Sunday, May 3, 2009

Minority Report (2002)

The short story by Philip Dick has no references to a lost daughter and son and there is also no father figure (whether good or treacherous) in the form of Lamar Burgess. Spielberg has once again created a film in which the issue of the longed for mother (as well as child in this version) is placed at odds with and finally subverted by an uncaring and dishonest evil father figure. It is interesting to note that it is the female figure that has the ability to create and the father literally has to kill the mother in order to control the child’s gift. Spielberg has added so many levels dealing with the family that are not found in the original story – so many that the two stories are barely recognizable as similar. In Spielberg’s modern take on Oedipus we are shown a father missing a son (both with similar names as John and Sean have similar origins), a mother missing a daughter (Anne and Agatha also with similar origins), true brothers (the twins) and symbolic ones (John and Danny Witner), good mothers (Anne) and monstrous mothers (Iris) that is can be argued that the screenplay has more to do with the story of Oedipus and the struggle of the child between the powerful forces of the mother and father than it does to Dick’s original story. As in many Spielberg films, it is the female that drives the story and it is the father that threatens to destroy the creative power. Spielberg again seems to be working through issues from his childhood, perhaps the scars he still feels from his father’s abandonment and the struggle for dominance between the maternal and paternal that resulted. The father figures in his films are typically disinterested (A.I.), failing at their role as father (Close Encounters), lacking feeling (Empire of the Sun), immoral (Minority Report) or gone (as for Elliot in E.T. and the boy/man Indian Jones). The mothers can be at times too dominant (Sugerland Express) or even monstrous (Minority Report) but it is typically the female that is responsible for the narrative (Marion becomes the true Ark, the concern for Ryan’s mother is what starts the quest to get him home, Agatha longs for her mother and shows John her vision). It is when the male tries to dominant and control this art (where Agatha’s pre-visions or the chaos that transpires when nature introduces males into the female only world of The Lost World). Perhaps much of Spielberg’s popularity is due not only to his technical skills, but his constant return to this struggle between the maternal and paternal, as it is something we all struggle with, whether consciously or unconsciously at times.

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