Continuing in our series about movies that inspire you to get into film, we turn our attention to the sci-fi cerebral drama. Different from the space fantasies like Star Wars, Star Trek or Avatar, these films are more mind-engaging. They take you to their brave new worlds not simply for the thrill of the ride but for the impact of their stories. They go more for the ‘Oh, my,” rather than the “Oh, wow!”. These are the films whose special effects and unusual characters make you ponder your own possibilities, misconceptions and longings. When you leave them, your horizons are expanded. Even if they show you something you might have imagined before on your own, they do so with a new frankness or a special twist that changes cinema and visual storytelling from what it was before. The films we’ll concentrate on are “Bladerunner”, “Gattaca” and “The Matrix”. As before, be aware there are a few spoilers ahead. We’ll try to keep them at a minimum, but don’t say you aren’t warned.
Granddaddy of the cerebral sci-fi film of the cyber age is “Bladerunner”. Though it predates the online world by more than a decade, the world of “Bladerunner” presupposes and displays a future that is very much ‘net-connected’. Information flows via terminals and screen taps. Paper and pen are non-existent oddities. The film’s semi-dystopian reality is as oft-imitated as its visual style and understated foreboding. Ostensibly a detective story about a former ‘super-cop’ who hunts runaway androids, the movie investigates the nature of freedom and bondage, of desire and duty, and of commitment and dissociation. “Bladerunner” is that special film that influences not only its own generation and industry but its entire art form. It is remarkable that the film’s special effects are only now, after more than thirty-four years, finally beginning to appear dated. This isn’t because the technology was revolutionary or decades ahead of its time – far from it. The reason is rather that the visuals are so interwoven into a world that we buy into as real, that the falsely created elements of that world also become real to us. “Bladerunner’s” beauty is that its allegory and cautionary tale touch the human experience so much that its world of the future becomes as genuine as the emotions.
A very different film from “Bladerunner” is the motion picture “Gattaca”. Possibly one of the most brilliant and uniquely self-contained sci-fi films ever produced, “Gattaca” is the story of genetic pre-determination gone wrong. As the film’s protagonist says, it’s the tale of how humanity has “made its prejudices genetically” based. The film follows the natural-birth hero Vincent, who is born into a world that increasingly has only genetically engineered births. In their system wealth and privilege is determined by genetic make-up. A palette of sepia-style photography gives us the sense of a world utterly homogenized and uniform. The special effects are minimal, just enough to tell us we’ve moved into the near-future. The bulk of the film rests on its superb story and brilliant performances. Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law inhabit their roles as if born to them. They make us believe every emotion. The challenges and the twists and turns are exciting and riveting. As a viewer it makes you want to see more of these people and follow them through a much longer journey. As a filmmaker it makes you want to do work that rises to its level, both in artistry and in stature.
Unlike the first two films, “The Matrix” was followed by two big budget sequels. Their incoherency and poor execution almost overshadow the precision and craftsmanship of the original. “The Matrix” is best considered as though its two issues do not exist. Seen in isolation it is an excellently conceived film. Though it owes much to its forebear “Johnny Mnemonic” (a film from which it takes much of its concept, as well as its main actor), where that film falls apart in its latter third, “The Matrix” soars to a gratifying conclusion. The film is toned in a greenish hue alluding to text on a computer screen, symbolically reminding us of the artificial world whose rules we’re forced to experience. The main character Neo, takes us on a journey that is both quest and apotheosis. The film is informed by mythical symbolism, among them Christian, Egyptian, Zoroastrian and Buddhist. Where most films take such heavy metaphors and weigh themselves down with it, “The Matrix” actually liberates us by giving them new life. You’re allowed to be excited by the action of discovering a holy trinity, and rise as the god of dreams lifts you from an enslaving slumber. The film has spawned many imitators and wannabees (all inferior by far). Had its two sequels not damaged the landscape, the legacy of “The Matrix” would be that of a remarkable ‘B’ film that delivered an ‘A’ film success wrapped in an historical veneer of classic cinema.
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