FORTUNO, Kimberly Sharah Mae B.

BSN2-B

March 24, 2020

Science, Technology, and Society

A FILM ANALYSIS OF THE MOVIE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial Intelligence (A.I) is a science fiction movie wherein the concept of thinking robots are
being investigated at a higher level. It is about the tale of humanity in an age of intelligent
machines and of the aching loneliness endemic in an overpopulated future. This movie was
based on the short story Super-toys Last All Summer Long by Brian Aldis, a British author.
Artificial Intelligence is movie directed by Steven Spielberg. He made this movie as a tribute to
his deceased friend, Stanley Kubrick, that was released in June 2001. Spielberg also made this
movie with an intention to drive his audiences toward a more positive viewpoint of artificial
intelligences, and therein an openness toward future technologies. Its running time is two and
half hours. It has three major characters and the story is set in the mid-21st century where the
global warming has led to ecological disasters all over the world, and a drastic reduction of the
human population. The themes of the movie are hunger for dreams and desires, the need to be
real and the desire to be loved.

Plot Synopsis

In the first part, Professor Hobby (William Hurt), head of robot-creators or “mecha-makers" and
manufacturer of Cybertronics, proposed their newest model be a child capable of unconditional
love. The first test unit is offered to a company employee, Henry Swinton (Sam Robards), and
his wife Monica (Frances O’Connor), whose son, Martin (Jake Thomas), remains in comatose-
like condition until a cure for his rare disease can be found. With the arrival of the human-
looking prototype, David (Haley Joel Osment), Monica’s initial disinclination was overcome by
her longing to be a mother. She resolved to imprint with David, forever assigning his
unswerving love to her, his “mother”. As the film progresses, Osment’s wonderful performance,
and therefore David, evolved from robotic behavior to humanlike reactions as the mecha child
develops. Much like Pinocchio, it took time for David to find his bearings. After some time,
Monica’s love for David grew. But with a sudden cure found for Martin, David’s presence
became redundant and problematic, and, out of motherly protection, Monica abandoned her
automaton child in the forest to prevent his destruction at Cybertronics. David assumed he can
return once he becomes a real boy. Along with his toy friend, Supertoy Teddy (voiced by Jack
Angel), David embarked on journey into the unforgiving existence of unregistered robots. He
learned from his newfound friend Gigolo Joe (Jude Law), a mecha designed for giving pleasure,
that humans resent mechas for undermining humanity, and so unregistered mechas are hunted
and despised. Humans like Lord Johnson-Johnson (Brendan Gleeson) conducts “Flesh Fairs” and
destroys robots for entertainment, and David narrowly escaped becoming the main attraction
when one of the audience was convinced that he’s a real boy. To actually become real,
however, David believed he must find the Blue Fairy, like the protagonist in his storybook The
Adventures of Pinocchio.

David’s search for the Blue Fairy took him through the metropolis of Rouge City to a flooded
Manhattan barely peeking out from the rising ocean. He carefully followed the placed clues to
find Professor Hobby among an inventory of David mechas. Hobby explained that David’s entire
journey proved that his brand of artificial intelligence contains an irrefutable humanity by way
of love, desire, and his belief in something impossible and intangible like the Blue Fairy equates
to a human dream, something never thought possible in a mecha. After David is told that he
can never be as real or unique as a human being, David plunged himself into the ocean, where
he came upon the Blue Fairy statue at the underwater Coney Island. Trapped there, he
repeated his wish to the Blue Fairy, asking her to make him a real boy, so that he can return to
Monica and feel her love once more. He repeated his wish on and on, until time passed and the
ocean froze. Two millennia has passed. Evolved mechas have begun to carve evidence of an
extinct human civilization from the ice. They found David, frozen, and thawed him. His robotic
memory and experiences were preserved. Through David’s comparatively basic programming,
these highly developed mecha beings glimpsed a rudimentary and fundamental form of
humanity within David’s desire and love. David awakens, and before him, within a recreation of
the Swinton home, he saw a mecha projection of the Blue Fairy. He imparted his wish to
become human, but he was told once more that he can never be a real boy. He can, however,
experience one last day with Monica. The evolved mechas reconstructed her from a lock of
hair, and David enjoyed his final moments of affection with his mother. In essence, David has
finally received his wish and became a real boy, as he represents the last lingering flicker of
humanity in a world devoid of human life.

