From: hal@finney.org
Date: Tue Jul 03 2001 - 10:35:46 MDT
Dan Fabulich writes:
> Anyway, I'm now going to put in some spoiler space, since it's the
> ending that deserves the most discussion.
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> It is my belief that Spielberg was unhappy with irony of this kind,
> and that this is why he'll always be a rather juvenile director. I
> think it was NOT his intention that David was living in a simulation
> at the end of the movie. I think it was his intention that David's
> fortuitous hair-snatching managed to resurrect his mother, for Real,
> if only for a little while.
At first I thought he was living in a simulation when he opened his eyes
and found himself in his house. The super-overexposed film processing
seemed to follow the cinematic convention for an unreal experience.
As the sequence went on the effect faded somewhat. How would you
explain why it was filmed in this way, if not to indicate that he was
in a simulation?
Even if it was a simulation, they still might have needed some DNA to
accurately re-create Monica in the sim. Perhaps David's memories (plus
the echos in spacetime) were not sufficient to reproduce something as
complex as a human being.
But if he was in a sim, why? Maybe there was a shortage of wood around
to build houses?
> With that said, I don't think Spielberg's intentions have to dominate
> our interpretation of the film. The BEST interpretation of the film
> is one in which Kingsley's character, the narrator/robot, is
> unreliable, or at least deceptive. He doesn't tell David that it's
> all just a simulation; he fails to mention that they're only
> resurrecting his mother for a day because that's all the energy
> they're prepared to waste on him. He just lets David believe that his
> mother is Real.
Yes, I had a thought somewhat similar. The robot's attitudes are strange
and a bit contradictory. First David wishes to get his mother back.
This seems to stun and worry the robots and they look to their leader.
He pauses and finally grants permission.
So we think we're going to see her. But David awakens in an empty
house, and here comes the robot again to try to talk him out of it.
It's almost like they're having second thoughts about the whole thing
even though they already said they'd do it.
So they make this excuse, we'd like to, but we have no DNA. Why would
they say this now? Didn't they think of that earlier when their leader
said to give David what he wanted? Wouldn't one of them have spoken up
then and said, how will we do that when we don't have her DNA?
Maybe they just thought they'd be able to find some of her DNA somewhere,
and they went and looked for a while, but no luck?
But my reading was that they really didn't want to do it and the DNA was
just an excuse. So here's Teddy showing up with some DNA. Oops.
(BTW why is it that we like Teddy so much? He had hardly any lines
but somehow was one of the most appealing characters in the movie.
Good voice casting I guess.)
So they've got the DNA, no more excuses, but now they try one last time
to talk David out of it with this story about only getting one day.
That doesn't work either so they finally have to go through with it.
For some reason there is a profound reluctance on the part of the robots
to go through with Monica's resurrection (they offered to bring back
other people from David's time, but maybe they would have come up with
excuses about that, too).
Hal
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