Psychic is the power to be proved wrong by the every one who believes in the science. Every one who sees science as a form of explaining the phenomenon clear enough with physical proof looks for the unknown evidence to approve the psychic abilities or to prove it as the greatest hoax. In “Minority Report”, psychic and scientist join hands for the premise in this futuristic film set in Washington D.C and the year is 2054. They capture the image of those person called Precogs immersed in some form of watery nutrient preservative to keep them focused as they say to stop the crime which is about to happen.
Of course the images are not a clear video and hence need to have active intelligent individuals like Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) to extract background information to make intelligence out of it. Being there from the start to work along with one of the chief architects of the precrime experimental program is Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow). It is been employed successfully for many years that they want to make it national. But as any skeptic, Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) comes to represent the Attorney General of the US hunts for flaws. As per Lamar’s request, John keeps a close and respective watch over him Danny. John is dealing with his own pain. Losing his son and being divorced from his wife, he opts for drugs during night time. He attains some sort of cajole doing the work of stopping the crime which very well might have saved his boy. Things get thrilling when the saviour of the system sees him in the act in one of the images supplied by the precogs. It shows that John will be killing a person who he has never met or known in next 36 hours. Like he says, “Everybody Runs”, he runs and in the meanwhile tries to find out whether it is a setup.
The idea of extracting the thought from a human mind is something has been subject of interest taken upon by many writers. The thought of killing some one making it as an act is considered as the main discussion over the film. Director Steven Spielberg immediately impresses us with the system of precrime and of course the experiment has proven successful. Crime rate came down considerably with no murder recorded at all. But if the thought accounts for the act, how many of us will be spending rest of our lives in the halo shown in the movie? The discussion is mild in the movie with Danny questioning it and John quite cleverly counter argues it with ordinary actions. The simplicities of the prediction are used as it is but also the exemplary use of it. When John goes along with the precog Agatha (Samantha Morton) while the cops are trying to find them, of that tense moment she asks to get an umbrella. And the scene ends with the use of it when it starts to rain outside but the actual use of it as a device of disappearance and camouflage makes those small moments to smirk for it.
Spielberg uses the image of Cruise to perfection for this. Cruise in most of the movies has formed the image of coming good even when he is down is known. So along with the character of John, we refuse to believe that the murder cannot be committed by him due to that image. This frame of mind exactly puts us in John’s place. He never hesitated to believe in the system but he doubts it when it hits him. Cruise has proved me wrong on couple of occasions when I doubt his acting abilities in “A Few Good Men” and the unforgettable “Magnolia”. He has used his charismatic presence for the character and story as such. But that is only half job done and reverting on the character to behave opposite to those assumptions is the tough part. He does it convincingly.
Spielberg amalgamates the ride of thrill, the fantasy of future and the doubts of philosophy in dough of entertainment and food for thought. And when John meets the person he is about to kill in that room, we are tempted on both possibilities to bring the ambiguity, quite like the way the system in the movie. The movie should have ended right there and right on. It accomplished its purpose in that act of solving everything. But Spielberg as much as a brilliant director has to make everything end and I mean “end”. He needs a period symbol of entertainment to the audience. The same image of Cruise which gave the movie its advantage has some how caught up Spielberg it seems. He wants to perfectly prove that everything should have an ending to be guessed precisely and yet provide it for the heck of glamour value expected by the audience. For me the movie ended in that room and I believe for Spielberg too. He had the option of extending it for the typical Hollywood formula or be true to the movie. He chose formula. I can see people saying this is how a movie needs to address all the audience and the showbiz being business end of day put him with no choice. But as the precogs say, “He had choice”.
Of course the images are not a clear video and hence need to have active intelligent individuals like Chief John Anderton (Tom Cruise) to extract background information to make intelligence out of it. Being there from the start to work along with one of the chief architects of the precrime experimental program is Lamar Burgess (Max von Sydow). It is been employed successfully for many years that they want to make it national. But as any skeptic, Danny Witwer (Colin Farrell) comes to represent the Attorney General of the US hunts for flaws. As per Lamar’s request, John keeps a close and respective watch over him Danny. John is dealing with his own pain. Losing his son and being divorced from his wife, he opts for drugs during night time. He attains some sort of cajole doing the work of stopping the crime which very well might have saved his boy. Things get thrilling when the saviour of the system sees him in the act in one of the images supplied by the precogs. It shows that John will be killing a person who he has never met or known in next 36 hours. Like he says, “Everybody Runs”, he runs and in the meanwhile tries to find out whether it is a setup.
The idea of extracting the thought from a human mind is something has been subject of interest taken upon by many writers. The thought of killing some one making it as an act is considered as the main discussion over the film. Director Steven Spielberg immediately impresses us with the system of precrime and of course the experiment has proven successful. Crime rate came down considerably with no murder recorded at all. But if the thought accounts for the act, how many of us will be spending rest of our lives in the halo shown in the movie? The discussion is mild in the movie with Danny questioning it and John quite cleverly counter argues it with ordinary actions. The simplicities of the prediction are used as it is but also the exemplary use of it. When John goes along with the precog Agatha (Samantha Morton) while the cops are trying to find them, of that tense moment she asks to get an umbrella. And the scene ends with the use of it when it starts to rain outside but the actual use of it as a device of disappearance and camouflage makes those small moments to smirk for it.
Spielberg uses the image of Cruise to perfection for this. Cruise in most of the movies has formed the image of coming good even when he is down is known. So along with the character of John, we refuse to believe that the murder cannot be committed by him due to that image. This frame of mind exactly puts us in John’s place. He never hesitated to believe in the system but he doubts it when it hits him. Cruise has proved me wrong on couple of occasions when I doubt his acting abilities in “A Few Good Men” and the unforgettable “Magnolia”. He has used his charismatic presence for the character and story as such. But that is only half job done and reverting on the character to behave opposite to those assumptions is the tough part. He does it convincingly.
Spielberg amalgamates the ride of thrill, the fantasy of future and the doubts of philosophy in dough of entertainment and food for thought. And when John meets the person he is about to kill in that room, we are tempted on both possibilities to bring the ambiguity, quite like the way the system in the movie. The movie should have ended right there and right on. It accomplished its purpose in that act of solving everything. But Spielberg as much as a brilliant director has to make everything end and I mean “end”. He needs a period symbol of entertainment to the audience. The same image of Cruise which gave the movie its advantage has some how caught up Spielberg it seems. He wants to perfectly prove that everything should have an ending to be guessed precisely and yet provide it for the heck of glamour value expected by the audience. For me the movie ended in that room and I believe for Spielberg too. He had the option of extending it for the typical Hollywood formula or be true to the movie. He chose formula. I can see people saying this is how a movie needs to address all the audience and the showbiz being business end of day put him with no choice. But as the precogs say, “He had choice”.
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