Description

The film is rich in thematic ideas, drawing on cinema history (mainly cinema of the fantastic),
fairy tales, classical mythology, popular mythology and religion. The film also straddles the
division between Spielberg’s preferred classicism (belief in humanity, clarity of idea and
resolution, transparent style) and Kubrick’s tendency toward modernism (irony, relative value,
distrust in humanity, rigorous formal style). The partial elements of postmodernism seem to be
split across both of them, a sense of nostalgia with Spielberg and the bitterness and sense of
relative value with Kubrick. Hence while the core of the film remains pure such as the boy’s
undying love for his mother to prove his ‘humanity’ and win her unrequited love, there are also
enough touches of irony and a sense of bittersweet to appease the Kubrick fans of the
equation. A second fascinating aspect of the film (apart from the stunning achievements of the
well-oiled teamwork of the cinematography, art direction, set design and special visual effects)
is the myriad of cinematic references that are invoked across the film.

Signs and Symbols

1. The quest of the mechas for their makers, David’s quest to become a real boy, are symbols of
our own quest: our human longing to be whole and complete, to be truly human, to know and
be known by our maker and fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts. In a word, the lonely mechas
are ourselves, as much so as the lonely humans.

2. The rivalry between Martin and David Swinton takes on an almost biblical character, echoing
the stories of Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, Jacob and Esau, Joseph and his brethren, David
and his brethren. Essentially, the issue is who the true son is or firstborn son or who has the
primacy.

It’s probably an accident that Martin and Henry Swinton have the same names as two
prominent Reformers, Martin Luther and Henry VIII and that Henry Swinton, like Henry VIII,
breaks God’s law to get a son, while Martin Swinton claims to be the true heir, as Martin Luther
claimed to be the heir of true Christianity. Even today, many Protestants regard Catholics as
Martin Swinton regarded David: false brethren, not real members of God’s family. Yet David is
the name of God’s anointed. David Swinton has been chosen as a son, both by Henry, who
brought him into their home, and by Monica, who awakened him to filial love by reciting a
string of code-words in his presence, like St. Monica praying her son Augustine into the family
of God.

This raises the possibility that, as in so many biblical stories in which a firstborn son is
supplanted by a younger, worthier brother, David, who is without guile and innocent until
Martin teaches him hatred and jealousy, will prove to be the true firstborn son, or at least a
true member of the family.
3. For obvious reasons, David has a strong identification with the story of Pinocchio, the little
wooden boy who becomes a real boy through the magic of the Blue Fairy. In fact, David thinks
there really is a Blue Fairy, and spends the bulk of the film in search of her. His hopeless quest
finds a pathetic if literal fulfillment at the bottom of the sea, in a place that was once Coney
Island before the polar ice caps melted and the sea level rose. There David finds an
amusement-park woodwork statue of the Blue Fairy, trapped in a small vessel on the sea floor.
David prays to the Blue Fairy to make him real. Lacking sense of time, frustration, or
disappointment, David goes on earnestly praying to the statue of the Blue Fairy for 2,000 years
as the seas around him continue to rise, then freeze. All the while, the statue seems to gaze at
him, welcoming, maternal, enigmatic. David "prays" (the film’s word) before the statue for 2000
years which is the same time-frame as the length of the Christian era. Prayer before a statue, of
course, evokes Catholic spirituality, since statues are frowned upon in other Christian traditions.
Moreover, this particular statue, a blue-robed female figure with arms lovingly extended, bears
a striking resemblance to familiar painted statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Even the
undersea location resonates with the name of Mary, which in Latin means "sea." The film
actually foreshadows this scene with a literal statue of the Blessed Virgin, and a pointed
reminder that the devotion she represents is part of the human longing for "the one who
made" us, just as David’s prayer represents his quest to be united with the one of the race that
made him, who awakened him emotionally.

