trumbull took most of the key cast and crew up to the Esalen Institute, an experimental research facility in Northern California known for its new-age classes and workshops. In September 1981 the cast and crew travelled to North Carolina to begin six weeks of location shooting, before moving back to MGM Studios in California in November to film interior scenes. The film was conceived as an introduction to Douglas Trumbull's “Showscan” which is his innovative new High Frame Rate Format with a 60 frames-per-second 70mm film process. The film was nearly scuttled by Natalie Wood's death during a production break in November 1981. Douglas Trumbull proceeded to complete the film by rewriting the script and using a body double for Natalie Wood's remaining scenes. At the end of the film it carries the dedication credit "To Natalie."Cast: Christopher Walken, Natalie Wood, Louise Fletcher, Cliff Robertson, Jordan Christopher, Donald Hotton, Alan Fudge, Joe Dorsey, Bill Morey, Jason Lively, Darrell Larson, Lou Walker, Stacey Kuhne-Adams, John Hugh, Ira David Wood III, Keith Colbert, Jerry Bennett, Mary Fran Lyman, Nina Axelrod, Kelly W. Brown, Georgianne Walken, Jimmy Boyd, Charlie Briggs, Ann Lincoln, Robert Terry Young, Bill Willens, Jim Burk, James J. Casino, John Gladstein, Herbert Hirschman, May Boss, Clay Boss and Susan Kampe (Angel)Director: Douglas TrumbullProducers: Douglas Trumbull, Joel L. Freedman and Richard YuricichScreenplay: Philip Frank Messina, Robert Stitzel and Bruce Joel Rubin (Story)Composer: James HornerCinematography: Richard YuricichVideo Resolution: 1080p [Metrocolor]Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 [Super Panavision] [OMNIVISION]Audio: English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio and Spanish: 1.0 Dolby DigitalSubtitles: English SDH, French and SpanishRunning Time: 106 minutesRegion: All RegionsNumber of discs: 1Studio: Warner Home Video / M-G-MAndrew’s Blu-ray Review: ‘BRAINSTORM’ is your modern day button-pusher's paradise, replete with the dazzling array of hardware that ‘BRAINSTORM’ so effectively utilises. Here we find a group of scientists that is poised on the brink of an astonishing amazing scientific discovery where invents a brain/computer interface that allows sensations to be recorded from a person's brain and converted and have created a device that allows one person to experience the sensations of other people. If Person “A” is wearing a specially designed helmet, eats a piece of steak with nuts, chocolate sauce and marshmallow on top with a cherry, which see the food used in the experiment, then Person “B” is able to actually taste the same food that Person “A” is eating.Douglas Trumbull is a technologist at heart, and maybe a bit of a dreamer, but he's also a realist. ‘BRAINSTORM’ allows itself some totally indulgent thrill-ride moments, but there's an ominous undercurrent to its futurism from square one. The film's opening scenes depicts an early technology test, with Dr. Michael Brace [Christopher Walken] donning a prototype version of the ‘BRAINSTORM’ helmet in a lab environment to experience a live feed from another person who is a really nasty stupid prankster who then puts the helmet on a lab monkey, and next we see Christopher Walken starts to shake and tremble in his chair as though experiencing a kind of mental seizure. It's not played like a scene in a horror film exactly, and there's a bit of comic relief as Christopher Walken scolds the idiot technician, by saying, "There is something wrong with you," he declares, in perfectly deadpan Christopher Walken his usual performance. It is clear that something's amiss, because eventually we feel for all the good the ‘BRAINSTORM’ device might bring into the world; it has the potential to channel deeply disturbing experiences as well and some of the rainbow metal tapes are even labelled as "toxic."When the scientists discover that their invention actually works, they excitedly drink a toast to its seemingly endless possibilities. And so with the film ‘BRAINSTORM’ follows the scientists as they then discovers that their endeavour is not purely for research-minded individuals, because the nasty secretive military personnel can imagine more sinister uses for the device. Here we follow Dr. Michael Brace [Christopher Walken], one of the inventors, and his wife, Karen Brace [Natalie Wood], as their marriage falters, but Karen Brace helps to enhance the helmet itself to more manageable size, since this is indeed the films real star. Lillian Reynolds [Louise Fletcher] is pressured by backers to admit a former colleague, Landon Marks [Donald Hotton], whom she sees as part of the military-industrial complex. She disagrees with their plan to have the invention developed for military use.The brilliant director/producer Douglas Trumbull, who is the special-effects wizard for this film, has devised an unusually varied high-tech look for the film ‘BRAINSTORM,’ because were we see the laboratory where the scientists work looks amazingly