What does it mean to be human?
Andrew is an android who like Pinocchio, became a "real boy"; he has a personality, emotions and the the capacity to expand both. The movie is the story of his growth toward being human and his struggle to be acknowledged as "human".
Stars: Robin Williams as Andrew Martin and Embeth Davidtz as Little Miss Amanda Martin and as Portia Charney.
"One is glad to be of service" Andrew always said when given a task.
When Andrew's ability to sculpt and create were discovered the question of who would profit from his creations came up too.
Sir Richard Martin played by Sam Neill, declared Andrew to be "a form of property, not a person".
This set Andrew on one of many quests: "how does one obtain freedom to no longer be property?"
His ultimate quest is to be "acknowledged and recognized for who and what I am". This movie provides many ideas and themes for exploring the question of what it means to be liberated. Maybe the answer to that rests on first answering: what does it mean to be human?
Showing posts with label Robin Williams. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Robin Williams. Show all posts
Thursday, July 23, 2009
Thursday, October 9, 2008
What Dreams May Come, 1998
...And for my soul, what can it (suicide) do to that,
Being a thing immortal as itself?... From Shakespeare's Hamlet
The title of this comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet; that soliloquy which starts:
"To be or not to be".
Hamlet is contemplating suicide, weighing the pros and cons; the cons being mostly an unknown factor.
I imagine just about everyone wonders what is beyond this life. Eventually most are able to see it as a mystery and thus avoid turning into a Woody Allen character; stewing over death, the expansion of the universe and other things over which we have no control...
"What Dreams May Come" is adapted from a book of the same name by Richard Matheson.
Among many others it stars: Robin Williams as Chris Nielsen, Annabella Sciorra as Chris's wife Annie, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Albert Lewis and Max von Sydow as The Tracker.
Chris and Annie are beautiful people, very much in love who suffer a tragic loss. The story relates to the consequences of their reactions to the loss. Their separate choices determine their separate destinies in both this life and in the after life.
Some interesting parallel themes between "Hamlet" and "What Dreams May Come":
-suicide "...For in that sleep of death what dreams may come..." Shakespeare
-ghosts or spirits
-immortality
-defying hell
-multiple calamities
"What Dreams May Come" in addition, embraces the theme of the transformative power of love. It emphasizes our power to choose and to accept consequences; not what happens to us but how we react.
It is a beautiful picture of one man's heaven.
..."We defy augury; there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all."...
Shakespere's Hamlet
Being a thing immortal as itself?... From Shakespeare's Hamlet
The title of this comes from Shakespeare's Hamlet; that soliloquy which starts:
"To be or not to be".
Hamlet is contemplating suicide, weighing the pros and cons; the cons being mostly an unknown factor.
I imagine just about everyone wonders what is beyond this life. Eventually most are able to see it as a mystery and thus avoid turning into a Woody Allen character; stewing over death, the expansion of the universe and other things over which we have no control...
"What Dreams May Come" is adapted from a book of the same name by Richard Matheson.
Among many others it stars: Robin Williams as Chris Nielsen, Annabella Sciorra as Chris's wife Annie, Cuba Gooding Jr. as Albert Lewis and Max von Sydow as The Tracker.
Chris and Annie are beautiful people, very much in love who suffer a tragic loss. The story relates to the consequences of their reactions to the loss. Their separate choices determine their separate destinies in both this life and in the after life.
Some interesting parallel themes between "Hamlet" and "What Dreams May Come":
-suicide "...For in that sleep of death what dreams may come..." Shakespeare
-ghosts or spirits
-immortality
-defying hell
-multiple calamities
"What Dreams May Come" in addition, embraces the theme of the transformative power of love. It emphasizes our power to choose and to accept consequences; not what happens to us but how we react.
It is a beautiful picture of one man's heaven.
..."We defy augury; there's a special providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the readiness is all."...
Shakespere's Hamlet
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