Beyond and Back (1978)

User Rating:

3.9/10   

Director:

James L. Conway

Writers:

Stephen Lord (writer)
Ralph Wilkerson (book)

Genre:

Documentary

Tagline:

Some will believe--others will not. DECIDE FOR YOURSELF!

Plot Keywords:

Near Death Experience | Soul | Reincarnation | Reenactment | Death

Cast

Steve Riley	...	The Medium
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Vern Adix	...	Plato
Linda Bishop	...	Army Nurse
Janet Bylund	...	Nurse
Richard Cannaday	...	Physician
Maxilyn Capel	...	Dr. Stevens
David Chandler	...	Nobleman
Hyde Clayton	...	Sam
Brad Crandall	...	Narrator
Elaine Daniel	...	Janice
Lori Davis	...	Little Girl
Stewart Falcone	...	Dr. Meyers
Norm Keefer	...	Paul Kelly
Norman Keefer	...	Paul Kelly
Anne Lockhart	...	Additional voice
Jan Noyes	...	Additional Voices
Shelley Osterloh	...	Louisa May Alcott
Lucia Pappas	...	Wife of Nobleman
Steve Riley	...	The medium
Beverly Rowland	...	Mrs. Houdini

Directed by
James L. Conway

Writing credits (in alphabetical order)
Stephen Lord		writer
Ralph Wilkerson		book

Produced by
Charles E. Sellier Jr.	....	producer

Original Music by
Bob Summers

Cinematography by
Henning Schellerup

Film Editing by
Kent Schafer

Art Direction by
Charles C. Bennett		(as Charles Bennett)

Costume Design by
Cheryl Beasley Blackwell		(as Cheryl Beasley)

Makeup Department
Jim Belcher	....	assistant makeup artist
Dennis Marsh	....	makeup artist

Production Management
Morris Chapnick	....	production manager
Stan Siegel	....	post-production supervisor

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Sam Baldoni	....	second assistant director
Jerry Fleck	....	first assistant director

Art Department
Freddie Mullis	....	property master

Sound Department
Willy Allen	....	sound editor
Douglas B. Arnold	....	boom operator (as Doug Arnold)
Jim Bryan	....	supervising sound editor
Robert Eber	....	sound mixer
Larry Kemp	....	sound editor

Special Effects by
Doug Hubbard	....	special effects

Stunts
Alan Gibbs	....	stunt coordinator

Camera and Electrical Department
Paul Dillingham	....	camera operator
Doc Heavirland	....	key grip
Glenn Schellerup	....	gaffer (as Glen Schellerup)
Mike Sherman	....	best boy
Arly H. Thomsen	....	equipment grip (as Arly Thompson)

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Sandy Bates	....	assistant wardrobe

Editorial Department
John Forrest Niss	....	assistant editor
James D. Wells	....	supervising editor
John O. Wilde	....	assistant editor (as John Wilde)

Music Department
Don Perry	....	music supervisor

Transportation Department
Richard Simard	....	transportation captain

Other crew
Corey Burton	....	adr loop group
Elliot Friedgen	....	production executive
Lynette Gardner	....	business coordinator
Merrill Peterson	....	production secretary
Hal Schlueter	....	location manager
Anne Warner	....	script supervisor
Dennis Williams	....	location manager

Distributors

• Sunn Classic Pictures (1978) (USA) (theatrical)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1980) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Frontier Amusements (Canada)

Other Companies

• Spectrum Films International  post-production facilities

Runtime:

USA:93 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

USA:G

Filming Locations:

Utah, USA

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Time Machine (1978) (TV)

pseudoscientific sensationalism about near-death experiences

I remember seeing this film when I was a young pre-teen lad, wide-eyed with wonder and gullible to anything that sounded good. And, at the time, the idea of real "proof" that there was life after death sounded really, really good.

This film is nothing more than a dramatization of 5 or 6 different people's reported Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), narrated by an impressive-sounding guy with a beard. Except for the attempted-suicide's NDE at the end, all the NDEs had a common theme of floating in the room they were near-death in, then travelling through a dark tunnel with a bright light at the end. Of course, we never got to hear the stories told by people who had NDEs that differed from this, because those stories wouldn't make a good movie. One of the guys said he saw lasers and other high-tech devices "20 years before they were invented" in his NDE, but conveniently didn't report this story until AFTER such things were invented.

The attempted-suicide story at the end was tacked on, I'm sure, as a way to discourage people in the audience from intentionally putting themselves through near-death experiences of their own. The suicidee described a horrific NDE with skeletons and snakes and hot subway tunnels, implying that you go to "hell" if you attempt suicide, even though all the other NDEs they describe sound more like going to "heaven."

Near-Death Experiences are assuredly nothing more than hallucinations brought on by oxygen-starvation in the brain.