A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001) - Episode 150
“I can never go to sleep. But I can lay quietly and not make a peep.” Our Steven Spielberg season continues with the disquieting 2001 science fiction epic A.I. Artificial Intelligence.
In the near future, in a post-ice cap melting world clinging to the vestiges of humanity’s consumer peak where procreation is carefully controlled, Professor Hobby (William Hurt) envisions a mechanical humanoid child created to emulate the one thing that has eluded technology - love. His employee Henry (Sam Robards) and wife Monica (Frances O’Connor), semi-grieving as their own child is in a cryogenic coma due to an illness, are given mecha David (Haley Joel Osment) to care for. A brutal adventure in a dangerous world ensues when David’s place in his makeshift home is threatened by the return of his flesh-and-blood ‘brother’.
A project that spent decades fomenting the mind of Stanley Kubrick, that he had sporadically tried to produce for Spielberg ever since seeing the latter’s E.T. convinced him that he was the right person to bring this adaptation of a 1966 short story to the screen, was finally put into production by Spielberg after Kubrick’s death as a tribute to his friend. We dig into the intersection between these two seemingly antithetical cinematic titans, and how themes of higher intelligences, creation and responsibility, and the painful intricacies of familial love and longing fit into their respective careers. We also talk about how sad we all were while watching it.
Tentatively jump off a big rock, and plunge into rewindmoviecast.com for our entire archive of artwork, essays, merch, and playlists.
Merchandise can be found at Dead Penpal.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Read more
