ELECTRIC DREAMS

Front cover of the ex-rental big box VHS videocassette format of Electric Dreams that I own and successfully restored to working order – amazing! (© Steve Barron/Virgin Films/20th Century Fox/MGM-UA Entertainment Co – reproduced here on a strictly non-commercial Fair Use basis for educational/review purposes only)

Reorganising my burgeoning DVD/videocassette movie collection on 25 May 2019, I managed to drop a sizeable pile on the floor, and the actual videocassette of one of them fell out of its box and its plastic casing shattered into pieces. The movie was the 1984 fantasy romcom Electric Dreams, directed by Steve Barron, with music and songs by Giorgio Moroder (including the chart hit 'Together In Electric Dreams', sung by Phil Oakey from Human League), Boy George/Culture Club, Heaven 17, P.P. Arnold, Helen Terry, and ELO's Jeff Lynne. Moreover, despite owning this movie videocassette for almost 30 years, I'd never got around to watching it.

Having some blank videocassettes readily to hand, I therefore decided (albeit bleary-eyed at 2 am in the morning) to see if I could cannibalise one of them and replace the broken parts from my Electric Dreams videocassette with the corresponding ones from the blank one. Not even my best friend (if I had one) would describe me as handy when it comes to repairs, and it took three separate attempts (using three different blank videocassettes), but to my amazement on the third attempt I actually succeeded, and Electric Dreams played perfectly!

Later that same day, one that was full of rain and thereby lacking in any incentive for me to venture outdoors, I decided to watch Electric Dreams (if only because I was by no means certain whether my handiwork would last for very long! – but happily it did last). As expected, it proved to be a typical mid-1980s feel-good movie, and one of a surprising number from that time period that incorporated some form of fantasy/sci-fi twist to its tale. In this instance, its silly but fun plot featured a sentient computer with attitude problems, love on its cybermind, and burgeoning megalomaniacal tendencies!

Yes indeed, the home computer of the local architect nerd Miles (played by Lenny Von Dohlen) inadvertently becomes not only self-aware, naming itself Edgar and able to talk directly to Miles (Edgar is voiced by Bud Cort), but also a would-be love rival for Miles's cellist neighbour and (in due course) girlfriend Madeline (Virginia Madsen). Moreover, Edgar swiftly grows ever more powerful and dangerous as it ultimately seeks to control Miles's entire life. And as if this decidedly bizarre state of affairs were not complicated enough already, geeky Miles also has a human rival for Madeline's affections to contend with, a handsome sporty musician named Bill (Maxwell Caulfield), with whom Madeline is initially in a relationship. I told you it was complicated!

A decade ago, there were rumours of a remake being planned, but as far as I'm aware they remained rumours only. This is probably just as well, because in my opinion Electric Dreams is very much a film of its own particular time and would be unlikely to retain its intrinsic whimsical fancy if updated into our technologically far-superior present day. Certainly, viewed more than 30 years on from when it was made and released, it is extensively imbued with an innocent, nostalgic charm, especially as all of the then cutting-edge technology on display in it have long since become archaic museum pieces, and also due to the significant quantity of definitive 1980s music present throughout it.

In short, Electric Dreams seemed the archetypal enjoyable, escapist movie for a rainy day, and so it proved. Incidentally, I later discovered that this entire movie had been uploaded some time previously onto YouTube by a user and was currently viewable there for free. However, when I accessed it, I discovered that the picture quality of that uploaded version was pretty dire. So I'm very glad that I was able to fix my videocassette.

UPDATE: Interestingly, having rechecked YouTube today, I've discovered that the poor-quality version is gone, with a much better version now present instead, and which once again is free to watch – so here it is if you wish to do so. And here is the official video to the Giorgio Moroder/Phil Oakey title song, 'Together In Electric Dreams', which features excerpts from the movie interspersed with clips of Oakey singing the song.

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