Author Dennis Higgins
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Made in Heaven #Afterlife #movie

1/23/2016

6 Comments

 

"How in Heaven did they meet? How on Earth will they find each other?"

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The 1987 film release of Made in Heaven is about two people, Mike and Annie (Timothy Hutton and Kelly McGillis), who fall in love in heaven, have a wedding ceremony (even though it isn’t required), but are abruptly torn apart when heaven-born, Annie has to leave for Earth.
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This is how I remember the cover release on Beta and VHS.
Mike Shea was a man on his way to California back in the 1940s. He is a good man who knows he will miss his parents, but must try and make it on his own. Along his route he comes across a car plunged into a lake. He jumps in to save a mom and her children, only to lose his own life.
 
He finds himself naked in a strange place. Disoriented, he is greeted by his Aunt Lisa (Maureen Stapleton) who introduces him to some of the ways of heaven. She tells him, all he has to do is think of a place or person and he will go there.

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Maureen Stapleton as Aunt Lisa with Timothy Hutton as Mike.
As he is practicing this teleportation technique, he finds himself in a stranger’s living room. There he meets Annie who tells him she is a guide for new souls and offers to help him.
 
Mike and Annie only need to think their thoughts to each other, and no matter where they are in heaven, they can hear one another. They soon fall deeply in love.
 
But Annie is a new soul, born in heaven. She still needs to do her time on earth. 

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Timothy Hutton and Kellie McGillis
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There were no good images of Emmett on the internet.
​The man in charge is a creepy little guy named Emmett. Strange thing about the actor who plays Emmett. He is billed in the cast credits as simply: Emmett as himself. But in truth he was played by Debra Winger who was Timothy Hutton’s real wife at the time. Winger is non-credited in the film. I saw this movie dozens of times over the years, but only learned this fact recently.
 
Mike gets Emmett to allow him to go back to earth and be reborn. He tells him he has thirty years to find her. Otherwise they would be lost to each other for good
.

Mike is reborn as Elmo, who by the time he turns 29, is pretty much a lost soul. He ends up meeting his original parents while hitchhiking. They are kind to him and even purchase him a trumpet. This starts Elmo's musical career and he ends up writing a hit song that he was actually working on in Heaven. The song was We Never Danced, a very ‘80s sounding song and one of the last words Annie spoke to Mike in heaven.
 
Annie: You know what we've never done. We've never... danced. I'm going aren’t I?
Mike: Yes.
Annie: Don't be sad. Don't get sad, Mike.
Mike: Why does it have to be you?
Annie: It's not sad. I'm going to be somebody's baby.
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The film also has cameos by rockers, Tom Petty and Neil Young.
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OPINION: Besides the reincarnation aspect, I believe this film had things more theologically correct than the previous afterlife films I covered in my blog. At one point Annie tells Mike that there cannot be bad thoughts in heaven. He tells Aunt Lisa he thought heaven would be all clouds and angels. She tells him, “We have them.” Marriage was a concept of earth, not heaven. Mike asks Annie if she is God. The conversation went something like this:
 
Mike: Are you God?
Annie: No!
Mike: Is Emmett God?
Annie: No, he just runs things.
Mike: Is there a God?
Annie: (pauses) Of course there is.

SPOILER ALERT: But no surprise, Elmo ends up finding her on the street in the last moments of the film. It’s touching and heart lifting when their eyes lock on one another.
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​Pennies From Across the Veil. 
A love story about death and the afterlife.


CLICK HERE
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What Dreams May Come - #Afterlife #Book & #Movie #blog

1/15/2016

2 Comments

 
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Robin William left us on August 11, 2014. I have not been able to watch a single film of his since then, and I love many of them. I am at a point where I can now watch this one again. 
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What Dreams May Come started out as a novel by one of my favorite authors, Richard Matheson, who penned such great stories as Somewhere in Time (Click Here to see my blog post), Stir of Echoes, I am Legend, and countless Twilight Zone episodes. My two favorite books of his are Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May Come.
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It was Matheson’s imaginative story of what heaven and hell are like, that made this such a great read. The imagery it paints in your mind is spectacular. Likewise, the movie did the book justice and won an Academy award for best visual effects.
 
