We're Just Here To . . .

Previously I have recommended the Christopher Nolan film Interstellar (here and here) and I will continue to sing its praises even while encouraging us to see it for all it is and look discerningly at its message. As the main character, Cooper, says his good-byes to his family and prepares to leave the galaxy, he makes a statement that suggests depth but perhaps simply reveals the not so deep philosophy of the Nolan brothers who wrote the screenplay for this film.

"We're just here to be memories for our kids." Cooper (Matthew McConaughey) in Interstellar.[1]

On the one hand, this is not a bad concept. If we are here to be memories for our kids, we will want to make certain that the memories we leave behind are good memories and we will likely live good lives. But as a true philosophy of life, it falls far short. Our lives have an existence apart from the lives of our children. I will not get on a soap-box and preach a message that defines my own perspective on the purpose of life. Anyone who reads a few pages of this blog will soon discern what my view on this would be. Instead, I encourage you to think further about why we are here. It must be more than just to be memories for our kids. As we consider the joys and horrors of this life, we must at least admit that our purpose is to contribute to the joys and diminish the horrors. What more would you add to this? How would you answer the question of why we are here?

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[1] Interstellar. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan. Performed by Matthew McConaughey. 2014.

Exploring Life

New Horizons, Rosetta, Mars Curiosity, The International Space Station, Cassini, Hubble, and Mars Express, many of these missions, spacecraft, and satellites have become well-known to us over the last few years. NASA, ESA, and the international space community have accomplished magnificent feats of exploration and the news media has shown us the significance of these events. We live in the heyday of local solar system exploration: all eight planets in our solar system have been visited and dwarf planets like Pluto and others in the Kuiper Belt have been explored and catalogued. Furthermore, thanks to the Hubble Space Telescope, and other far-reaching imaging systems, we have a much greater awareness of our place in the universe. I am one person who is excited to live in this time and I observe with great joy the new advances in space exploration.

Some would argue that this obsession with worlds beyond our world is unhealthy. They would say that we should be investing in solving the problems on this planet before we explore others. Certainly, we must heed the voices which call us to end poverty, suffering, and violence on Planet Earth, but I would suggest that we also need to give heed to the message of the planets and stars around us. In Christopher Nolan's excellent movie Interstellar, Matthew McConaughey plays an engineer and astronaut who has retired to farming on a planet that desperately needs farmers. Yet, even as he settles into his new role, he laments the days of pioneering and exploration that came to an end as he was beginning his career. In a scene where he is front porch reminiscing and philosophizing with his father-in-law he says,

"We used to look up at the sky and wonder at our place in the stars. Now we just look down, and worry about our place in the dirt."[1]

In one sentence the Nolan brothers capture the angst of our generation. We worry, we wonder, we focus upon our ability to scratch out a living in this dirt, on this earth on which we live. Yet, at the same time, we wonder if there isn't something more beyond this place, beyond this subsistence, and beyond this life.

Could it be that our calling is to keep our eyes on both the dirt at our feet and the stars in the sky? Can we invest in both earth-dust and star-dust? Can we seek right relationships here on earth while looking to the heavens beyond? A life lived in this way will not be easy. It will require continual assessment of our goals, our consumption, and our contributions. It will require us to ask difficult questions about ultimate purposes of lives lived here on earth and of our own life in particular. It will cause us to consider the source of our existence and the gratitude with which we live. Personally, I am up for exploring that kind of life!

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[1] Interstellar. Directed by Christopher Nolan. Written by Jonathan Nolan and Christopher Nolan. Performed by Matthew McConaughey. 2014.

Interstellar 2014

Once again Christopher Nolan (writer and director) and Jonathan Nolan (writer) have succeeded in changing our perceptions with the visually stunning, Interstellar (2014). If you have not seen the movie, you may want to see it before you continue to read this blog which contains elements of the plot (in other words: spoiler alert). From the dust-bowl farmers of the "not-too-distant" future, to scenes of communication across time, I could almost taste the dirt, feel the pull of acceleration and gravity, sense the disorientation of astronauts facing challenges never before experienced, and share the suffering of the families as their lives were torn apart by time and circumstance.

The brothers have collaborated before (Memento (2000) and The Dark Knight Rises (2012); see my analysis of that Batman movie here), but their story-telling gets better each time. Interstellar is subtle; the audience is never subjected to preaching dialogue or pedantic scenes; and even the plot moves along largely through visual and musical elements. Hans Zimmer's score is perfectly suited to their method. There are times when the dialogue is nearly drowned out by the score and flood of potent images; but one soon learns to wait for the resolution of the scene to understand its implications. Many times the film reminded me of the story-telling methodology developed in the Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke collaboration, 2001: A Space Odyssey. Many other contemporary writers and directors seem to believe that the audience will not understand a story told through images and so they clutter the story with explanations. The Nolan brothers have recovered an art-form as old as cave-drawings and stained-glass windows and only a few times did they stray from this style. They did choose to explain wormholes and multi-dimensional travel and I could hardly fault them in that choice.