4. Yet the Blue Fairy is a sham, a lovely but fragile illusion that, when David is finally awakened
by the super-mechas after 2000 years of waiting, shatters into bits at the slightest touch.

Christians also have been waiting for 2000 years, and Christianity itself now appears to some
unbelievers as an illusion falling apart in this, the "post-Christian era." Of course the Church
cannot be destroyed, yet certainly the worldwide ascendency it has enjoyed for centuries has
faded, and may fade further still. Significantly, while the Blue Fairy, like Monica, David’s other
mother-figure, lets him down and leaves him devastated, David never really even knows either
of his fathers: Henry Swinton, Monica’s husband, or Professor Hobby, David’s creator. Likewise,
the super-mechas of the future have no first-hand knowledge of man, their creator. (Absent,
distant, or irresponsible father-figures are a recurring motif in Spielberg’s films, a fact surely not
unconnected with Spielberg’s own absentee father.) Thus, A.I. is not only about mothers who
betray us, but also fathers who are remote, uncaring, and unapproachable.
5. David longs for redemption, for love. Yet Gigolo Joe warns him that humans can never love
mechas. That they love only what mechas do for them. If the mechas are mere machines, of
course, it’s quite right that humans should not love them as persons; yet here also the plight of
the mechas is really our own plight. Gigolo Joe is valued solely for his ability to give pleasure to
women yet in the real world men and women use one another as means to their own
gratification. The hedonism of Rouge City exemplifies our society’s love affair with the self-
gratifying sins of contraception, fornication, prostitution, adultery, divorce and remarriage,
homosexuality, abortion, and so on. These sexual sins have led to the objectifying of women,
children, and the entire human race: We treat one another like commodities, like mechas.

Analysis and Evaluation

A.I. is a real tear-jerker, in the best possible sense. Spielberg has always had exceptional skills in
eliciting great performances from child actors but what Haley Joel Osment does here is simply
amazing. For me, it's right up there with the very best performances in the history of cinema.
But Frances O' Connor, Jude Law and William Hurt give equally strong performances, as well.

Visually, Spielberg superbly recreates Kubrick's idiosyncratic style, especially in the first third of
the movie. From lighting and camera angles (Janusz Kaminski's outstanding cinematography)
through the ominous atmosphere created by John Williams's perfect score to Kubrick's
trademark, highly symmetrical framing.

AI's greatest strength is that it gets philosophical about the human/robot issue and this is done
wonderfully by Spielberg in such a way that it doesn't seem too insignificant to the film nor too
over-the-top. It argues about issues that you yourself will start pondering about endlessly. The
technical aspect of the film is top-notch. Editing, cinematography, set design and the awesome
special effects work together under the masterful coordination of the director to give the film
an even greater effect. As I have already mentioned, the actors all perform outstandingly.

What most people might hate about the film is that it doesn't really give any answers to the
issues it raises. The ambivalent nature of the film towards itself is not something for all tastes
but in my opinion, had AI solidly put its foot down and provided firm answers, it would not have
been as striking or profound.
Conclusion

There is far too much room for interpretation to reveal this movie's message, or the message of
any Kubrick film for that matter. Ask 100 people, and you might get 100 different answers. "AI -
Artificial Intelligence" is that kind of movie-one of the year's best.

Critics and audiences alike have torn apart this movie's ending. A clear miscalculation by
Spielberg. If Kubrick were in charge, the movie would have called it quits about twenty minutes
earlier in an unsettling sequence that takes place in the ocean. But Speilberg, who always
seems entranced by science fiction, injects an additional segment into the mix that does not
work quite as well, but isn't so completely awful that it deserves such harsh criticism. It still
leaves us with an open, startled emotional disorientation. I couldn't stop crying at last 30
minutes of the movie. The movie before the conclusion is so complex, moving, and involving in
so many different ways. I would give this movie a 10/10 rating. Viewers should come prepared
for an intense emotional and intellectual work-out. If you want to take in a quick flick to escape
life for a couple of hours, this is not your movie. If you want to explore the cinematic depth of a
master artist like Spielberg, A.I. will take you places you've never been before.