Everybody Runs

A commenter asks what I have against Minority Report. I'll let Chris Orr tell it:

A clever little sci-fi thriller that falls apart utterly in its final act. Instead of fulfilling its destiny in the hotel room with Anderton, the pedophile, and the gun, the movie careens off its tracks, substituting a riotously idiotic conspiracy and trampling the fate-v.-free-choice theme it had developed. The last shot, of a little ocean-side cabin bathed in honeyed sunlight, is so ridiculous it almost seems a cry for help.

It's really a marvelous film until the two-thirds point, and sometimes when I catch it on cable I try to convince myself that everything that happens after Tom Cruise gets "halo'd" is just a dream inside his imprisoned brain - which would explain how a dystopian sci-fi story turns into a mediocre Columbo episode in the final reel. But I don't think that's what Spielberg had in mind.

Meanwhile, Peter Suderman writes that "from a creative perspective, the Beard has gone soft in his old age. From a technical perspective, he’s approaching flawless." I wouldn't disagree, and Spielberg's stunning technical proficiency is one reason why I've seen every movie he's made in the past ten years, frustrating as I've often found them. I do think, though, that - as our disagreement about Ratatouille suggests - Peter's a little more interested in filmmaking-as-craft and I'm a little more interested in filmmaking-as-storytelling, which makes him more favorably inclined toward later Spielberg than I.

Comments

on a related note, phillip k dick just got his own library of america volume:

http://www.loa.org/volume.jsp?RequestID=252

Posted by BF | August 9, 2007 11:26 AM

God, Minority Report is awful. That fight scene with the jetpacks is one of the most incompetently shot sequences I've ever seen. And from Spielberg!

PS I'm digging this whole "Ross Douthat, movie blogger" thing.

Posted by Freddie | August 9, 2007 11:27 AM

I have the same reaction to the film and, indeed, whenever I catch it on cable I turn it off at precisely that point. Everything beyond that point is superfluous and, frankly, nonsensical.

In a curious sort of way, the rest of the movie reminds me of the tacked-on endings that the studios forced on Brazil and Bladerunner except that, in this case, the tacked-on ending is the product of the director's vision.

The frustrating thing is that Spielberg clearly does have the capacity to do dystopian fiction. He simply seems to lack the intestinal fortitude to deliver a compelling but unhappy ending. I wonder if it's because he can't bring himself to destroy his characters or whether it is because he doesn't trust the audience to cope with a tragic conclusion.

Posted by Andrew Lias | August 9, 2007 11:40 AM

Although a big Spielberg and Cruise fanboy (I don't care if he's weird), I can certainly see your points.

More movie blogging!

Posted by Jay | August 9, 2007 2:33 PM

did the earlier Spielberg film's have superior plots?

god, I don't think so. just look at a list of his earlier movies.

and even if you don't like the plot turns of his recent films, should the blame fall upon spielberg. If anything, he should be given more credit for the material he was working with.

Posted by thehova | August 11, 2007 12:50 AM

perhaps the worst spielberg lapse was in War of the Worlds, at the end when after a devastating alien attack all of the main characters were reunited, alive, in still standing leafy boston suburbs. I find it very hard to take S seriously since then.

Posted by AF | August 11, 2007 6:25 PM

"perhaps the worst spielberg lapse was in War of the Worlds, at the end when after a devastating alien attack all of the main characters were reunited, alive, in still standing leafy boston suburbs. I find it very hard to take S seriously since then."

I'm having difficulties taking these criticisms seriosly.

Did Jurassic Park have a good plot? did Close encounters of the third kind of a good plot?

hell no.

and furthermore, a director shouldn't be judged on the plot line, but on technique.

Spielberg is a master. his movies in the past decade, as Ross even notes, have been superbly executed. you can disagree with the plot, but don't take it out on spielberg.

Posted by thehova | August 11, 2007 11:42 PM

"The frustrating thing is that Spielberg clearly does have the capacity to do dystopian fiction. He simply seems to lack the intestinal fortitude to deliver a compelling but unhappy ending."

Has this person ever seen munich. its a challenging movie.

Spielberg casts doubt on the foreign policy of Israel for the past half century. As a jewish american, Spielberg is stepping on a lot of toes.

Posted by thehova | August 11, 2007 11:46 PM

I love the Brazil-esque reinterpretation of the movie after the halo scene.

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