BICENTENNIAL MAN
US, 1999, 125 minutes, Colour.
Robin Williams, Embeth Davidtz, Sam Neill, Oliver Platt, Wendy Crewson, Hallie Kate Eisenberg, Stephen Root, Kirsten Warren.
Directed by Chris Columbus.
Bicentennial Man was released on the eve of the millennium. It is a futuristic film, but looking forward with some kind of optimism. While there were several films about cloning and about robots at the end of the century, like Arnold Schwarzenegger in The Sixth Sense, the beginning of the 21st century brought A.I. in which Steven Spielberg (using material from Stanley Kubrick) explored what it was to be a robot, having a mind, being programmed with feelings but yearning to be fully human. This is also the theme of Bicentennial Man which is based on a short story by Isaac Asimov and from the novel, The Positronic Man by Asimov and Robert Silverberg.
Critics were harsh on the film, mainly because of Robin Williams in the central role. While he plays in one of his more subdued manners, the critics felt that he still over-sentimentalised the character who was more of an outsider in the original material. However, given Robin Williams' style, it is a restrained performance and shows a robot in human form yearning to be fully human, free and recognised as human. The film also makes the point that while robots can live forever, it is important for human beings to live out their term and eventually die as the body decays and their contemporaries also die.
The film also has a lot of reflection about society, its reliance on servants and robots, the manner in which it treats its mechanical appliances who are of service. The film also has much to say about family - which does not seem to improve during the 21st and 22nd centuries in which the film takes place.
Sam Neill brings his usual quiet dignity to the role of the owner of Andrew, the Bicentennial Man. Embeth Davidtz has the difficult task of playing the woman that the robot loves as well as her grandmother who was kind to him and taught him what it was to feel. Oliver Platt is genial as the rough and ready scientist who helps in the transformation of Andrew from machine to human being.
The film might be seen as a variation on the Frankenstein theme - where humanity is able to be creative, especially of positive human values and feelings, rather than of violence.
1. The impact of the film? The influence on science fiction of writers like Isaac Asimov? His perception on the role of science, the creating of machines, robots and androids, their role in society, the effect on society? The importance of life, growing old, death?
2. The span of the film over two hundred years: America of the 21st and 22nd centuries? Similarities to the present, differences? Homes, appliances, the background of the cityscapes? The World Council? The ordinariness of home life, the beach, recreations? Human relationships, strong, disastrous?
3. Robin Williams as the bicentennial man? Half the film with his voice only and the robotic form? His gradually being transformed into the image of Robin Williams? In middle age, growing old? Williams and his comic touches (in telling the jokes)? In more sentimental mode in his service of the family, with Little Miss, with his own quest, travelling the ten years to find robots like him, his transformation, appeal to the World Council, his death?
4. Andrew having a character, the way that he was programmed, mechanical an appliance, repeating words and phrases, learning, reading and absorbing, being creative and sculpting, the clocks? The gradual development as he wanted his own bank account? The discussions with the makers? His wanting his freedom, living by himself? His response to Sir's death? After their clash? The devotion to Little Miss? The clash with her son? His quest, his journey, his return, discovering Portia? Falling in love, finding Rupert, the quest for transformation? His being refused the status of human by the World Council? The passing of the decades, the final speech and acceptance? Dying? His explanation in his speech to the council about what it was to be human, grow old and die? The plausibility of a robot becoming an android, having human experiences? The science and physiology of the spinal cord, the senses? The possibility of eating and drinking, sexual activity? The nature of what it is to be fully human?
5. Sir, his family, buying the robot, his friendship with Andrew? Love for his wife, exasperation at the older daughter, her pushing Andrew out the window, her later behaviour with her bikie boyfriend? Little Miss, her learning, the breaking of the little statue, Andrew and his carving, Sir supporting him? The wedding and Andrew being the usher? Sir and his reminiscing with Andrew, the clash about freedom, the reflections on the nature of freedom, his dying and Andrew coming to him? The portrait of his wife and her support, her feeling Andrew's presence as eerie, getting used to him? Her relationship with her daughters, especially with the biker?
6. Little Miss, a precocious little girl, friendly with Andrew, playing the piano, the transition to her as a young adult, her falling in love with Andrew, his listening but not understanding, her decision to marry? Her growing up, her son and his being a lawyer, taking after his father, her divorce from her husband? Her getting old, Andrew's return, his not recognising her? Her support of him, her death?
7. Portia, the modern young woman, clashing with Andrew, taking after her father? His admiring her work, but his speaking bluntly? Her growing friendship with him, the realisation that she should not be engaged, the engagement party? Supporting him, going to the council? Their growing old together, the final speech, with him in death, turning off the machine? Embeth Davidtz differentiating the two women?
8. Rupert, the memories of his father, his eccentric work, friendship with Andrew, the various experiments, over the decades, transforming him, their friendship, finally making him fully human for human experiences?
9. The technicians at the company, the clashes with Dennis Mansky, the worry about lawsuits, the recall of the robots? Coming back to him decades later and asking for him to transform Andrew?
10. An entertainment, a glimpse into the future, a more optimistic look at the relationship between humans and machines and technological development?
