Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Everything You Ever Need To Know About Life...

 ... you can learn from:

A.I.: Artificial Intelligence (2001)

Gigolo Joe: She loves what you do for her, as my customers love what it is I do for them. But she does not love you, David. She cannot love you. You are neither flesh nor blood. You are not a dog a cat or a canary. You were designed and built specific like the rest of us... and you are alone now only because they tired of you... or replaced you with a younger model... or were displeased with something you said or broke. They made us too smart, too quick and too many. We are suffering for the mistakes they made because when the end comes, all that will be left is us. That's why they hate us. And that is why you must stay here... with me. 
David: Goodbye, Joe.

Happy 20 to one of Spielberg's best films! I know the meet-cute between his sensibilities and Stanley Kubrick's threw a lot of people off at the time but I think we've generally come around to see this as a good thing, right? That its strangeness and imperfections are what make it a classic, an interesting experimental enormously-budgeted one-of-a-kind thing? I'll admit I haven't seen it in probably a decade but I think about it all the time all the same -- the scenes under the sea, the strange half-busted menagarie of sad robots, the shot in the rear-view mirror of David being left behind... Teddy! Teddy, obviously. Okay I think I'll definitely be re-watching this over the holiday weekend ahead. What are your thoughts on this film?



3 comments:

Shawny said...

I love this film. HJOs performance is incredible and was sorely unacknowledged. Take the moment he imprints on his mother, fucking amazing. That transition carries the entire film because he not only makes you believe he's a robot, but he makes you understand why Frances OConnors character begins to love him, why we as an audience empathize and fall in love with him as well. C'mon, a child actor has done this! No other kid could accomplish such a huge task. I do believe Spielberg gave the film the best of everything he had and that it will continue to stand the test of time.

Anonymous said...

I'm not a big Spielberg fan - his movies trend too often toward the saccharine - but in AI he got the mix exactly right. I think it's his best movie, with a really fine ending.

Aquinas1220 said...

One of the few films I uncontrollably sobbed at. The people in the seats around me must have thought I was having some weird emotional breakdown. Anyone who complains about Spielberg's "saccharine" ending didn't get that devastating final scene at all. Such a sad, brilliant movie.