| Electric Dreams | |
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Theatrical release poster |
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| Directed by | Steve Barron |
| Produced by | Larry DeWaay Rusty Lemorande Richard Branson |
| Written by | Rusty Lemorande |
| Starring | Lenny Von Dohlen Virginia Madsen Maxwell Caulfield Bud Cort |
| Music by | Giorgio Moroder; Jeff Lynne |
| Cinematography | Alex Thomson |
| Editing by | Peter Honess |
| Studio | Virgin Films |
| Distributed by | Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer |
| Release date(s) | July 20, 1984 |
| Running time | 95 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3.5 million |
| Box office | $2,467,664 |
Electric Dreams is a 1984 British-American comedy/drama/romance/science fiction film set in San Francisco, California, that depicts a love triangle between a man, a woman, and a home computer. It stars Lenny Von Dohlen, Virginia Madsen, and Bud Cort and was directed by Steve Barron. It was the first film released by the Virgin Films production company.
The soundtrack features music from prominent popular musicians of the time, being among the movies of this generation that actively explored the commercial link between a movie and its soundtrack. The soundtrack album Electric Dreams was re-issued on CD[1] in 1998.[2] The song Together In Electric Dreams was digitally remastered in 2003.[3]
The VHS recording of this movie is rare. It was released in 1984 and again in 1991, but has not been manufactured since the mid-1990s. MGM Home Video released a Laserdisc in America in 1985, and Warner Bros released a Video CD version for the Singapore market in 2001, but both are out of print. The movie was released to Region 2 DVD on April 6, 2009.[4]
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The story opens with Miles Harding (Von Dohlen), an architect who envisions a brick shaped like a jigsaw puzzle piece that could enable buildings to withstand earthquakes. Seeking a way to get organized, he buys a home computer (made by the fictitious company Pinecone Computers) to help him develop his ideas. Although he is initially unsure that he will even be able to correctly operate the computer, he later buys numerous extra gadgets that were not necessary for his work, such as switches to control household appliances like the blender, a speech synthesizer, and a microphone. The computer (Cort) addresses Miles as "Moles", because Miles mistyped his name during the initial set-up.
When Miles attempts to download data from a mainframe computer at work, the computer begins to overheat. In a state of panic, Miles pours a nearby bottle of champagne over the machine, which then becomes sentient.
The remainder of the movie deals with a love triangle between Miles, his computer (which identifies its own name as "Edgar" at the end of the movie), and Miles' neighbor, an attractive cellist named Madeline (Madsen). Edgar composes a piece of music for Madeline after hearing her practicing through an air vent that connects the two apartments. She believes that Miles composed the piece and begins to fall in love with him. Edgar responds with jealousy, canceling Miles' credit cards and registering him as an "armed and dangerous" criminal.
Miles unplugs the computer, which reveals it no longer requires electricity to operate, and which retaliates by harassing him with household electronics.
Eventually, Edgar accepts Madeline and Miles' love for each other, and appears to commit suicide by sending a large electric current through its acoustic coupler, around the world, and back to itself. In the final scene, a pop song ("Together in Electric Dreams") written by Edgar as a tribute to Miles and Madeline plays on radio stations around the United States.
The film received a mixed critical reception, with some critics praising it for its overtly MTV-influenced style and others criticizing it for the same reason. Popular American TV critics Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert gave the film two thumbs up on their TV show At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert. The film garnered a 40% "Rotten" rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[5] It received a generally negative review in The New York Times, which said that the film failed to "blend and balance its ingredients properly," and that it lost plot elements and taxed credibility.[6]
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