''Wavelength'' is a 1983
science fiction film
Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...
written and directed by
Mike Gray and starring
Robert Carradine
Robert Reed Carradine ( ; born March 24, 1954) is an American actor. A member of the Carradine family, he made his first appearances on television Western series such as ''Bonanza'' and his brother David's TV series, ''Kung Fu''. Carradine's fir ...
,
Cherie Currie
Cherie Ann Currie (born November 30, 1959) is an American singer, musician, actress and artist. Currie was the lead vocalist of The Runaways, a rock band from Los Angeles, in the mid-to-late 1970s. After The Runaways, she became a solo artist. ...
, and
Keenan Wynn
Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor. His expressive face was his stock-in-trade; and though he rarely carried the lead role, he had prominent billing in mos ...
.
Plot
Bobby Sinclaire (Robert Carradine), a failing Californian musician, meets telepathic Iris Longacre (Cherie Currie) in a bar and they begin a relationship. At Sinclaire's apartment, Longacre begins to hear things others cannot. The young couple discover the voices are from a childlike race of aliens being held by the U.S. government after their UFO crashed. The government plans to use the trio of aliens for experimentation and dissection in a supposedly abandoned underground bunker located near Sinclaire's apartment. The couple decides to liberate the aliens and help them return them to their mothership.
Production
Mike Gray wrote ''Wavelength'' in 1977 after his deal with
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production studio that is a member of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, a division of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is one of the Big Five studios and a subsidiary of the mu ...
to direct ''
The China Syndrome
''The China Syndrome'' is a 1979 American disaster thriller film directed by James Bridges and written by Bridges, Mike Gray, and T. S. Cook. The film stars Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas (who also produced), Scott Brady, James Ham ...
'' fell through.
Gray began developing the film at
Warner Bros.
Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...
, but following the success of ''
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François Truffaut. It tells the story ...
'' Gray's script was dropped as it was deemed too similar.
The film was kept going thanks to producer Maurice Rosenfield who secured $1.5 million to film ''Wavelength'' independently.
The film was shot over the course of six weeks with a non union crew in
Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywood, ...
,
San Pedro, and
Death Valley, California
Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth.
Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...
.
It was planned for the movie to be released before ''
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'', but implementation of the film's special effects delayed its release. A later 1984 film release called ''
Starman
''StarMan'' is a 1996 fantasy novel by Australian writer Sara Douglass. It follows the second book in the series, '' Enchanter'', with Axis marching north with his army to confront a formidable enemy.
Background
''StarMan'' was first published ...
'' was accused of plagiarising Wavelength.
Soundtrack
''Wavelength'' (1983) is the twentieth major release and third soundtrack album by the German band
Tangerine Dream
Tangerine Dream is a German electronic music band founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The group has seen many personnel changes over the years, with Froese having been the only constant member until his death in January 2015. The best-known lineup ...
. It is the soundtrack for the film ''Wavelength'' starring
Robert Carradine
Robert Reed Carradine ( ; born March 24, 1954) is an American actor. A member of the Carradine family, he made his first appearances on television Western series such as ''Bonanza'' and his brother David's TV series, ''Kung Fu''. Carradine's fir ...
,
Cherie Currie
Cherie Ann Currie (born November 30, 1959) is an American singer, musician, actress and artist. Currie was the lead vocalist of The Runaways, a rock band from Los Angeles, in the mid-to-late 1970s. After The Runaways, she became a solo artist. ...
, and
Keenan Wynn
Francis Xavier Aloysius James Jeremiah Keenan Wynn (July 27, 1916 – October 14, 1986) was an American character actor. His expressive face was his stock-in-trade; and though he rarely carried the lead role, he had prominent billing in mos ...
.
Many of the tracks are remixes from other albums:
* "Desert Drive" and "Spaceship" are remixed excerpts from "Quichotte, Part One" from
''Quichotte''.
* "Healing is a remixed excerpt of "Tangram Set One" from
''Tangram''
* "Breakout" is a remixed version of "Vitamin C" from the Edgar Froese soundtrack to the film ''
Kamikaze 1989''.
* "Church Theme" is a remix of "Silver Scale"; a song that was performed live during European tours in 1980 and 1981, but not released by that name until 1994 on ''Tangents''.
* "Sunset Drive" is a remix of "Remote Viewing" from ''
Exit
Exit(s) may refer to:
Architecture and engineering
* Door
* Portal (architecture), an opening in the walls of a structure
* Emergency exit
* Overwing exit, a type of emergency exit on an airplane
* Exit ramp, a feature of a road interchange
...
''.
*"Alley Walk" contains elements related to the 1983 single "Moorland" taken from the German TV series ''
Tatort
''Tatort'' ("Crime scene") is a German language police procedural television series that has been running continuously since 1970 with some 30 feature-length episodes per year, which makes it the longest-running German TV drama. Developed by ...
''.
*"Alien Voices" and "Wavelength Main Title" were used in the intro of the 1988 Colombian series called "El Visitante"
Reception
TV Guide
TV Guide is an American digital media company that provides television program
Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or t ...
gave the movie two out of five stars, praising the movie's sense of morality and soundtrack, but found Carradine's performance lacking during the music scenes and the narration at the beginning and ending of the film to be very detrimental to the movie. Moria found that the movie has a promising build up, but that the film heads in predictable directions, and that its special effects were lacking. Creature Feature found that the movie was an interesting morality tale, and also praised the soundtrack, but said that the use of children to play the aliens hampered the film.
See also
*