Matheson was raised as a Christian Scientist, but due to high blood pressure, left the church and developed his own belief system. What Dreams May Come is the culmination of some of those beliefs, yet shows an afterlife strangely devoid of a deity. 
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The film version was directed by Vincent Ward and has a wonderful cast, including:
 
Robin Williams as Dr. Christopher Nielsen
Cuba Gooding, Jr. as Albert Lewis / Ian Nielsen
Annabella Sciorra as Annie Collins-Nielsen
Max von Sydow as The Tracker / Albert Lewis
Rosalind Chao as Leona / Marie Nielsen
 
Robin Williams plays a wonderful and tender role as Chris.
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​The story is about the love Chris Nielsen has for his wife Annie, which continues even after he is in heaven. He is met first by the family dog, but then is helped by an old friend, Albert, (Cuba Gooding, Jr.). 
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Cuba Gooding, Jr.
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Chris can see Annie’s paintings which manifest themselves in heaven. Especially the tree she is currently working on, until she becomes distraught and destroys the painting. In Matheson’s heaven, the physical is an illusion, thought is real. So to fly, for instance, all you have to do is think it.
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It is soon discovered that Annie has committed suicide and thus sparks an ambitious quest for Chris to rescue her from hell. Chris would rather spend eternity in hell than to be in heaven without her.
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Max von Sydow, leading the way to hell.
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In the end, love conquers all. However, the movie and the book’s ending differ on this point. In the book, Annie is not ready for heaven and must be reincarnated back to Earth. Chris decides to go with her.
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Annabella Sciorra as Annie
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Rosalind Chao and Jessica Kate Brooks
What Dreams May Come is a wonderfully told, imaginative story, and is among my favorites in this genre.
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The seemingly paranormal phenomena recorded in this book, are entirely
 based on true events.

Pennies From Across the Veil is a love story…about death and the afterlife.
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A Fine and Private Place – Novel by Peter S. Beagle  #afterlife #book #blog

1/8/2016

2 Comments

 
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​The book derives its name from the following quote from Andrew Marvell's To His Coy Mistress: "The grave's a fine and private place, but none, I think, do there embrace."
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Peter S. Beagle



​This fantasy novel is one of my favorite in all the world. 
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Original release cover. "A Fine and Private Place" Licensed under Fair use via Wikipedia - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:A_Fine_and_Private_Place.jpg #/media/File:A_Fine_and_Private_Place.jpg
It takes place in the fictional Yorkchester Cemetery which is cared for by Jonathan Rebeck, a homeless and bankrupt pharmacist, who in turn is cared for by a raven who brings him sandwiches. This is much like the biblical raven who fed Elijah in the wilderness.
 
Rebeck can communicate to the raven and to the departed souls. One such soul, is newly departed, Michael Morgan, who either was poisoned by his wife or committed suicide. He can’t remember which. He starts out in the coffin, but then pops free into the cemetery where his soul is bound. Soon another soul emerges, Laura Durand, a bookshop clerk, who was killed by a truck. 

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Alternate cover designs.
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The two souls fall in love and make this pledge to each other, "for as long as I can remember love."
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Rebeck also finds love with Mrs. Klapper, a widow who discovers him while visiting her husband's mausoleum. Their story makes for a quirky, yet wonderful account of an unlikely quintet of characters.
 
Meanwhile the raven continues to bring them word, via the newspaper of Morgan’s wife’s poison trial. She is found innocent. Her husband's death ruled suicide.  Morgan then faces separation from Laura when his body is removed to unhallowed ground. Mrs. Klapper talks Rebeck, into finding a way to reunite the two love souls, and he finally leaves the cemetery for the first time in twenty years.

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Peter S. Beagle was born in Manhattan on April 20, 1939. Today he is 76. He also wrote The Last Unicorn which made him famous. A Fine and Private Place was released in 1960 and written when Beagle was 19 years old. I loved his style of writing which flowed so nicely across the pages. You don’t have to think about the words. He writes like my brain thinks. 
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A Fine and Private Place was apparently made into a musical, but was withdrawn by the author’s request. My wife always said that a serious stage play should have been play written for this story.
 
A comic book version was made by IDW Publishing, but only the first of five has been published.

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Peter S. Beagle is truly one of the greats.
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    Dennis Higgins
    Author of romantic, fun, time-travel stories.

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