Then there is their visual depiction of a wormhole which is one of their great innovations and one which I am sure other film creators will imitate. Any fan of science fiction will be familiar with the standard depiction of wormholes seen in the Star Trek or Stargate franchises (to mention two of many). The usual images are of a two dimensional hole or lens which opens into a multi-coloured tunnel of stretched light. The creative development in Interstellar is that the wormhole is depicted as a three dimensional sphere and the approach of the Endurance space-craft is shown in a way that resembles an object being drawn into the orbit of a planet. This imagery lends itself to several subtle variations on the theme of wormholes, black-holes, and rapid space travel. At one point the crew of the Endurance skips through the "event horizon" of a black hole to slingshot themselves across a galaxy. I look forward to seeing what other writers and directors might do with such innovations and plot possibilities.

The cast is full of big names in the movie industry and it is somewhat surprising that actors who had smaller roles seemed to be the ones most likely to fail to convince me of their character. I expect that one or two of them will look back on this movie and realize the creative opportunities that were missed.

Near the end of the movie we see a rich interpretation of communication across time and space. The imagery is somewhat reminiscent of the layering of time and space in Christopher Nolan's movie, Inception (2010); but here the key to communication is gravity and not dreams. The Nolans have rightly recognized that one of the last great mysteries of physics is gravity and that the resolution of this mystery will bring about a truly massive revolution in scientific development. They also realistically depict that mankind may never solve this mystery. Here, their art imitates life with an image that reflects perfectly back on their art. The brothers purposely and intelligently refrain from tying-up all of the loose ends and one is left with a sense of wonder and trepidation at the next years of life we may experience on this planet. In life and art, may we continue to encourage and celebrate the risk-takers and pioneers.

Man of Steel

I went to see Man of Steel yesterday and I found myself comparing it to The Dark Knight Rises.  Both Superman and Batman are characters that originated in comic books so one would expect the stories to be equally over the top with comic book violence and destruction. Yet, somehow, The Dark Knight Rises comes across as more real. Perhaps it is that Batman is just a wealthy man making the most of fitness and technology while Superman is an alien with god-like powers. Both movies have contributions from Christopher Nolan. Man of Steel features Nolan as a co-writer of the story while The Dark Knight Rises screenplay was written by Christopher Nolan and Jonathan Nolan and the movie was directed by Christopher Nolan. Christopher Nolan's directing is more subdued than the directing of Zack Snyder in Man of Steel. Snyder goes overboard with the violent destruction of Metropolis - building after building is destroyed and tips over on people below. He seems to want to make use of as much computer generated animation (CGA) as possible. Nolan, on the other hand, uses his fair share of CGA but limits the destruction of Gotham to a level that could be caused by over-zealous criminal master-minds rather than that caused by two gods wrestling throughout a vast cityscape. I think that movie audiences will soon tire of watching fight scenes of the calibre found in Man of Steel. How many times can we watch Superman get punched through a building or see the villain get knocked clear into earth orbit and take out a geostationary satellite before we tire of such over the top ruin and simply find it boring? I found myself waiting for the fight scenes to end so we could get on with the story.

There is another level at which to compare the two movies. I have previously written about the theme of self-sacrifice in The Dark Knight Rises and the theme is again present in Man of Steel. At one point we see a submissive Superman being led in handcuffs by a team of soldiers. The audience knows full well that the puny handcuffs will not hold him and sure enough we later see them pop off with no effort at all. Superman is seen as a potential danger to the humans of earth. Superman responds to this by saying that he has been around for 33 years and has not harmed anyone yet. In both these words and the scene with the soldiers there are definite allusions to the Christ story of the Bible. Just as Jesus was led away (at about 33 years of age) by a group of soldiers who could have been felled by a single word from his mouth, Superman submits to these humans who truly have no power over him. Superman is willing to sacrifice himself and be turned over to General Zod from Krypton to save the lives of the people of earth. Yet the theme is not developed as well as it was in The Dark Knight Rises and does not have the same emotional tug.

Perhaps the Batman story is simply a better story with which to work as compared to the Superman story. Batman is everyman. His struggles and his weaknesses are common to humanity. Man of Steel tries to play upon the foreigner in a strange land aspect of Superman but the reality is that Superman is still a Kansas farm boy with good old American values. He also has god-like powers and very few weaknesses. Batman is someone with whom we can relate; but how can we truly relate to this super man?

Dark Knight

I went to see The Dark Knight Rises1 a few nights ago. This, of course, is the most recent film adaptation of the Batman legend and although the movie has been in theatres for a while this was my first opportunity to see the picture. This blog will contain spoilers so if you have not yet seen it, and want to be surprised by plot twists, you should put off reading this blog until you have seen the movie.

