“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.” Interstellar, the 2014 film by Christopher Nolan starring Matthew McConaughey and Anne Hathaway, is a mind-bending space odyssey that leaves fans begging for more even after the nearly three hour running time. The movie is one filled with much more science than fiction, and no little amount of emotion. It is a film of the highest caliber, likely to be remembered as one of the best ever made. It features an incredible cast, a score for the century by Hans Zimmer, and a story unlike any seen before. Interstellar follows the adventure of Joe Cooper, a highly intelligent scientist, engineer, and pilot, as he embarks on a mission that is out of this world. It starts off in 2060’s America, where the country is found in its second Dust Bowl. The world has entered a food crisis, and is struggling to survive, much less advance as a society. More than half of the world’s population has been decimated from famine, and technology has come to a standstill for many years now. Crops are starting to go extinct, and no animals are seen. When kids reach a certain age in school, they are tested as to whether they will be eligible for college, or if not, what their occupation will be in order to best help humanity survive. They are taught that there is no space program and that the United States going to the moon was a hoax to drive the Soviet Union into
The vision Christopher Nolan had for The Prestige (2006) was to add to the outbreak of street magician film, whilst playing a large dramatic subplot equal in grandeur to the magical performances within the film. In the final sequence of the film, I will analyse how the cinematography and sound resolves the plot so that it summarises the themes present in the film, whilst also invoking a response from the audience. Nolan predominantly uses close up shots, non-diegetic sound (music) and dialogue collaboratively to convey the dramatic, personal subplot of the characters and their relationships, whilst appealing to the audience bringing forth an emotional response from the audience. The heavy, slow, dramatic atmosphere of the ending sequence uses various techniques to summarise and uncover the underlying mysteries of the events throughout the film and consolidate themes introduced during the exposition.
The Alien is a science fiction horror movie. Its setting in space and the presence of technology and artificial intelligence empathizes on its science fiction genre. Moreover, the presence of the Alien and the fact that it is a threat to human lives reflects it is also a horror film. The movie revolves around seven human beings that have the mission to return to earth from the space.
The following paper will analyze the movie, “2001: A Space Odyssey” by Stanley Kubrick” and “The Centinel” by Arthur C. Clarke. Although there are many themes present between the story and the film, the following are the most dominant. I will be discussing Scientific themes, Religious and Moral Themes, and Clarke’s development of the short story into a full-length film.
The movie “Interstellar” takes place in a vast, desert of a land which is barely recognizable as the planet, Earth. America suffers severely from famine, dust storms, and lack of advanced technology. Due to a previous accident, as well as with the worldwide food shortage, Cooper, a former NASA pilot, now works as a farmer to produce the only food left in the world.
When you educate a young girl, she has fewer children, she takes better care of her children, she marries at an older age, and she also contributes to her country's economy. Therefore, why is the education of women so greatly underestimated in many parts of the world? This is a question that has caused many individuals to take action against the act of prohibiting a woman the right of receiving an education. To begin with, education enables parents, and the rest of society, to see the value of a girl. As stated in the film Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, "Educate a girl, and she can change the world around her." Education acts as a safe haven for many young women and as an opportunity of having an advancement
Arthur C. Clarke, an award-winning author, in his novel, 2001: A Space Odyssey, suggests that human evolution would not have been possible without the help of extra-terrestrial beings and the use of tools. Clarke is able to support his suggestions by narrating the influence the extraterrestrials have on humans and by describing the importance of the tools humans utilize. His purpose was to share his take on the final frontier in order to help readers make their own opinions and conclusions on evolution and deep space. Clarke utilizes a direct and scientific tone with his audience in a way to help them follow along, so that they don’t lose focus on the important themes throughout the novel.
Interstellar, a movie about space, time and family, was made in 2014. The movie features Matthew McConaughey as he journeys through space to find a suitable replacement for their blight infested Earth. Throughout their space trek, they are able to overcome obstacles and solve problems through scientific analysis and logical thinking. Although Interstellar was made for entertainment and not educational purposes, the thorough research put into the movie allows for the average moviegoer to understand the plot and further increase his or her knowledge of the science of space.
“The Mission” is a film that gives a historically accurate depiction of the events that took place in South America around 1750, displaying the jesuit missions and their attempt at expanding missionary ventures in the area. These missions foresaw the Jesuits going to uncharted areas of the jungle inhabited by the Guarani people, demonstrating the significance assimilating the Guarani people meant to the Jesuits. Additionally, the Guarani people were accurately displayed as a self-sustained society where basic components such as: productivity, protection, justice regulations and a form of a leader was evident in the form of their King. Nonetheless, the Guarani were an isolated group of individuals who were secluded to the outside world; their only contact with outside personnelles were slave traders who would put them into forced slavery for personal benefits. Not to mention the “Treaty of Madrid”, which resulted in the social and political disputes between the, Portuguese, Spanish and Catholic community; manifesting in the form of territorial conflicts and misunderstandings amongst the three vigorous societies, where each have a different purpose for the Guarani people.
