The Ray Bradbury Theater (TV Series) A Miracle of Rare Device (1989) User Reviews

"We're going to homestead a mirage!"

[classicsoncall · 7/10 · 9 January 2022]

This episode can be summed up by the idea that it's all in the eye of the beholder. Drifters Robert (Pat Harrington Jr.) and Willie (Wayne Robson) divert off a well traveled highway and spot a scenic location that suddenly elicits a view of a stunning sight resembling the New York City skyline. With the hope of making a buck, they trade on their good fortune to charge a dollar per car to see the wondrous sight, and remarkably, visitors envision entirely different cities that have personal meaning for them. When interloper Ned Bantlin (William Kircher), who has hounded the pair in the past, suddenly shows up with a homestead claim on the location, he forces them to abandon it and hand over their earnings. However Ned's ambition is thwarted, as he can't see anything unusual in the landscape, and abruptly leaves Bob and Willie to their own devices. When a final car approaches the spot, the wondrous vision is restored, as if to reward the pair for their affable good nature and their belief in a higher power. The story can be considered an allegory for seeing the good in everyone and everything, without the cynicism of envy and doubt to affect one's beliefs.

It's What We Are That Lets Us See

[Hitchcoc · 8/10 · 25 March 2015]

This is another of Bradbury's sentimental tales. A couple of men are constantly losing out (partly because they are kind and gentle men). They have an adversary who follows them and because he has more business acumen, manages to swoop in at the last minute and take what they have earned. One day, after thinking they have evaded his pursuit, the two chance upon a passage in some rocks and see a mirage of a magnificent city. They decide to charge admission to look at it, and, strangely, each viewer sees it differently, but always in a highly emotional way. One artistic type sees Coleridge's Xanadu, another Paris. Of course, the bad guy shows up and files a claim on the property (he has been watching them and takes the money they've gotten). When this guy looks at the mirage he sees nothing and throws a fit. Of course, you can see the point Bradbury was making about what we are making us a party to a larger universe. I really liked this.