Previous Post # 5
Original Title: Reactions to the Film "Her"
Original Publication Date: October 9, 2014
Several months ago my Mom went to the movies and saw the movie "Her." She got annoyed and walked out of it as soon as possible. I put it on hold at my library (one of the many things I love about my local library system; I can borrow DVDs along with books!) and watched it this morning. Ultimately I had mixed feelings about the film (something that I tend to have with every Spike Jonze movie I've seen) but was moved by it. Like my Mom mentioned I did get annoyed with Theodore, the protagonist played by Joaquin Phoenix; I kept thinking, "I know you're going through a rough patch, but stop being mopey and get over yourself!"
However, like I mentioned I was still very moved by it. Ultimately the feeling that I felt most was sadness, not even necessarily for the characters themselves but for humankind in general. The film "Her" is science fiction (along with romance/drama). Many science fiction stories, whether they be films or books or whatever, tend to fall into one of two spectrums. On the one hand you have an ever-advancing society soaring into the Heavens (such as "Star Trek") and on the other hand you have dystopian, post-apocalyptic worlds being portrayed (including "Hunger Games" or "Mad Max"). "Her" kind of falls in-between the two. Humankind seems to be advancing in this world of the near future, at least as far as digital technology goes. Most if not all of the technology portrayed truly doesn't seem that far off. On the other hand, humanity seems to truly be losing what makes it human.
The first shot seen in the film is Theodore talking into the camera, giving a very loving speech to whom we would assume to be a lover. The camera then zooms out, and we see him and an entire office of writers speaking to their computers. We soon find out that they all work for a company that has subscribers write "handwritten" letters for their loved ones rather than take the time to write them themselves. These include letters for major events such as anniversaries, weddings, and graduations. This really irritated me at first because I feel that if you're going to write a letter to a loved one, then do it yourself. But then I realized that in this future world, many people truly don't know how to express themselves, and have to make do with having professional writers such as Theodore do it for them.
Many of the characters in this film seem disconnected from humankind and how to truly express themselves. Some of them seem tethered to expectations of how they should react and do things rather than their true feelings, something that I think is truly rampant in today's society. For example, Amy Adam's character is married to a truly controlling husband; when we first meet him he tells Theodore, whose drinking a fruit smoothie in the scene, that he should just eat real fruit. Later on they get divorced, and Amy Adams tells Theodore that her parents blamed the divorce on her. Shortly afterwards we see her working at her job (which she doesn't like) at a video game design company; she's designing a game about being a mother according to the expectations of society (not sure if it's meant more for children or adults) in which players win points for getting them to school on time (even if it means crashing their way through the school lawn) and lose points if they feed their children too much processed sugar.
On a whim Theodore purchases a newly created artificially intelligent operating system, which is voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Her character, named Samantha, has more of a personality than any of the human characters. She loves Theodore with all of her being, and at least at first, longs to be human. In a "sex" scene, Samantha asks Theodore to describe what her body would be like and how he would touch it. Over time she expands her horizons, and while to an extent still fantasizing about being human, she sees the advantages of being an intelligent operating system, such as being able to gather infinite knowledge and travel from one device to another throughout the entire world. As she grows as a person, and as we meet more operating systems and compare them to their human counterparts, we're supposed to contemplate whose more truly human now; these near-futre disconnected people, or their creations that learn from them?
While I can't say that I liked everything about the movie, it did emotionally affect me. To an extent this is the direction that I see humanity heading in the not too distant future if we keep this up. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for digital technology; I've been able to self-publish a book with it, keep up with friends from around the world, and of course write this blog. Ultimately I also think that technology is neutral; any type can be used for good or bad. I just hope that we use technology to expand our horizons and connect with each other rather than feel continually disconnected.
Original Publication Date: October 9, 2014
Several months ago my Mom went to the movies and saw the movie "Her." She got annoyed and walked out of it as soon as possible. I put it on hold at my library (one of the many things I love about my local library system; I can borrow DVDs along with books!) and watched it this morning. Ultimately I had mixed feelings about the film (something that I tend to have with every Spike Jonze movie I've seen) but was moved by it. Like my Mom mentioned I did get annoyed with Theodore, the protagonist played by Joaquin Phoenix; I kept thinking, "I know you're going through a rough patch, but stop being mopey and get over yourself!"
However, like I mentioned I was still very moved by it. Ultimately the feeling that I felt most was sadness, not even necessarily for the characters themselves but for humankind in general. The film "Her" is science fiction (along with romance/drama). Many science fiction stories, whether they be films or books or whatever, tend to fall into one of two spectrums. On the one hand you have an ever-advancing society soaring into the Heavens (such as "Star Trek") and on the other hand you have dystopian, post-apocalyptic worlds being portrayed (including "Hunger Games" or "Mad Max"). "Her" kind of falls in-between the two. Humankind seems to be advancing in this world of the near future, at least as far as digital technology goes. Most if not all of the technology portrayed truly doesn't seem that far off. On the other hand, humanity seems to truly be losing what makes it human.
The first shot seen in the film is Theodore talking into the camera, giving a very loving speech to whom we would assume to be a lover. The camera then zooms out, and we see him and an entire office of writers speaking to their computers. We soon find out that they all work for a company that has subscribers write "handwritten" letters for their loved ones rather than take the time to write them themselves. These include letters for major events such as anniversaries, weddings, and graduations. This really irritated me at first because I feel that if you're going to write a letter to a loved one, then do it yourself. But then I realized that in this future world, many people truly don't know how to express themselves, and have to make do with having professional writers such as Theodore do it for them.
Many of the characters in this film seem disconnected from humankind and how to truly express themselves. Some of them seem tethered to expectations of how they should react and do things rather than their true feelings, something that I think is truly rampant in today's society. For example, Amy Adam's character is married to a truly controlling husband; when we first meet him he tells Theodore, whose drinking a fruit smoothie in the scene, that he should just eat real fruit. Later on they get divorced, and Amy Adams tells Theodore that her parents blamed the divorce on her. Shortly afterwards we see her working at her job (which she doesn't like) at a video game design company; she's designing a game about being a mother according to the expectations of society (not sure if it's meant more for children or adults) in which players win points for getting them to school on time (even if it means crashing their way through the school lawn) and lose points if they feed their children too much processed sugar.
On a whim Theodore purchases a newly created artificially intelligent operating system, which is voiced by Scarlett Johansson. Her character, named Samantha, has more of a personality than any of the human characters. She loves Theodore with all of her being, and at least at first, longs to be human. In a "sex" scene, Samantha asks Theodore to describe what her body would be like and how he would touch it. Over time she expands her horizons, and while to an extent still fantasizing about being human, she sees the advantages of being an intelligent operating system, such as being able to gather infinite knowledge and travel from one device to another throughout the entire world. As she grows as a person, and as we meet more operating systems and compare them to their human counterparts, we're supposed to contemplate whose more truly human now; these near-futre disconnected people, or their creations that learn from them?
While I can't say that I liked everything about the movie, it did emotionally affect me. To an extent this is the direction that I see humanity heading in the not too distant future if we keep this up. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful for digital technology; I've been able to self-publish a book with it, keep up with friends from around the world, and of course write this blog. Ultimately I also think that technology is neutral; any type can be used for good or bad. I just hope that we use technology to expand our horizons and connect with each other rather than feel continually disconnected.
Comments
Post a Comment