Minority Report
I rarely go to movies. Don't get me wrong, I love movies about as much as anyone. But picking up the keys, getting in the car, and driving to a movie theater is an act I never seem to have enough time (or sometimes energy) to do. To get me into a cold dark room with a bunch of munchy, talkative, obnoxious strangers takes a special movie indeed.
Provoked by many advertisements and making-of documentaries, I simply had to go see the Spielberg / Cruise juggernaut Minority Report. Cruise, well, is Cruise. But the thought of Steven Spielberg taking the directorial reigns and crafting urban society in the year 2054 was simply too tantalizing to miss.
To sum it up, Minority Report was good, at times great, and every now and then brilliant. The plot ran a little dry in spots (not surprising since the movie was adapted from a short story), and the ending was too easy, but inbetween there is plenty of eye candy that simply deserves viewing on a large screen.
Countless directors have tried to visually capture what urban life would look like in the future with flying cars, automated kitchens, far-out clothes, that kind of stuff. You don't see it in the film's publicity, but part of what makes Minority Report unique is its vision of urban transportation, advertising, and home interior design.
Anything technological, or mechanical in nature, including computers, televisions, or automobiles, were hyper-developed and quite futuristic. But pay attention to the interior design of buildings, hotel rooms, people's clothes, and especially home interiors. Nothing has changed.
In an opening scene, a family's bedroom is shown, containing Arts and Crafts style mica lamps and furniture. Hardly what you'd expect from a movie set in the year 2054. The same goes for a hotel room shot, where the furniture is Danish modern, a la late 1950s.
The point is this: that Spielberg's vision of the future is probably a whole lot closer to reality than anyone wants to believe. Technology is one thing - people expect that to grow, develop, and become more sophisticated. But when it comes to beds, lamps, and a comfortable couch, certain styles and periods of interior design will never go out of style. People are people, not machines, and their dress and physical environments will most likely remain far more constant than silicon.
In a way, it takes a certain level of bravery to make a movie about the future that at times does't look futuristic at all. Obviously Spielberg had the budget, so it wasn't a cost-cutting venture, but a deliberate, mature perspective about what could, and probably will be.
Comments
*SPOILER ALERT*
I agree with you wholeheartedly. I enjoyed the movie for the same reasons. But there are always a few things that bug me about these types of movies: for instance, why is Anderton able to get back into the Pre-Crime facility after he becomes a fugitive (and then his wife is able to access the prison as him when he is actually supposed to be incarcerated there?). The other thing was that there were several "false endings" and the one that would have worked best is just after Anderton is imprisoned. That would have been darker and closer to Philip K. Dick's vision, but obviously not Spielberg's. The final scene, of a happy reunited family with a kid on the way, that was way too much...
Posted by: James at June 24, 2002 10:46 AM
makes me want to see it. hmm.. i like the idea of the design. when i saw the trailers for it, i noticed that the house with the merry-go-round next to it looked like a house in maine - nothing crazy-futureistic. neato.
-mathew
Posted by: Mathew at June 24, 2002 11:04 AM
Spielberg gathered a large group of futurist, technologist, etc. to help him create the realistic vision of the future. Money well spent.
Minority Report was good but Borne Identity was way better and very much worth the time and money to go see it.
Posted by: Greg at June 24, 2002 12:15 PM
Visually spectacular, but definitley obnoxious plot holes, and the ubiquitous overly-theatric action sequences. You know what I hate in these films? The hero being capable of superhuman physical acts (like the escape from the maglev car), which makes it more like a comic book than a finely honed vison of the future. The penultimate example of doing this correctly, IMHO, was blade runner, where the hero is a bit of a shlub, falling, scraping, scratching their way through by the skin of their teeth.
Also, I can't undestand why computer screens of the future are always filled with spinng discs and flashing vector graphics, which hardly looks like any information could possibly be derived from the mish-mash of lines and splines, (though they sure do look pretty).
All in all, I think Spielberg has made a great summer sci-fi/action flick, and I recommend seeing it on a big screen if possible.
Posted by: jeremy at June 24, 2002 4:33 PM
I was so very glad I saw the film prior to reading Richard Corliss' review, in which he tells all of Time's thousands-strong readership one of the major plot points of the film: whether Anderton fulfills the prophecy or not. What a jerk!
Posted by: Mike at June 24, 2002 8:33 PM
I'm enjoying your site and your take on the film. I'm pretty ambivalent about the movie, but it's probably too much to expect it to be perfect. If you're interested, I've written up a few thoughts comparing the film to Philip K. Dick's original short story, here. (http://radio.weblogs.com/0101221/stories/2002/06/23/minorityReportReport.html)
Posted by: mowabb at June 24, 2002 11:27 PM
That review was really good, I'd be interested in reading your opinions on other movies :)
Posted by: Carla at June 24, 2002 11:46 PM
Overall, I enjoyed the movie as well, and I also especially noticed and appreciated the vision of the future. The future of "spam" advertising seems particularly likely.
I also thought that the interface that Anderton used to manipulate the precogs visions was interesting, in that it made the act of looking through the files a physical one. It reminded me of descriptions of the physicist Richard Feynman's thinking process, which was described as a physical act, as if his entire body was involved in the thinking through of a problem.
The ending was false and tacked on. But, to me the ultimate false ending was in "What Dreams May Come," which was an interesting movie until the very hollywood end.
Posted by: Daser at June 26, 2002 5:06 PM
