Anna Bowman is a junior English and telecommunications major and writes ‘Film Annalysis’ for the Daily News. Her views do not necessarily agree with those of the newspaper. Write to Anna at aabowman@bsu.edu.
After watching Christopher Nolan’s newest film, "Interstellar," I have learned the art of sobbing without tears. I say without tears because I couldn’t allow my vision to be blurred for a single frame of this phenomenon.
Nothing I can say will accurately describe what I feel about this film, so I’m not even going to try. Instead, I will list the reasons why you should see this movie as soon as possible.
- It was shot on film, instead of digitally. The beauty of this is that the plot is as much about humanity as it is sci-fi, so the fact that it doesn’t have a sharp, industrial look to it makes sense. Nolan is one of the remaining few directors who still see the beauty in a softer image quality, and one of the still fewer who has shot a movie with 70 mm film. To explain, take the film that you would normally see, double that, and that’s how large the image is. If that doesn’t amaze you, think about the fact that all of the film for this movie had a final weight of 500 pounds.
- The use of practical effects in today’s generation is rare, but Nolan insists upon getting as much as he can visually without resorting to CGI. Some of the scenes in the film were actually captured from a glacier in Iceland. That’s dedication.
- Yet again, Nolan hired Hans Zimmer to compose the music for this film. As a reference, Zimmer has done the soundtracks to "Inception," the "Dark Knight" trilogy, "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Gladiator," to name a few. In an interview with Zimmer, he said the first time he played a piece composed for "Interstellar" for Nolan, Nolan simply said, “…I now know where the heart of the movie is.”
- The discussion it will spark about the relationship between time and space and the survival of humanity is worth the money in itself to see it now. There are so many ideas and possibilities in "Interstellar," it is hard not to be reminded of experiencing "Inception" for the first time. And the second, and the third.
- There is so much detail to what Nolan is communicating to the audience, that I was almost overloaded with symbolism. From the allegorical plot line to its many different locations. Even the names of the characters contain hidden meaning.
- It explains real scientific theories in a way that I could understand. That rarely happens, in my experience. Jonah Nolan, co-writer of the script and Christopher Nolan’s brother, did research at the California Institute of Technology while writing the film, and much of its scientific elements are based on scientist Kip Thorne’s theories on black holes and wormholes.
- The computers featured in this sci-fi film contain more human-like qualities than I have ever seen before. The ratio of humor to honesty of the dialogue between the robots and main characters is enough to spin off its own TV show. Not that I think that should ever, in a million years, happen.
- There is not just one, but several diverse human reactions to the film’s apocalyptic storyline. Each character takes on the challenge of saving the world in their own way, allowing the audience to view and understand the world’s impending doom from various perspectives.
- The emotion that "Interstellar" harnesses during all 169 minutes of it was more than I could handle. At five, count them, five points of the movie, I was physically sobbing. And this was not due to any underhanded tricks that directors sometimes pull on their audience. No, each tragic moment is a vital part of the film’s overall meaning, and that demands respect. And lots and lots of tissues.
- There’s not much else I can say without giving away parts of the plot, and it would be my ultimate undoing if I spoiled this masterpiece for anyone.
I don’t think anyone realizes how groundbreaking "Interstellar" is yet. Yes, it has many of the icons, techniques and storylines that many other sci-fi films have attempted, but nothing has been done with this amount of gravity before.
Nothing has been able to grasp both the humanistic and futuristic elements of sci-fi as poetically as "Interstellar." I predict that it will define today’s world of science fiction, as well as take home as many Oscars as it can carry.
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