Interstellar is more than the average science fiction movie. This cinematic masterpiece deals with real life issues that we are facing today, such as world hunger across different parts of our world, and pollution across our individual nation.
The Dawn of Man. Four simple words introduced what is remarked as one of the greatest films of all time. There is no spoken dialogue within the first 25 minutes and the last 23 minutes of the film. “2001: A Space Odyssey” is an ambiguous film. The broad range of audience captures various interpretations of the film. The main theme seems to be about the evolutionary process of mankind interwoven with elements of a higher or extraterrestrial entity guiding this evolution. There are some film theories that suggest this movie was all propaganda used in conjunction with the space race that occurred during World War 2. Some even go as far as to say that the same set used in “2001: A Space Odyssey” was used to fake the moon landing of 1969. However, theories with more evidence suggest that the iconic monolith doesn’t represent aliens or “God”, but instead represents the cinema screen of which we are viewing. The artistic importance of “2001: A Space Odyssey” is derived from its ability procure various conclusions.
Though there are plenty of works that I could have chosen to write about, I will stick to what I know best…Star Wars. I am just kidding, but I do love Star Wars. Interstellar is really a beautiful piece of work by Christopher Nolan. Per Longinus, the first component of the sublime is the great idea. The great idea is that they are sending the best pilot in the world to travel through space in search of potentially habitable planets. That is cool and all but if you think about it, Interstellar without great acting and a few plot twists would essentially be entirely too scientific, borderline documentary. That is why Longinus’ second component of the sublime is the emotional appeal that drives the great idea into the hearts of the viewers. That
Any movie can have a romantic plotline, consisting of a picturesque town, a lonely woman, and forbidden love, but only one can narrate societal hypocrisies and social stigmas while paying homage to a classic Hollywood melodrama directed by a German-expressionism-influenced director from the 1950s. Enter stage right, Far from Heaven. Directed by Todd Haynes, this film, set in the 1950s, tells the story of Cathy Whitaker, a suburban housewife who seems to have the perfect life—until it starts to fall apart, and she has to learn how to keep her husband’s homosexuality and her personal infatuation with her gardener, an African American man, from affecting her flawless image and place in society. This movie was heavily influenced by the midcentury melodrama All That Heaven Allows, directed by Douglas Sirk, as suggested by the somewhat similar plotlines, but their similarities are heavily apparent in the cinematography and mise-en-scène. What makes Far from Heaven unique from its predecessor, though, is how it uses modernized topics in its storyline in order to unveil the hypocrisy of society and the Whitakers’ dysfunctional relationship.
A narrative film is a fictional movie that tells a story with characters, places, and events. Stories in narrative films may be wholly imaginary or based on true occurrences, and they may be realistic, unrealistic, or both. Interstellar perfectly fits this description due to its futuristic and sci-fi nature. A major element in a narrative film are characters or any beings who play functional roles within the plot. Characters may be flat or round; minor or major; protagonists or antagonists. The protagonist in this movie is the role of Cooper played by Matthew McConaughey. Cooper is a round character or a complex character possessing numerous, subtle, repressed, or contradictory traits. Round characters are also known to develop over the course of a story. Cooper is three dimensional and quite unpredictable. One moment he is the loving father devoted to his children and in the next he is the forgotten astronaut still waiting for his moment to
This Drama/Sci-Fi Thriller goes through the life of Donnie Darko a troubled teenager who has schizophrenia and has an imaginary friend, a six-foot rabbit who is named Frank. He is affected with strange visions of Frank who informs him that the world will end in 28 days 06 hours 42 minutes and 12 seconds. The supernatural events that happen within the 28 days 06 hours 42 minutes and 12 seconds will lead the path that Donnie must unfold to discover his destiny as well as being manipulated by Frank to commit a series of crimes. Donnie goes on navigating his teenage life and seeking answers of his purpose as the living receiver as well as maintaining the universe in its perfect state. The characters (and actors), along with the conflicts in
“Interstellar” (Obst,Thomas & Nolan, 2014) a great science fiction story with so various elements. It takes us traveling through wormholes, into planets in other galaxies, and black holes. The characters keep colliding into the effects of relativity, which is thoroughly explained in numerous scenarios. It’s also a story about love and family, but there is a villain, whose actions result in shocking consequences for the other characters. There is a great deal of emotion expressed by the character, which make a great impacted on how the movie is viewed. The movie will take place sometime in the future where the earth is slowly becoming uninhabitable for the reason that of a global crop plague and a second dust bowl occurring. The science fiction movie “Interstellar” (Obst,Thomas & Nolan, 2014) does an excellent job portraying advancements in technology, astrophysics and real-life issues that could eventually happen, such as, food scarcity and catastrophic natural disasters.