sophisticated, but also very lived in; the amazing helmet itself is refined with a collection of lights and wires and lenses to something streamlined and sleek. Later on, when an automated assembly line is established to mass produce these amazing helmet’s, and Douglas Trumbull makes it seem very matter of fact as well as giving us a sense of a very sinister outlook and of course we eventually finally get revealed a very wicked outcome of the film, where the baddies seem to get the upper hand, but of course they all get their comeuppance in the end.With most of the special effects scenes are of course, reserved for those images provided by the helmet and we see the helmet device captures the ultimate sensation, but when some of the experiments go seriously wrong, but lucky for us Douglas Trumbull can't convey the real dangers while we are actually watching the film for real via your Home Cinema set-up, thank goodness. But Douglas Trumbull can certainly makes you feel it is totally real and totally believable, as well as very frightening when you see the euphoric fireworks explode on the screen. In the film's downward-spiralling second act, the machine is put to one of its most obvious uses, as the joker creates a sex tape with it that a colleague edits the rainbow metal tape into an infinite loop, with physically debilitating results.Christopher Walken is in my mind slightly misplaced, and he never seemed very convincingly that of a brilliant scientific inventor. However, Christopher Walken is much better in the later action sequences of the film with the early laboratory scenes. Christopher Walken and Natalie Wood do seem to work well together near the end of the film in the way they thwart the efforts of the nasty people trying to stop Christopher Walken gets to experience what happens when Lillian Reynolds [Louise Fletcher] suffers a heart attack while working alone and realising that she will eventually die, Lillian Reynolds records her experience and turns on the machine by hitting the “record” button and starts recording her fatal heart attack and we finally experience her final demise and contents of that recording, depicting the first part of the decedent's passage into the afterlife, becomes the engine that drives the film’s final climax.However adversely it must have affected the morale of those involved in making ‘BRAINSTORM,’ the death of Natalie Wood hasn't damaged the film. Her performance feels complete. Playing a more mature character than she had done before, Miss Natalie Wood brought hints of a greater sturdiness and depth to this role, which is pivotal but relatively small.While ‘BRAINSTORM,’ didn't end up as a showcase for “Showscan,” Douglas Trumbull nonetheless captured the aura of a cinematic technology start-up in the film's first act, showing the creation of a ‘This Is Cinerama’ style demo reel that puts images of a water slide, sweeping vistas, and girls in bikini-tops to clever, calculated use and I really loved the quick cuts that juxtapose the wild, fish-eye popping footage with the backs of the heads of venture capitalists assembled at a boardroom table, and it is totally hilarious when you see them all moving to the effects of the rollercoaster ride. The device is designed to resemble a flatbed film-editing machine loaded up with thick reels of rainbow-striped metal recording tape, making it a perfect nostalgia trigger for anyone who lived through the early days of videotape and remembers how it seemed to make everyone's film memories more accessible than ever before.With the film’s ending where Michael Brace replays Lillian Reynold’s death tape, at the Wright Brothers monument at Kitty Hawk, no less, sees a vision of heaven; which was often criticised upon the film’s release as being too “on the nose.” As Douglas Trumbull said at the time, “We wanted to have this sort of euphoric release at the end, like the birth process.” The sequence is open to whatever you bring to it and if you are at all religious, maybe those are ‘angels’ that Christopher Walken sees, it is up to you to decide whether Christopher Walkern is actually experiencing the sensation. I don’t see it so narrowly; I see it as getting in touch with a more expanded consciousness or awareness of life, or that matter, the universe, and energy itself and I felt the “angels” going towards the light a most awesome spectacular visual presentation. A lot of people have speculated about this, especially the people who are really into quantum mechanics and particle physics are starting to meet up with the philosophers in discussing what the hell is the nature of the universe.Blu-ray Video Quality – ‘BRAINSTORM’ arrives on Blu-ray from Warner Home Video in a no-frills package. The 1080p encoded image is totally stunning and black levels and contrast between the two formats show similar differences. Plus you get the image presented in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio from a 35mm theatrical print. Throughout the film you experience a ‘BRAINSTORM’ footage that is in the "windowboxed" aspect ratio of 1.66:1 that sits in the middle of the widescreen frame, with black bars on all four sides, to make you experience the awesome full presentation of the 2.40:1 aspect ratio in the Douglas Trumbull’s “Showscan” 60 frames-per-second 70mm film process. This accurately reflects the theatrical experience. I hope in time Warner Home Video will hopefully bring out an Anniversary Special Edition in a new 4K master print.Blu-ray Audio Quality – ‘BRAINSTORM’ is brought to us in the English: 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio, with the optional Spanish: 1.0 Dolby Digital. In the 1.66:1 aspect ratio seems to be only presented in the stereo audio presentation, but in the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio you experience something spectacular ambient surround effects, with the use of all the speakers, with a broad directionality, even dialogue is spread across multiple channels, and the musical depth is also rich ambient presentation, especially with the brilliant James Horner composition score, but to complete the fantastic sound effects is when you experience the very heavy rumble bass effects. But overall the tracks have a very satisfying depth throughout the film.Blu-ray Special Features and Extras:Theatrical Trailer [1983] [480i] [1.37:1] [3:16] This is the original Theatrical Trailer for ‘BRAINSTORM,’ but why could not they find the proper Theatrical Trailer in the 2.40:1 aspect ratio? But despite this, it is still a very dramatic and brilliant presentation and definitely still gives you the ultimate rollercoaster experience that you will experience when you view this brilliant awesome film.Finally, the technical effects are totally awesome and intriguing, because Douglas Trumbull, the director, is Hollywood's legendary special effects ace, especially with films like ‘2001: A Space Odyssey,’ ‘Silent Running,’ ‘Close Encounters of the Third Kind,’ and he does a most beautiful wonderful job of making the telepathic experiences visually exciting. But of course Douglas Trumbull makes you experience the 1.66:1 standard lenses and the awesome astonishing visual effects via the 2.40:1 aspect ratio lenses that regularly happens back and forth throughout the film formats, and is helped along with you experiencing standard Stereo audio and the awesome 5.1 DTS-HD sound, which is a great experience you only get with this film. All in all, this film uses science fiction to its fullest. The middle section is the best, where the characters are struggling like businessmen with their discovery and trying to figure out what it’s capable of. The metaphoric message isn’t really all that metaphoric by the end, as the film telegraphs a hopeful tune. Christopher Walken is not as over-the-top as in other films he has appeared in. But the film is largely a great weakness of mine because I like to see how science fiction can explore almost anything. I guess that’s why the characters end up at the Wright Brother’s Museum at the end, because they too are explorers of the human existence. Highly Recommended!Andrew C. Miller – Your Ultimate No.1 Film AficionadoLe Cinema ParadisoUnited Kingdom

gli effetti di 2001 odissea nello spazio in particolare viaggio verso giove li ha inventati lui e poi ha deciso di fare un film usando un particolare siastema di multiformato nella stessa pellicola. la realtà ha un formato rettangolare mentre la percezione elettronica ha un formato panoramico spinto con l'uso di un grandangolo estremo. questa caratteristica lo rende unico e la storia vive tutta su questa potenza della percezione indotta da una macchina che registra direttamente dal cervello e riproietta in esso. in italia non ha avuto grande risonanza ma chi ama sci-fi deve vederlo

Es hat lange gedauert, Brainstorm endlich auch auf Bluray genießen zu können und diese Bluray entschädigt für die lange Wartezeit. Es gibt sie zwar nur auf englisch, aber das macht nichts aus, denn der Film lebt eindeutig von seinen Bildern und den Fischaugensequenzen, die ursprünglich auf 70-mm-Film gedreht wurden und die auf DVD kaum Eindruck schinden konnten. In Full-HD ist das aber ein fulminanter Genuss und endlich lassen sich die vielen kleinen Details der liebevollen Ausstattung auch tatsächlich erkennen und lesen. Der Brainstorm-Fan wird also mit der Bluray sein Vergnügen haben und vermutlich ständig auf die Pause-Taste drücken, um die vielen Details anzuschauen. :-)

Having still received dvds should be wide but no..chanced this film..i think i had the vhs..SO WHY the 4-3 and wide aspect. Play..oh good..wide..bit more...oh 4-3 BUT I get it.. Douglass Trumbal special effect ARE wide/sound like cinerama but the main film..smaller pic inside 16-9 frame..so.. its been `altered`.. When i saw the abbys was wide but inside the 16-9 frame..no..i want it wide..but Brianstorm its decided to blow your mind with headset on.....but main film smaller but..is it 16-9..its effective..pleased as i loved natalie.. IF it comes out again..