Sunshine

[talktooloose]

I don't know when the North American release date for the Sunshine DVD is, but our video store got in an Asian release and we watched it Friday night.

This is, hands down, the best science fiction movie of the last 20 years, unless I've forgotten something. No, not Space Truckers.

The movie takes place in the not-too-distant future. The sun has suddenly decided to ramp down and the Earth is cooling towards extinction. A last-hope mission is sent off in a portentously named ship, the Icarus, with a big nuclear device to restart the star.

Not only was the movie beautiful and superbly acted, but it worked on "real" and metaphoric levels with equal vigour and never lost track of its themes. What especially excited me was the way that the journey from the Earth to the Sun became a de facto journey into abstraction. The crew left Earth amid hoopla, carrying the hopes of billions on their (uniformly attractive) shoulders but soon entered a realm of isolation and individual doubt which mirrored the physical space they were travelling through.

The movie starts as they enter the zone where solar interference will cut them off from communication with home. That is the first level of isolation in the movie. The process will continue as the number of the crew dwindles and as symbolic and metaphoric concerns take on a larger and larger part of their world.

The creators of the movie recognize that this movement into metaphor is inevitable. As the sun looms closer and closer, protean and deadly, the crew can't help but see divinity and fate in its fires.

Furthermore, an early visualization in the movie lets us know that eventually the A.I. that runs the ship will be useless as relativistic forces close to the sun make known physics less and less applicable. In the end, we are signalled, it will be up to human will, human intuition, the realm of the soul whether mankind survives or not.

In fact, the greatest danger the mission faces is in the form of a human who has become twisted under the philosophical/religious/metaphoric pressures of the situation.

The fact that Danny Boyle and company can make a film which works this way and stays coherent is nothing short of remarkable.

Would I have done things differently in the last act? Probably, but I'm not sure anyone could have done it better.

Comments

[toodamnloud.livejournal.com]

Agreed. It was fantastic and terrifying.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

It was intense enough on our television; I kept thinking that on a big screen I would have been flattened like a bug. Which is a good thing.

Better than watching baseball and curling!

[toodamnloud.livejournal.com]

I walked out of the theater almost shaking. After the first ten minutes, it's so non-stop tension that I felt more jittery than when I used to do crystal.

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

I wonder how much of the shaking was existential in origin.

[spizzy.livejournal.com]

I want to see it. I thought Children of Men was one of the best science fiction movies of the past 20 years, but also one of the best movies of the past 20 years. Did you see it?

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

I saw Children of Men and read the book its based on. I thought neither really worked. That being said, the last 30 minutes of the movie were unforgettable. The whole section in the refugee camp with the baby and the soldiers was remarkable.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

I want to see it.

(Hi! Sorry I've not replied--I've been down lately. What's new, but still, I'm sorry.)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you're down. I've been a fairly unfaithful friend to a lot of people lately and I don't like that. Unfortunately, I'm working this Thursday. Do you want to meet up during the day around my work for coffee or lunch or something?

I think you'll like the movie. If Ralph Fiennes and a bunch of Nazis are in it, you're watching the wrong Sunshine.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

What's your schedule? My psychiatric appointment is at 10:50 and is actually near Summerhill, so ...

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

That works if...

If it's not raining and I can talk GS into it, I will be at home that morning, up on the roof with B painting our gable.

I'll keep you informed.

Hey, did you ever have a chance to check out the 'X' anime I lent you? I ask this with full understanding that if the answer is 'no' you are now wracked with guilt. Such are the risks I take in the name of communication.

[rfmcdpei.livejournal.com]

I haven't checked out X, I'm sorry.

Please. keep me informed.

[lux-apollo.livejournal.com]

I want to see it too!

[strumquill.livejournal.com]

It is a great movie I agree. I saw it the DAY it came out. Loved the last scene. But what or who the fuck was that burned up sun demon other than a contrived plot device !?: I could have done without him really.

Speaking of journeys into abstraction. How are you enjoying Paranoia Agent and Shonen Bat. :)

[talktooloose.livejournal.com]

SPOILER WARNINGS!!!!!






He's not a sun demon. He's the captain of Icarus 1! Of course, why he stops attacking them and just rocks and rolls with them is a mystery. He need a whole "gollum off the edge into the inferno" send off.

I've watched about 7 eps of Paranoia Agent and shared it with lux_apollo. Veryyyyyy cool. I hope it has a good pay off at the end.