Wednesday, May 24, 2017

Observable

The family and I finally saw Interstellar (2014) a few days ago.  I'm sure this bit is probably the part that gave rise to the most negative hits in the reviews ("oh, great hard sci-fi, great special effects, but what was thaaat?").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FLS7e-1nL08
Too short a clip to be a spoiler, I suppose.

Forget those reviewers.  Best part of the movie, I say.  Or, rather, I said?  Those specific ideas have been rattling around in my head for the past few years, is what I'm saying.


6 comments:

  1. Haven't seen it. I should probably get on that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yeah, that's really the key scene of the whole movie. That's where the whole meaning of the movie is summarised in one minute. I remember thinking "Is he really doing this? There will be so many outraged reviews."

    But I really like the self-awareness of how ridiculous it sounds and the other characters are just stunned in disbelieve and don't even bother to argue with her anymore.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ha... yes, internal to the movie, it's not like anyone else is saying "Whoa, so deep, Amelia." I'm just glad the thought got fully-formed and presented. It needs to be out there.

      Delete
  3. The only part of this scene that I found disappointing was that they didn't have the guts to say "God" instead of "higher dimension."

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yeah, I get it. Pretty much everything we see in the movie could be described by the term "higher dimensions." :-) But I also think the G-word would concretize things a bit too much in the minds of most viewers. They'd either reject it outright or file it away as that thing they're already familiar with.(*) Keeping it vague and otherworldly seems the right road to take, but yeah, I wish they'd found a less clunky term.

      (*) Okay, maybe not someone familiar with Aquinas or Spinoza... or Dante... "L'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle."

      Delete
    2. I think the fact that they didn't say "God" hurt the rest of the movie. Offering someone fifty shades of grey isn't really a choice, everyone gets grey no matter what. Offering black or white makes the choice have meaning. Once that choice is introduced, everything the characters do has consequence beyond the plot. It was a missed opportunity to make a great film out of merely a good one.

      Delete