The film represents the third in the Christopher Nolan trilogy which reinterprets the Batman legend. The tagline for this third instalment is "The Legend Ends" suggesting that Christopher Nolan and his brother Jonathan Nolan are wrapping up the story and giving us the final years of the Bruce Wayne, Batman. But, of course, as we are told throughout all three movies, the Batman is a symbol and anyone could be behind the mask. At more than one point in the movie we are convinced that Batman/Bruce Wayne has made the final sacrifice and is gone. Yet the Batman manages to "rise" from the ashes once again. The word "rise" and the concept of "rising" recurs several times in the movie. The juxtaposition of darkness and light, evil and good, and injustice and justice are other recurring themes carried along in all three of the trilogy movies.

Before the release of the movie the Nolans revealed that The Dark Knight Rises was inspired by A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. Prior to seeing the show I had not heard this but I picked it up in the eulogy scene where Commissioner Gordon praises Bruce Wayne with words from the end of the novel. On further reflection the themes of revolution, the populist uprising (reminiscent of the French Revolution), the desire for social justice, the view of what that can actually look like in the hands of a mob, the puppet-like movements of the mob controlled by shadowy figures watching from the sidelines, and ultimate sacrifice, all owe their genesis and power to Dickens and his images in A Tale of Two Cities. There are further comparisons that could be made and for more reading on this I direct the reader to other blogs.2

My assessment of the film is that it truly succeeds in causing the viewer to ask good questions about the type of society we desire to achieve. I have been a huge fan of Jonathan Nolan's writing since I first discovered him in Memento3 (not a film I would recommend for everyone's viewing but a philosophical film dealing with pertinent issues of our time).

As I first settled into the 165 minute Dark Knight blockbuster I found myself very unsettled by the populace uprisings. The similarities to the "Occupy Movement" were too easy to connect and I felt like I was being pulled into sympathy for the movement and I wondered about the message and integrity of the film. The "Occupy Movement" contains elements of truth and a desire for greater social justice but few consistent solutions. (The Nolans have said that the film has little to do with the "Occupy Movement" and everything to do with the French Revolution of A Tale of Two Cities but of course the interpretations are there for us all to see.) I was afraid that the Nolans had jumped on a cultural band-wagon that would not provide adequate analysis of the present situation. But, my fears were soon relieved for I realized that they were being very intentional in convincing us to sympathize with "the people" so that they could reel us into the discussion. We soon see just where this populace uprising will lead as the mob is put "in charge" while Bane and another, not yet revealed, puppet-master manipulate the city. The dictators hold out just enough hope to convince the people that they will triumph while ultimately pulling the rug out from under the feet of the people and using them for the ends of the manipulators. We see that "social justice" in the hands of a mob is no justice at all.

The Dark Knight Rises is also a retelling of one of the oldest stories written into the very fabric of the universe. Many of the great novels, odes, epic poems, and movies of all time tell the story of sacrifice. There are many variations on the theme but the powerful message of the king who lays down his life for his people, the brother, husband, father, sister or mother, who substitutes his or her life for the loved one, is there in one form or another. Here it recurs in threes as the Batman, this great symbol of justice and right, repeatedly sacrifices himself for others who do not deserve the sacrifice.

Then, there is the other common theme of "the traitor from within." The one in whom we trust and see as the saviour who is later revealed to be evil incarnate. The "White Witch of Narnia" who gives us treats of Turkish Delight while planning our demise comes to mind. "Saruman the White" in the Lord of the Rings Trilogy is another example. In this most recent Nolan movie it is Bane and the other mystery person who look like they will be the saviour but instead are the ultimate villain. We are even pulled into a sense of sympathy for why each of them became so evil but it is a sympathy which the villains do not share with us. Their worlds are absolutely devoid of care for anyone or anything beyond themselves and their self-centred goals. I love the way Christopher Nolan directed the movie and set up the scene that creates a fore-shadowing of the final twist of the plot in which we discover the real mastermind behind the events. The director and film editor are very precise in their foreshadowing as they zoom in on a tiny scar for only long enough for us to get a small sense of it in our sub-conscious (at least that is how it worked for me). When the plot twist was revealed I found myself thinking back to that scene and realizing that they had given me the hint I needed to work it out but I only saw it as I looked back over my shoulder. That is truly the very best kind of foreshadowing there can be. Bravo, Mr. Nolan; and bravo, Mr. Nolan!


1 The Dark Knight Rises. Directed by Christopher Nolan. 2012.
2 Most significantly, see http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/07/21/the_dark_knight_rises_inspired_by_a_tale_of_two_cities_the_parts_that_draw_from_dickens_.html
3 http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0209144/