Laramie Movie Scope: Mindwalk

I watched it again last night (you can find it on YouTube) and it is still compelling, but things have changed for the worse since this film was released in 1990, and things have changed even more since 1982, when the book, upon which this movie is indirectly based, “The Turning Point,” was published. The film is directed by Bernt Amadeus Capra, based on his own short story, which in turn is based on the 1982 book, written by his brother, physicist Fritjof Capra.

This movie features a pretty good explanation of some aspects of quantum mechanics, as told by physicist Sonia Hoffman (played by Liv Ullmann of “A Bridge Too Far”) to two men she meets at scenic French tourist attraction, Mont Saint-Michel. The two men are disillusioned politician Jack Edwards (Sam Waterston of “On the Basis of Sex”) and disillusioned poet Thomas Harriman (John Heard of “The Guardian”). The wide-ranging discussion benefits from the different perspectives of a poet and a politician, as well as the physicist.

The quantum mechanics bit sets up a discussion about how all of us are all connected to each other and to all living things. This leads to a discourse on anti-Cartesian philosophy concerning environmentalism, sustainability, population growth, pollution and the deterioration of the ozone layer. Of the problems discussed, the ozone layer is the only one significantly addressed since the time the movie was released. The world population, for instance, has increased from 4.6 billion in 1982 (when “The Turning Point” was published) to 8.3 billion today.

In the United States, for instance, tax policies to benefit the rich, starting with the “Reagan Revolution” in 1980 and continuing through the Trump Administration, have resulted in $50 trillion transferred from the bottom 90 percent of citizens to the top 1 percent. This has led to massive political corruption and and a deterioration of legal, political, governmental and societal systems.

Few people in 1990 foresaw the collapse of democracy and the rise of authoritarianism that we see today. When this movie was made, things were bad, but there was hope that things would get better. The movie suggests that the ideas it promotes, called “Systems Theory” would become popular and transform the way people think and live. Systems Theory is still around. If you are interested in it, watch this movie, or read this recent article in Nature about it: (A systems reset for sustainable development, or read other articles about systems theory as applied to this and other fields, including psychiatry. I won't go into it here because that is a lengthy topic for a brief movie review.

I suspect most people probably agree with Sonia Hoffman that eternal population and economic growth are unsustainable, but most people don't run most countries, including the U.S., anymore. Real power to make decisions now rests with a small group of powerful people who are openly advocating for more population growth and more economic growth because those things increase their own wealth and power.

That's depressing, isn't it? The nice thing about this movie is that it is uplifting because it offers some hope for the future of mankind, and this hope rests with the good will and good sense of the great masses of people. A similar ray of hope comes from famed political historian Heather Cox Richardson who, even now, sees evidence that people in America have had enough of minority rule, and are ready to save democracy and take back the country. She thinks there can be a rebirth of the United States. Let's hope that she, and Sonia Hoffman, are both right.